By: Nina Peci –

*No spoilers*

Like many Stephen King fans this weekend I went to watch IT, which hit the box offices on Sept. 8. The bar was set high for this film considering not only is IT adaptation of King’s 1986 novel, it was then made into a film in 1990. Additionally, another  King book turned film – a movie called The Dark Tower that was released July 31, 2017. The movies are quite different from each other despite being by the same author, so I wouldn’t necessarily say they had to compete with each other.

The movie had an impressively strong theme of fear, and that your fears can’t hurt you if you don’t let yourself be scared. A group of kids had to fight each of their unique fears to try and defeat “it”. Along with that, they had to stay together in order to stay alive. Each character had an extremely different fear, which changed how that fear affected them on a daily basis. If kids were alone and allowed that fear to get to them, then Pennywise the clown, or “it”, would eat them because he feeds off of children’s fear. Pennywise only comes out every 27 years, which is marked by different events in the town’s history.

Even Pennywise himself is a rather impressive part of the movie. Every detail – from his eerie makeup and drooling smile, to his uneven and glowing eyes – made him the creepiest clown I’ve ever seen and the perfect main character to fear. The plot was strong and every element of it worked well together. Nothing felt overdone and nothing was missing.

The only part I would criticize would be the gore aspect of the movie. Pennywise’s mouth would open and reveal several rows of teeth which weren’t scary or gross, just overdone. Along with that, some dead, zombie like characters popped up fairly often that seemed to be there just to gross people out. Only one of these monsters actually represented a fear. In all fairness, scaring people and grossing them out is the point of a horror movie, so even that aspect fit in.

All in all, the movie was definitely worth seeing and Stephen King remains the horror God that we all look up to him as. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be covering your eyes half the time but you’ll make it through the 2 hours and 15 minutes of fear.

Just remember – Pennywise can’t get you if you’re not scared.

Picture Credits: Movie Pilot