Topping the box office for the second week in a row, the movie “It” has already been confirmed as the highest grossing September release ever. During a year full of remakes and sequels, “It” seems to be one of the best so far, surpassing the high expectations already set by fans earlier this year. The trailer for the movie alone already broke the record for most views in one day. It raked in 197 million views in just 24 hours of its release. This is surely due to a stellar marketing campaign, even excluding the “evil clown sightings” from last fall that the production company claimed no responsibility for.
The film itself is both an adaptation and remake of the 1986 Stephen King novel and the miniseries that aired on ABC in 1990. The plot centers around Pennywise, or “It,” being an otherworldly shape-shifting monster that feeds on the fear and flesh of children in the town of Derry, Maine. It’s a “tradition” that’s gone on for decades without question or any sign of stopping – until a group of misfits, lovingly dubbed “The Losers Club” decide to band together to defeat the evil that’s terrorizing their town.
Being a huge fan of horror movies, I was thrilled to see “It” the second I heard the news of a remake. Not only did the 2017 remake meet my expectations, it surpassed them twice over. The trailer had it cemented that this would actually be a scary horror movie, and it was. There were jump-scares, but they were used strategically to not get oversaturated or into the ridiculous territory. The movie isn’t shy on the gory aspects of the story either. The audience seeing the children protagonists get injured brought a real sense of danger to the plot.
What I wasn’t expecting was how utterly hilarious the movie was going to be. The humor brings so much more charm to the movie than if it were purely a cut and dry slasher. Instead, it makes the movie so much more memorable and unique in how it balanced its suspenseful horror with humor that had me keeled over in my seat from laughing so hard. Trust me, you’ll be snickering at the funny quotes from Eddie or Richie for at least a week.
While the “It” miniseries has iconic cult movie status, the 2017 version definitely stacks up in comparison. Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise in 1990’s “It” is nothing short of legendary, and even he has given the new movie his praise, as well as Bill Skarsgård’s portrayal of his character. Even though the hype surrounding “It” is still at its peak, I believe it will live on in high regard with a solid place in the modern horror genre. Personally, I already can’t wait to see “It” again.
