It (2017): Stephen King at his best

I have to admit. I am a sucker for Stephen King adaptation, no matter how good or bad it is. The weird thing is, despite lots of masterpieces (come on, not all his work is suited for everyone, imagine sitting through 2 hours of Cujo), most of his adaptation turn out... flat. There are some satisfying ones (I seems to enjoy The Mist), some weird ones (uh, Thinner perhaps), but at times, there are the great ones. While many would choose Misery as their favorite (or maybe even Carrie), but my all time favorite would be Shawshank Redemption. It is on my own personal top 5 movies of all times. I would have listed The Shining also as my favorite, but the book was way better, which made the movie pale in comparison.



Which leads us to It. I still could recall watching the mini series on TV. It was scary yet emotional at the same time. Somehow, I enjoy the first part better than the second part where all the characters grew up. The series was exceptionally creepy without being gory, with the clown and red balloon appearing and disappearing sporadically. It gives me the chills, up until the clown (spoiler ahead for those who want to watch the original series) change to a giant spider. The story was a simple tale of how a group of social outcasts gather together to battle a aged demon clown, Pennywise, who feeds on children. Although the demon was able to materialize fear, but together, the children manage to defeat and subdue the evil being (until it return in second part).


Mind you, if expected to be a horror film, then It is just average. The series is way more scarier. This recent remake, is just creepy and gory. Clown with big mouth and fangs do not really bring fear to anyone nowadays, even it chew off a boy's arm. However, this film is about the children. About friendship, coming of age, how we chuckle at the young romance, hardship felt by the innocents, events that force them to mature. All these emotional levels added much depth to a ordinary story and lift it much higher than the average horror film. For the younger audience who may not have read the book or seen the earlier adaptation, this felt like a concise Stranger Things (which, by the way, is also a great series, with Finn Wolfhard starring in both). Funny one liner, great chemistry and finally, a western movie with tinge of innocent romance without hinting physical sex.


To be fair, this recent adaptation did justice to Stephen King's work. It may even be one of the best adaptation (certainly not the best though), and even capture the essence of the original story. However, it could not replace the earlier adaptation.

ratings: 4 poink~!
comments: knowing how the story turn out, I have less expectation for chapter 2 of It movie. I am just hoping now they would adapt my all time favorite novel, Needful Things into movie/ series.