I think as a horror movie fanatic, my goal when I watch a horror film is to see how the story will surprise me, if it will scare me, then good for team. Scaring a horror fan is a big sign that the production did a good job in making the film. Sometimes, horror fans tend to visualize already a movie, how will the story go, how will the characters react or how much the effects will affect every scene. Some film crew are not really good at making effects, but I’m not saying that the movie they made already suck, but since production is a big part of the movie, it has to be done well.
A Stephen King novel is always a good one. I’ve never read a boring novel by him. The It movie is not a boring movie. But it doesn’t go beyond what I expected. Maybe because I thought that the movie will really portray what the book wants which cannot be done since it is just a movie, not a series. But the good thing about it is that the cast and crew in the film did not overreact. What do I mean by that? Since kids take more of the scenes in the film, I was expecting a more childish cover to the portrayal. But I was wrong. Don’t judge a book by its cover as they say. I want to point out that the kids or teenagers did a very good job in their characters. It may not be as award winning portrayal, but it’s enough for the movie to not be bad.
If we are to talk about the cinematography of the film, it actually did pretty well. The scenes were as scary as it can be, especially the part when the kids were putting films inside a, I think, a projector that is versioned back in their era. That scene was intimidating for me. I think it was the most fun part to watch. It wasn’t scarier than what I see in most jump scenes in other movies but it’s not bad.
Personally, I thought that they will put a scene about a backstory of Pennywise. Backstories are what I expect to see in movies. Not only it answers too many questions to movie goers but it also adds that frightening effect to the story. And I think horror movies should start putting that in their films. Pennywise is actually a little bit scary. It’s not the typical clown you will see in most clown films, it’s beyond that. I think if I saw him in the neighborhood, it’s nerve-wracking but enough for you to fight him to save your life. And I think what I like most about him is that he is a little bit of a psycho. He’s like he’s just been out of a mental asylum and just want to eat kids because his brain got damage due to too much pills and drugs.
But all in all, kudos to the team that made it. I think kids will have trauma for clowns if they watch it. And that’s a bad thing.