SEND IN THE CLOWN: a review of "It"

"IT"
Based upon the novel by Stephen King
Screenplay Written by Chase Palmer & Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman
Directed by Andy Mushicetti
**** (four stars)
RATED R

When it comes down to the core, it is sometimes amazing that any of us survive childhood.

Sad to say but it is indeed painfully true, the world is not designed for children. And frankly, how could it be? Children do not design the world, its successes, failures, rules and expectations as we know them. Through their individualized states of growth and development, children are consistently designing and re-designing the world as they know it, as they learn it, re-shaping their emerging world view based upon the experiences given to, or for some, inflicted upon them.

Childhood, for all of its sense of wonder and hopefulness, there is as much if not more to worry about, to struggle with and ultimately, to fear, be it basic needs for human acceptance by family, friends, peers and society all the way to those fears that are wholly irrational, emerging from who knows where, and remaining for who knows how long if not forever.

"It," Director Andy Muschietti's adaptation of the iconic 1986 Stephen King novel, is a cage rattler to say the least as the embodiment of evil, which exists in the form of the malevolent, ravenous Pennywise the Clown, is indeed an exceptionally formidable villain within the horror film genre. Yet what makes this film scale to the heights of the genre, as well as Stephen King film adaptations, is the strict attention Muschietti has given to the collective of children around whom this story revolves, thus making an effective and often tender drama about the dark side of childhood and how the young are able to persevere and even overcome the unthinkable in a cruel, decidedly adult world.

Andy Muschietti's "It" more than deserves your attention and I am thrilled to see the already overwhelmingly positive critical and box office response to the film for I feel that it (ha ha) has transcended its genre and genre trappings, while also upholding them triumphantly as we are given a rightfully terrifying experience that it by turns horrifically entertaining while also existing as a poignant meditation on confronting one's childhood fears to allow the beginnings of adulthood, let alone survival.

Unlike the novel, where the first half of the events occurs during the 1950's, Andy Muschietti's "It" opens on a dark, stormy day in the town of Derry, Maine in October 1988 as 7 year old Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) takes a paper sailboat made for him by his older brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) out to play and race in the street gutters. After the boat accidentally falls down a drain, Georgie is soon lured closer to the opening by the sinister visage of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (an excellent Bill Skarsgard), who lurks inside the sewer pipes while holding the boat as bait. When Georgie reaches forwards to retrieve his boat, Pennywise bites off his arm and drags him into the sewer for consumption, only leaving behind a pool of blood to wash away in the rain.

Devastated, consumed with grief and still determined to find his younger brother alive, Bill Denbrough exits Derry Middle School and enters the seemingly endless Summer of 1989 alongside his misfit group of friends, the relentlessly foul mouthed Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), the hypochondriac Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Stan Uris (Wyatt Oleff), who is half-heartedly studying for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah.

Yet, carefree days are not remotely in the cards for the quartet as they are relentlessly hunted and hazed by The Bowers Gang, a group of older boys led by the increasingly sadistic Henry Bower (Nicholas Hamilton). To make matters even worse, the boys are subjected to a series of intensely horrifying hallucinogenic visions, all starring the sinister Pennywise and his eerie, floating red balloons, visions also experienced by the chubby, friendless library dweller Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), an African-American out of town outcast Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs) and finally, the town's so-called "bad girl," the perpetually bullied at school by kids and abused at home by her Father, Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), all of whom soon join forces with Bill and his friends to form "The Losers Club."

After confessing to each other their clown centered traumas, The Losers Club realize that the entity, which they name "It," has existed with in Derry for potentially centuries as an over-arching evil force that comes out of hibernation every 27 years to feast upon children before returning to a dormant state. Yet, even with this newfound knowledge about their home town and Pennywise now realizing his key foes, will The Losers Club be able to face tier fears together in order to destroy the clown once and for all?

Now, dear readers, if you have followed this blogsite for its duration, you know very well that I am one that tends to give the horror film genre a wide berth as I do not find myself to be one who enjoys the sensation of being scared. Yet, every so often, I will take the plunge because I may detect something larger at work that would make for a cinematic experience well worth enduring the shocks to the system. Andy Muschietti's "It," as previously stated, is not simply one of the finest Stephen King adaptations to ever hit the silver screen, it is also one that has quickly raced to the top ranks of the horror film genre for me as Muschietti has paid crucially equal attention to the story, characters and their overall development as he has to the luxuriously presented nightmarish episodes on display.

Working tremendously with Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung, "It" is a darkly elegant production that houses a tale of psychological and supernatural terror that is as wholly involving and as visually crisp and stark as say a film like Director Alan Parker's "Angel Heart" (1987) or even Director Adrian Lyne's "Jacob's Ladder" (1990).

While not a voluminous horror freight train like the late Tobe Hooper and Steven Spielberg's "Poltergeist" (1982), Muschietti has delivered a supremely haunting and unsettling feature, one that does indeed burrow under the skin while it consistently makes you jump out of it. There are no cheap tricks and while the film definitely earns its hard R rating, I never felt that there was anything gratuitous as the scares and graphic violence was always story and character driven, each and every incident based within the real and imagined nightmares The Losers Club are forced to face down in order to survive the Summer of 1989.

I have to inform you that I have not read the novel or have I seen the original 1990 television mini-series starring Tim Curry in his celebrated performance as Pennywise, so I have nothing to compare Muschietti's theatrical film version to. I have also not seen the Netflix series "Stranger Things," something that certainly owes its existence to Stephen King's novel. But all of that being said, Andy Muschietti's version stands powerfully tall upon its own cinematic feet as eh has created a film that feels to be powerfully organic and despite its status as an adaptation, it feels to be just as powerfully original.

As Pennywise, Bill Skarsgard makes for an appropriately haunting presence, one that is constantly felt even when he is not on-screen for long stretches of time. Yet, when he does appear and re-appear, in all manner of shape shifting and logic defying formations, he is exceedingly horrific and not just as a more than frightening enough clown, whose  hunger for children is evidenced by occasional flashes of drool and rows upon rows of  sharp teeth.

In Skarsgard's hands, Pennywise is the unrelenting embodiment of evil itself, an entity (and metaphorical representation) that does indeed alter shapes, forms and intensity for obstacles that are tangible and even irrational. The twisted face in a creepy painting, a fear of germs or a shower of blood bursting upwards from a bathroom sink drain houses the same threat as larger issues of parental neglect, mourning, incest, racism, and most of all, the Darwinian brutality of early adolescence.

Throughout "It," Muschietti doesn't pull any punches with the kids in the cast whatsoever, a tactic that not only feels correct given the source material but also one that remarkably never felt to be exploitative. Trust me, dear readers. If "It" was nothing more than a 2 hour plus horror feature that offered nothing else but creative ways to terrorize a collective of children, I would not be endorsing this film so highly or let alone would have even seen it. Yes, the grotesque, gruesome tribulations The Losers Club faces and endures are worthy of any adult feature, therefore ensuring that Pennywise remains a most dangerous force. But, what Muschietti remains so wise and palpably empathetic about is how these children bond with each other to face and endure a world that is harshly indifferent or overtly cruel to them.

In "It," there is not one adult worthy of trusting, making a scary world, regardless of any evil netherworld clowns. For the seven kids of The Losers Club, every adult is either neglectful, wrathful, duplicitous, distrustful or they are ones who openly engage in some manner of abuse towards their own children, from psychological, physical and sexual or in the case of Beverly, all three. Bill, however, remains the group leader and anchor as his quest to defeat Pennywise happens to be the most personal of crusades as his grief over his younger brother is the fuel to his engine, and the catalyst  to the adventure as a whole.

Even with all of the horrors the children encounter, I was so very pleased to witness how much attention Muscietti gave to all seven kids in regards to their overall humanity regarding the trials of early adolescence. Certainly comparisons to Rob Reiner's "Stand By Me" (1986), itself based upon the Stephen King short story "The Body" are paramount as well as intended, and Muschietti lives up to that film's legacy beautifully with a tonality that perfectly weaves that evocative spell of an endless summer, where the roads stretch for miles upon miles, the days are filled with adventures and boredom, and armed with only a bicycle or one's own two feet as means of transportation to nowhere in particular.

The cast of young actors as led by Jaeden Lieberher are uniformly perfect as their relationships, vulgar banter, touching affection and interpersonal tensions towards each other combined with their odyssey allowed "It" to also earn a place alongside films like Michael Ritchie's "The Bad News Bears" (1976), Peter Yates' "Breaking Away" (1979), John Hughes' "The Breakfast Cub" (1985), Richard Donner and Steven Spielberg's "The Goonies" (1985), J.J. Abrams' "Super 8" (2011) and most certainly, Paul Feig and Judd Apatow's priceless television series "Freaks and Geeks" (1999-2000).  For all of the horror, Andy Muschietti's "It" possesses much heart and humor, most especially once Beverly joins the ranks of  The Losers Club, throwing a kink into the otherwise all male collective as well as providing a bit of a heart tugging romantic triangle between Beverly, Bill and Ben.

The power of "It" does not rest with Pennywise. The power rests with The Losers Club and rightfully so, for without their sense of humanity, all of the inhumanity presented would mean absolutely nothing. And I deeply appreciated that the film's final scene was not one of grim cataclysm but one that landed on a perfect, melancholic grace note, the very kind that greets all of us at Summer's end.

By now, I am certain that all of you are aware that what we have at present is not the full story of "It," as the second half will undoubtedly follow within the next year or two. But for now, Andy Muschietti has given us a grand feature, one that simultaneously serves itself as a complete tale as well as one that confirms that we are only at the beginning of a greater, even more horrifying journey for our heroes into their respective adulthoods.

Adulthood...hmmm...come to think of it, this is a more terrifying period of life than childhood, so I ca only imagine what it could possibly be like for The Losers Club!