By Isabella Purdy & Eden La Clair, Staff Writers and Staff Photographers
IT is a famous Stephen King book that debuted in the eighties, based on the small town of Derry, Maine, in the fifties.
We soon come to meet the Loser’s Club, consisting of Bill (Billy) Denbrough, Beverly Marsh (Bev), Ben Hanscom, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, Mike Hanlon and Stanley Uris.
These are the kids who have realized what is actually going on in their town after Georgie Denbrough ,Billy’s brother, is killed by IT in the storm drain after Georgie is convinced that IT, showing up as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, will give him back his paper boat.
Georgie’s disappearance deeply affects Billy, and he joins his friends together to find out what is terrorizing their little town. Along the way in this horror drama story with a unique coming of age twist, the Losers Club must face IT in its many forms along with psychopathic bullies and adults who confuse the kids and deter them from their quest.
This section of the book when the Losers Club are kids, makes up roughly half of the one thousand one hundred and thirty eight pages of the giant novel, so squeezing it into a two hour and fifteen minute movie would be quite the challenge, but like Hollywood always does, a new take on the book is necessary for run time and overall enjoyment.
IT (2017), however, follows the book more closely than its 1990 miniseries featuring Tim Curry as IT or Pennywise, which should be a pleasant surprise for those who read and loved the book. The 2017 IT will give the book a proper adaptation, with all of the horror and violence that the novel contained, versus the miniseries that made the terrifying book appear tame to viewers.
IT is one of Stephen King’s classical novels, lined up alongside The Shining, Carrie, Pet Semetary, The Stand and Cujo, so it certainly deserves to be read; the movie, which broke box office records its first weekend, deserves to be watched as well despite the R-rating for language and violence—nothing else.
However, a review will help explain the new movie’s worth. The movie, overall, was a roller coaster of emotions. People were shaking from fear in their seats, bending over laughing and sometimes even crying during the sad parts. The sarcastic and funny group of kids provide comic relief from the purely terrifying scenes featuring “IT,” who is the star of the show. The scary character appears to be clown in his main form, but can shapeshift into the kids’ worst nightmares in order to feed off of their fear.
The brave group of kids figure out that IT is terrorizing their town and decide to fight back. With teamwork, courage and intelligence, the kids locate the lair of the creature and give IT the fight it deserves. Throughout the crazy journey, you will laugh, scream and possibly even cry. The visual presentation of the book is incredible and is definitely worth seeing for yourself.
