It (1990)

 

Genre: Horror/ Drama

Time: 3h 12mins

Director: Tommy Lee Wallace

Quick Summary: In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.

Tim Curry carries this.

I have always remembered the first half of this one specifically more than the second half and I always assumed it was because I only watched the first half. After rewatching this I learnt that I had in fact watched the second half and it was boring as hell. I'm glad I pushed it out of my memory and can't wait to do it again.

For the first half, I really enjoyed it because of the kids. They were actually kids and came across like it. Kid actors are usually not brilliant, but I actually liked pretty much all of them. Watching them run around trying to work out what to do together was so cute, even if they were being terrorised by Tim Curry. As for the second half, well oof. It's not every day adults get upstaged by kids. They were just so uninteresting and dull. There were a few scenes where I almost fell asleep, like when Bill and Mike were messing around riding a bike as adults, or when the group were eating a meal in a restaurant and talking about random crap. 

It doesn't help that Pennywise was barely in the second half, because let's be real he's what makes this film so memorable. I wouldn't call this version of Pennywise scary at all, just more annoying. It's like they got Tim Curry and said "Just be annoying and extra all the time." All the times Pennywise tried to scare the kids it came across more as pranks, added with a ton of blood of course. There were some cool moments with stop motion that did creep me out a little bit though. 

As for the ending well, I don't think it would have been as bad if it wasn't for the fact that the second half of this film was so boring. It just felt like such a gut punch that the ending fizzled out.

While this does respect the book and tries to cover absolutely everything, it falls a bit short and is a yawn fest. I think the only reason I'll be rewatching this is for Tim curry.

5/10

"Pennywise: Excuse me, ma'am. Is your refrigerator running? *gasp* It IS? Well, you better go catch it before it runs away! A-ha! A-ha! A-ha!"