Whenever the prospect of adapting Stephen King's gargantuan and beloved novel It comes up, it raises the question of whether it's really possible to make a horror epic for the screen. The hokey 1990 TV miniseries doesn't really convince, but the hype around Andy Muschetti's sleek 21st Century update on the story has been enormous. It's only the first part of a planned duology, so it's hard to gauge how satisfying it really is as a horror film.
Horror is normally the tightest and most compact of genres, but It sprawls out for more than two hours and tells only half the story. For the most part, the film does earn its length, particularly in the first act when the malicious child-stealing presence in the town of Derry, Maine, makes itself known to the seven central characters known as "The Losers Club." One of the most compelling components of the story is the way it draws from real-life terror (violent bullies, abusive parents) and blurs it with supernatural terror.
The supernatural terror itself is Pennywise the Dancing Clown, a mysterious shape-shifting entity played with horrifying magnetism by Bill Skarsgård. More darkly alluring than Tim Curry's take on the same character, Skarsgård is both helped and hindered by the use of CGI - Some of it skin-crawlingly, abjectly horrifying, other sequences downright laughable.
And therein lies the problem with It as a horror film. Mis-timed and misguided comic relief saps the tension from the scariest scenes. The team behind the film already had a hard job ahead of them, considering the cartoonishness of some of Pennywise's transformations, but fail to keep audiences on seats' edge. The funny cast of young actors assembled here - particularly Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard as the loudmouth Richie and Jack Dylan Grazer as the germaphobe Eddie - deliver in that regard, but a lot of the time it feels out of place.
Despite its shortcomings, though, it's hard to dismiss It. It's a well-made film that is visually and narratively engaging. Even if you aren't terrified, the film still creates a strong desire to see how this story really ends for these characters at the story's proper conclusion. The question remains open of whether the words "horror" and "epic" really belong together.
It opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday September 7th.
