It

Disclaimer: Let's be clear about this upfront. I am a fan of the original 1990 miniseries. I had watched it at least four to five times, and unashamedly, TIm Curry's Pennywise is the personification of all my childhood - and adult-life - fear. I HATE clowns. Consequently, comparisons will be inevitable.

This 2017 remake was definitely not as creepy or scary as the 1990 mini-series and I doubt it will spark a new generation of coulrophobia. Without the breadth of a mini-series, the film lacked the time to properly develop all the characters and the central core identity of The Losers Club loses its depth and complexity. That, ultimately, led to a narrative that lacked urgency and empathetic investment. Pennywise v2017 was also designed (and presented) as clearly evil and monstrous, whereas the success of the original It mini-series could be heavily attributed to Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise as a benign-looking clown (an oxymoron!) with the evil/madness only bubbling beneath the surface...till the end.

Objectively, this film was a decent horror movie. A decent and typical Hollywood horror flick that served its scares through jump shocks and ratchet-up strings. It mostly eschewed mood and atmosphere for horror tropes and sets. That being said, there were two well-directed scenes that served up genuine scares and would have been even more effective had director, Andres Muschietti, followed it through with an eye for pure terror a la Hideo Nakata (Ring リング) or even James Wan (Insidious or The Conjuring).

The screenplay is credited to Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga - the original director of this remake, and it is hard not to imagine how his vision might have been instead - and Gary Dauberman, and the non-horror moments of the film served to propel the narrative, but again lacked depth and purpose. Themes of abuse, racism, ignorance, evil and loss of innocence were briefly prodded but never explored. Gender, racial and religious stereotypes, though not milked for laughter, was still apparent and attempts on subversion was futile.

Kudos to the young actors though. They were all great and inhabited their characters suitably. But as aforesaid, some of them got short-changed by the restrictions of film-storytelling. Nonetheless, our central quartet definitely stood out especially Sophia Lillis as Beverely. I can see Amy Adams as the adult version of her.

Bill Skarsgard looked terrifying in his makeup and he did imbue his Pennywise with a manic, diabolical energy. However, it lacked subtlety. We see his Pennywise as evil from the get go and something clearly to fear. The obfuscation of a friendly clown veneer was lost.

There was also an over-reliance on CGI which worked for some key moments, like the depiction of It's lair, but most other times, it felt distracting and lacked the visceral punch of practical effects.

This film was an update of the classic 1990 mini-series, but instead of making it fresh and updated, it just felt like a tired, modern retelling - with better CGI - of what most would have already known.