So here's the thing, normally I'd wait for a film to come out on Blu Ray before sitting down and tearing it to pieces, but I really want to make more of these in-depth reviews, I've only done two so far, and I really couldn't wait for this one, because IT's just so fucking good. So, reluctantly, I did the unthinkable and went into a packed Saturday night screening of IT, and started taking notes, lots and lots of notes, I think I really should have watched Mother! instead. Also consider this a spoiler review for IT, since I'll be going through a few scenes in very specific detail, and consider that your spoiler warning, if you haven't seen IT yet, go see it, see IT, I mean, shit. As usual, you need to know what's going on, so cue the plot summery.
Here's what you need to know; things are not as they appear in the quiet little town of Derry, beneath the quaint American exterior lies a long and morbid history, and a long, long list of dead and missing children. Among the dead is Bill's little brother, Georgie, whose fate Bill tirelessly seeks to uncover, but he's about to realise that he should have just left it alone. Something evil hides beneath Derry, something that defies Bill and his friends' comprehension, a creature that can feed on their fear, one that has re-emerged from its slumber, and is ready for another feeding. But it isn't invulnerable, and the Losers Club do not intend to go down without a fight, vowing to end the curse once and for all, and to bring an end to Pennywise the Clown's reign of terror for good.
IT opens very strong, at least for me, with a diegetic piano, music is a tricky thing to get right in films, and not only does IT have a soundtrack I want to buy, but opening with a diegetic piano is both really funny, and a sign of integrity. What else it opens with is an interesting set up for a scare, that doesn't go anywhere, so let's break out the big ol' meaning stick. Georgie, while retrieving the wax, sees a pair of glowing lights in the basement, and thinks it's a monster, only for it to be revealed to be a harmless twinkle on some glass, that is actually pretty smart to start the film on. Georgie is a kid, when he enters the basement, he tells himself to be brave, it would make sense for him to see a monster in the basement where none exists, since kids have active imaginations, what at first appears as just a false scare, actually helps to create a sense of innocence around Georgie, one that becomes very important in the next scene. Georgie's boat goes down the storm drain, and there he meets Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and I love this scene; what's very easy to miss, but a deliberate addition to this scene is that Pennywise's eyes are blue. Blue could symbolise happiness, or friendliness, a suggestion that accompanies Pennywise being friendly and polite to Georgie, even making him laugh and offering him a balloon. This is all to create a false sense of security around Georgie, one aided both by movie convention of kids never being hurt or killed, and the previous subtle establishment that Georgie is innocent, which makes his incredibly gruesome death all the more disturbing for the audience, as mutilated kids are never pleasant, and Georgie didn't deserve such a grim end. And it establishes, very clearly, that no one is safe, which makes the tension palpable when Pennywise has one of the Losers in his grasp. The film then jumps a few months, and we are introduced to one of the Losers, Mike, who we see in an abattoir, too scared to put the bolt through a sheep, before being given a weird lecture, I thought it was weird until I swung the meaning stick at it. I think it's a metaphor for Derry, we learn later that Derry would rather ignore the town's history of death and misery, as represented by Betty's missing poster later in the film, simply being covered by another missing poster, as if she was forgotten, the people of Derry would rather stick their heads in the sand about the thing that's quietly terrorising them. With this in mind, the old man's speech suggests that Mike should decide whether to take agency for himself, or become ignorant like the rest of the town, he can be out there, with the bolt, with power and control, or he could be in there, blissfully unaware of the stronger force that wants to kill and eat him. Whether or not the old man knows about Pennywise is never specified, but this certainly would suggest that he does, or at the very least thinks that Mike should be strong enough to take control before something or someone bigger does. Control is a theme we'll be focusing on a lot in this redux, specifically with the character of Beverly. But back to the scene, the transition to the school is important, it would suggest that the school, and by extension, the town, are the sheep, living in their quaint, yet ignorant and mundane world, with a mundane school, complete with losers and bullies, and kids who, like the sheep, are unaware of the larger force they're in the clutches of.
The Losers are what make the film what it is, they're funny, they're relatable, and their underdog story of taking on Pennywise is very emotionally gratifying. But at the core of this movie is their emotional struggle as well as their literal struggle, displayed in the film's most terrifying moments when Pennywise is scaring the shit out of them. Stan, Richie and Ben are the least complicated, Ben's scared of a picture he saw in a history book, Richie's scared of clowns, and Stan's scared of an Amedeo Modigiliani-esque painting in the synagogue. These, on the surface, are simple, silly childhood fears, which is entirely the point, because everybody had a silly fear like that, I'm sure a lot of British kids were scared shitless of the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, I know I was. And in this coming of age tale, Stan, Richie and Ben, like all kids, have to overcome those silly fears, to stop being scared of the monster under the bed, or in this case, hanging in your dad's office, it's one of those good messages for the kids I alluded to in my review, about being strong and taking the fight to your fears. It, like Georgie before, suggests innocence in childhood, just as Georgie was scared of the eyes in the basement. Eddie's fear is more interesting, while it seems simple, Germs, it's a fear imposed upon him by his overbearing mother, and so to overcome his fear he must confront his mother, to take agency for himself, and to take it back from his mum. This is a big piece in Eddie's ark, and it reflects a need to find and eliminate the source of your fears, another good message for the kids, rather than being vague, it's as if the film's trying to give advice on how to not be afraid. Mike's fear however comes from a different place entirely, and is one of the more horrific, Mike's parents died in a house fire, and the event has scared him ever since, for very obvious reasons, the psychological damage of that fire makes great bait for Pennywise, and it makes for one of the more bleak scares in the film. Bill is similar, like Mike, he is haunted by grief, though not for his parents, for Georgie, which makes for one of my favourite scares in the film. 'Georgie' leads Bill into the basement, where he starts to rot in front of him, this is reflective of Bill's fear that Georgie is dead, having not yet come to terms with his disappearance, Pennywise scares him by showing him his brother as a rotting corpse, before going in for the kill in one of the most effective and nail biting scares in the entire film. A key point in this scare is also that when Georgie is repeatedly saying "You'll float too," Pennywise is in the water behind him, with its hand raised behind his back, which reminds me a lot of ventriloquism, an old obsession of mine, this is a direct implication that Pennywise is puppeteering Georgie, again we see the allusion to control and agency, which, here, is entirely owned by Pennywise, and completely denied to Bill and Georgie, Pennywise is pulling the strings. Bill finally defeats his fear in the film's finale, when he bolts 'Georgie' in the head, knowing it to be Pennywise, and, more significantly, finally comes to terms with the fact that Georgie is dead. I'll save the best for last, so let's talk about the bullies; Patrick's death is probably the one that scared me the most, and on my fifth viewing of the film is the only one that still scares me, he is eaten alive by Pennywise after a run in with a pack of zombies, this makes sense, since Zombies were big in the 80's as they are today. But the imagery of the zombies is just frightening to me, particularly the close up of one zombie's face, with the dead eyes and monstrous teeth in that nasty as fuck grin, what can I say, a grinning zombie is fucking scary to me. Meanwhile I alluded to Henry in my review, but what I didn't say was how in depth they go with him. In the film's final act, it's implied that Henry has a deeply troubled relationship with his dad, as he cowers in fear in his presence despite being armed with a handgun, this could possibly explain his more psychotic and sociopathic behaviour, like cutting Ben's stomach and trying to shoot a cat, as well as a need to establish dominance, hence being a bully. So Pennywise, rather brilliantly, effectively recruits him, by manipulating him to kill his dad, and then ordering him to "kill them all", this is Henry's psychotic snap, which is both a great look into Henry's twisted mind, and a great way of showing Pennywise's manipulation, something I'll return to later.
Right, now, Beverly, not only is it the name of my favourite track on the soundtrack (don't judge me), but it's the name of the most interesting character in the film bar none. All of the Losers have things they're afraid of, some petty, others more horrific, but Beverly's fear is not only the darkest of all of them, but also the most riveting. Throughout the film it's very heavily implies that Beverly's father is sexually abusive to her; when she's near him she is shown as passive and submissive, and he calls her his little girl, while she calls him Daddy, which is just downright creepy. When we first see him he caresses her hair, and later that scene she is standing in front of the mirror, crying and cutting her hair. This further implies the abusive relationship, and suggests that Bev has suffered a great deal of emotional damage from that abuse, seeing herself, or more specifically, her hair, as a reminder of him, it also suggests thoughts of self harm, as directly implied by the shot of the scissors and her trembling hand, hinting at the severity of her fear of him, this fear will come back to her later, quite literally. Later in the film, Bev is in a happy place, in the bathroom reading the post card from her secret admirer, who we all know to be Ben, when she starts hearing voices from the sink. That hair from earlier then fires up from inside the sink and starts wrapping around her, tasty tasty beautiful symbolism. On a literal level, this is not the freakiest scare of the film, but it is undoubtedly the most psychological, the hair, the reminder of her dad, has returned to get her. Something of note is that we are specifically shown the hair wrapping around her legs, this is important as it implies a fear of invasion and violation, which is what the hair is doing, and feeds back to the idea that her dad is sexually abusive. how the hair also wraps around her face represents a feeling of being consumed, and how the hair pins her to the sink, preventing her from escaping, represents a feeling of entrapment, a notion that there is no escape, a lack of control, of agency, all of this reflecting on the idea of her sexual abuse. What happens next is really gross, but equally meaningful, the sink erupts in a spray of blood, drenching Bev and covering every surface in the bathroom, blood that her dad is oblivious to when he enters the room and finds her a trembling wreck in the corner. It's played for comedy earlier in the film, but when she runs into the Losers at the pharmacy, she is shown buying tampons, bear in mind all of them are still in school, and this is a coming of age story, two plus two equals the blood as a representation of another fear of Bev's, the fear of adulthood, displayed as a fear of sexual maturity. The extremeness of the blood is representative of the inevitability of that fear, Bev's growing up, and like the rest of the Losers, she will eventually lose her childhood spirit, assuming she hasn't already. While it's also played for comedy, and is completely absurd in concept, the scene where they're all cleaning the bathroom together is a big step in Bev overcoming her fear, as her friends help her clean up the mess, emphasis on 'friends' and 'help'. This reflects onto all of the Losers, as they team up and help eachother, learning the strength both in their numbers, and in their friendship, another good message for the kids, one that is consistent throughout the film, and one that we'll get back to. But all this symbolism makes the scene where she incapacitates her dad very straight forward, she literally kicks her fear in the balls and smashes the top of the toilet across his face, it's her overcoming her fears and becoming stronger, and is not only pretty un-metaphorical, but emotionally gratifying for the audience, as is when she stabs 'daddy' in the mouth in the film's finale, a completion of Bev taking back her agency and overcoming her fear.
In contrast to her lack of control in her home life, the quarry scene is of significance to the idea of the Losers fighting their fears. When Bev arrives at the quarry, she joins the Losers in their underwear and dives carelessly into the quarry, while the track 'Beverly' plays; this is all very deliberate, as is the easily skipped reference to a turtle. For people who have read the book, so not me, the Turtle is a reference to a turtle in Stephen King's books, like it, it's an ancient creature, but one of pure benevolence, in contrast to it's pure malevolence. There's another reference to a turtle when Bill goes into Georgie's room and finds a Lego turtle, which he then drops and breaks. The quarry is a very clever place in the film, a place where the kids can be kids, where they can be free and just have fun, it's a safe place, free from not just Pennywise, but from the fears of their lives outside, of daddy and Georgie's death. The soft, melodic music enforces the idea of freedom and safety, and the presence of the turtle, symbolically, makes the quarry a refuge for the kids, it is an embodiment of their innocence as kids, and a place where no force has control of them, not even Pennywise.
A particular scene I found funny was when all the Losers were staring at Bev, that was funny, and is very much what a bunch of 13 and 14 year old boys would do, further indicative of their childhood innocence, as well as their encroaching adulthood. The placement of the Lego turtle in Georgie's room has the same effect, making Georgie's room a refuge for Bill, however one that has been invaded, corrupted by Georgie's death at the hands of Pennywise, hence the turtle breaks. Pennywise's power is displayed quite literally in the projector scene, when he jumps out of the wall at them. Pennywise is huge in this scene, not very subtle, but it is an implication that Pennywise is bigger than them, that it's a larger force than the kids, almost like that scare was a show of might, a warning for them not to get involved, which they of course ignore. But what this scene also shows is a map of Derry's sewer system, which is a very interesting shape. The layout of the Derry sewer system is interesting; a central point, the well house, with all the tunnels branching down through the town, this is how they find where Pennywise lives, but the shape of the sewer adds to the idea that Pennywise has control. The tunnels branch under the town like the limbs of a spider, with the well house, with Pennywise, in the centre, this creates an image of omnipresence around Pennywise, it using the sewers to get around means that it could be anywhere at any time, while the layout like the legs of a spider further implies that the people of Derry are all in the clutches of it, like a spiders web with the monster in the middle. The TV show that everyone's watching further suggests its omnipresence, and it becomes important in the scene where Henry kills his dad. It might just be an error, but Henry goes from standing a few feet away from his dad with the knife in his left hand in one shot, to standing directly over his dad with the knife in his right hand and pressed against his dad's neck in the next. This could also be a signifier that the town isn't ignorant of its own accord, but that Pennywise is pulling the strings, in the same way he was puppeteering Georgie before, and in the same way the old man was killing the sheep, again, it represents Pennywise's control, but now on a town wide scale. Something I found really interesting after a little reading was Bill's rhyme, which he uses as speech therapy for his stutter, but is actually from the novel Donovan's Brain. It goes "he thrusts his fists against the post and still insists he sees the ghost" and what I found after some digging was very interesting. In the novel Donovan's Brain, the main character uses that rhyme to overcome a coercive intelligence, it's an interesting coincidence in the apparent context of Pennywise puppeteering a town, that Bill is reciting a rhyme meant to fight subliminal coercion.
Throughout the film there is one persistent mystery, and even by the end of the film the audience is still left in the dark about one thing, what Pennywise is. That works massively in the film's favour when it comes to the horror. Sure you learn that it's some kind of creature that has lived for hundreds of years at least, can assume the form of a person's greatest fear, and hibernates for 27 years between feedings, but that's all you know by the end of IT, when questions like what it actually is, where it comes from, how it's survived as long as it has, and how it can know what scares you are never answered. It reminds me a lot of the monster from The Thing in that regard, a monster that can shape shift, and that has no explanation as to its origins, and like The Thing, it works in creating a mysterious and frightening creature. The film relies almost as much in a fear of the unknown as it does its imagery, it leaves you wondering these things about the monster, mainly how it can become what you fear, you're left wondering what it would come for you as, while also wondering what a creature so inhuman and monstrous would do if it got you. That personal fear of such a creature takes Pennywise past simply being a monster, and turns it into something far more frightening, a threat as psychological as it is barbaric. From that weakness, that fear, comes something more though; an even more profound message of courage, but also of friendship, the film asserts that some enemies can't be taken down alone, and that in those times, your strength comes from those around you, your friends and family, it sounds cheesy saying it, but in the film's finale, when the Losers are beating the piss out of Pennywise, and its attempts to scare them are repeatedly failing, that message of friendship is carried by the immense emotional gratification of seeing them literally fight their fears, and win. That's in contrast to their first assault on Neibolt, when Pennywise is able to separate them and fuck them all up, almost killing one of them, in possibly my favourite moment in the film, when it climbs out of the fridge and says "time to float" before going in for the kill on Eddie. Going back to that finale, and specifically Beverly, who Pennywise kidnaps, and doesn't kill because she isn't afraid of it, at that point this unknown, ancient evil becomes nothing more than a bully, and the Losers scared off their bullies by throwing rocks at them, thus establishing a strength in numbers. So later when Pennywise has Bill and tells the rest to leave, and they instead opt to kick the piss out of it, it's ultimately a reflection of the rock fight from earlier, with them no longer being scared of the bully, the bully this time being Pennywise. Plus the moment before the fight itself, when Richie says "welcome to the Losers club asshole" before smacking its face with a baseball bat is just fucking fantastic. And with their fears vanquished, the tale is ended, with the blood oath signalling their transition to adulthood; before they go their separate ways one last time, to get on with their lives, now all stronger people who have taken back their agency. The best example of this transition is Bill and Bev's kiss, which both gives the audience a happy ending, as he technically gets the girl, but, in the context of the bathroom scene from earlier, symbolises the fear of adulthood being overcome. Bev in particular, who now embraces her adulthood, by literally embracing the kiss, a suggestion supported by the recurring motif of blood, thus completing the story on a high note, as well as rounding out the arks of the two most interesting characters.
So yeah, I love IT, so much so that I've been thinking about it for an entire week, to the point that it's probably no longer healthy. Never for me has a film gone from not being on my radar at the start of the year, to being a film I was getting increasingly pumped for, to now being a film that is beyond a doubt my favourite film of the year so far, and a film I still want to watch again, despite watching it way more times than I probably should have. IT isn't a masterpiece, very, very few films are, but I don't expect masterpieces all the time, I just want a film to be entertaining, or emotional, or dramatic, or scary, and IT, for me, excels at everything I like about movies, which is why I love it, and why I think it's an absolute must watch.
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