Tyler Purdy ’21
October 31, 2019
As a junior student, AP course survivor, and stressed-out teenager, one might rightly assume that I have no personal time to relax and enjoy all of the teenage experience. That the only way I survive the rigorous course load is a fantastic ability to balance life and school, leaving time for only the essential scholastic and social needs.
Oh, how I wish that was the case.
For the past sixteen years, I have been both the king of procrastination and a certified horror movie fanatic, hence I waited for a grand total of two years for the adaptations of Stephen King’s infamous novel, IT, to be released, solely to burn through both of them in one night while ignoring my pressing responsibilities. Let the record state that, in this review, I will be summarizing both the plot and key elements of the movie. If you only wish to gather a numerical rating to ascertain whether the movies are worth your time, I would skip to the last paragraph.
To sum up the plot of a two-part movie based on an 1142 page book is a herculean task to say the least, however, to very briefly sum up the plot there are a few key points to elaborate on. In a small remote town called Derry, Maine in the years 1988-1989, (1957-1958 in the book) a slew of children begin to go missing. The audience hones the disappearance of a young boy named Georgie Benbrough, and his brother Bill’s quest to find this seemingly dead child, employing the help of his friends Richie Tozier, Stan Uris, and Eddie Kasparak to find him in various parts of town.
Unknown to the characters, a strange entity known as “Pennywise the Dancing Clown” or “It” has been luring children to their death. Eventually through different circumstances, the group meets Beverly Marsh, Ben Hanscom, and Mike Hansion who all have encounters with Pennywise and discover that their town has been the epicenter of a staggering amount of deaths and accidents every 27 years exactly. They all band together to form “The Losers Club”, fighting the town bully Henry Bowers and seemingly kill It, putting an end to the cycle, yet just in case they all swear to come back and put down It for good.
The fabled 27 years pass and all of their memories of those traumatic events have faded except for Mike Hansion, who has stayed in town to monitor It, noting a new series of bizarre murders. He calls the gang and they meet back up, reminiscing about their time together until the end of the meal where It strikes. They all naturally fear this strange event and part ways, but before going, they all discover that Stan Uris has committed suicide for unknown reasons. Mike and Ben convince the others to stay and search for “tokens” or portions or items that link them emotionally to the town that relate to their trauma to burn at the ritual of Chüd, meant to exorcise. It once and for all. They collect these tokens and come to terms with their demons, and meet with Bill who has gone for It on his own to finally end the cycle once and for all.
They perform the ritual, however, it fails, and they must use their wits, imagination, and fearlessness to kill the monster. Eddie bravely dies in the process and through a massive struggle, the others are able to pull out. It’s heart and end its life for good.
Understandably, the plot is quite dense and can be a bit of a challenge to wrap one’s head around, but underneath this story of killer cosmic clown and misfit kids trying to survive the trial of being outcasts while simultaneously having to murder an all-powerful entity that feeds on fear, there is a profound theme buried beneath trauma. Each character experiences trauma – from survivor’s guilt, physical abuse, homophobia, and much more, all of these troubles are hidden under the surface by a well crafted social veneer. Even as adults they struggle with underlying demons that have shaped them fundamentally as human beings. The true horror comes from It’s ability to dig into the minds of their victims to make them suffer immensely.
Though It is shown to physically kill their victims like in the case of murdering Georgie and countless other children over the years, what It does best and revels in doing is physically sewing dread in their prey. For Instance, strictly speaking on the movies, Richie “trash mouth” Tozier, the perpetual joker and king of impression is not scared by a physical demon or monster like the others. Rather what haunts him is his sexuality, as It gleefully toys with him, singing “I know your secret, your dirty little secret… Should I tell them Richie?” The audience eventually learns that he has been called multiple slurs in public and was ridiculed to the point of hiding and denying his sexuality, even as a fully grown adult.
The movie’s portrayal of trauma is so realistic and resonates on such a personal level that I would recommend it on that basis alone, but if you need a movie to simply feel fear from then both installments deliver. As a horror fan, I must say that I am not scared by much but towards the middle of the first movie the projector scene had me surprisingly shaken up and the movie simply continued from there. The chemistry between the first movie’s actors was palpable and as an audience member, I must say I could easily believe they were all close friends. A fitting score, interesting shot composition, and a hands-down chilling performance of “Pennywise the Dancing Clown” by Bill Skarsgård make the movies a treat.
Admittedly, there are some critics to be found in these projects, the chemistry in the second movie was a bit weak, especially when compared to the first, and frankly the movie leaned a bit too heavily on CGI towards the end. That with the fact that Richie Tozier’s sexuality was a bit out of left field when first introduced and underdeveloped, along with the fact that the town of Derry very much had this same problem in terms of development,slightly diminishing the impact of the movies as a whole.
To make a very, and I mean VERY long story short, both adaptations of the novel excel at displacing the difficulties of growing up as an outcast and living with deep traumas, along with delivering on some chilling scares and amazing performances.
Though is marred slightly from some films in the latter half, less chemistry, too much CGI, and some underdevelopment of key character aspects and surroundings, this is certainly one of the better Stephen King adaptations to say the LEAST, TRUST ME. Overall I would rate the movie a solid 4⁄5 stars and is certainly worth at the very least a single watch through.
