Rating (4 out of 5)

If you had ever liked clowns before, this will make you a clown hater. I already thought clowns were creepy (maybe related to poltergeist, Supernatural or even Good Place where clown pictures are used as a torture), but this did movie helped sealed the deal, clowns are mega-creepy.

While I haven’t read the Stephen King book, I really liked this movie. Warning this is only the first of two movies. This allows them to tell the story more completely. IT covers the characters experiences as children in 1988 and It: Chapter two will tell the story when they are adults.

In general, children start disappearing around town, including our main characters brother. Slowly our team, consisting of 5 boys, and a girl discover the pattern that every 27 years, there is a large number of deaths and disappearances in Dreary, and that this year is the 27th year.

Each of them comes across Pennywise the clown, and some fear that each child is hides to themselves manifests itself to them. Finally our wee crew compares notes, and the new kid (being a loner and hanging out the library) has done research on Dreary, and by using a map and some slides, the team is able to determine the location of Pennywise’s lair.

The crew sets off into the house, but only 3 of the children are brave enough to enter the creepy house. They face horrors in the house. One boy falls through from the 2nd to the 1st floor and broke his arm. Another walks the clown room, to find a toy version of himself in a coffin. After some close calls they all end up in the kitchen, and fight Pennywise, and barely escape. They finally battle their way out of the house, where some of the troop disagrees with fighting the monster, and they all part ways.

Then the monster comes after the girl, whose father is almost as creepy as the clown. Pennywise abduct the girl, and the gang has to regather and save their friend. They bravely go into the well and sewers to save her. They battle Pennywise, and overcome their fears, and fight back Pennywise. The movie ends with the team, back a blood bond to come back if Pennywise was to return. Hence a need for another movie.

Here is key feedback to you about the movie: I actually wanted to see how it ended and I was cheering for the little kids. Even the kids that weren’t as brave, I hoped would find their inner Rambo.

I thought all the children did an excellent job of acting. The accolades really need to go to Bill Skarsgård, who was Pennywise. The facial expressions the clown made as he interacted with the people was sensational. The special effects of the teeth weren’t really needed when you had the various frightening expressions from Pennywise.

This is on HBO right now, and would recommend.