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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 346581" data-attributes="member: 23">It: Chapter One (2017) <img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.steelbookbluray.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2019%2F07%2Fit_4k_1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=bb9624aa8b93d20aa6dfa9fcf694b926b6e3764bf19c1b4d3a55b35121dfca15&ipo=images" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 574px" /> Since my DVD of the 1990 mini-series (purchased a decade or so ago) is still sealed I don't think I've watched it since it's original airing. My collective memory, however, is of a compelling story with an ending the daftness of which - certainly with the limitations of the screen compared with the page - made me figuratively throw up my hands and literally roll my eyes at my wasted investment. With this being a new adaption of the better half, I was looking forward to seeing what we'd get, and found it surprising in a number of ways. I'd expected it to be dark and grim and terrifying and, while it entered the territory of the first two, I found myself a little disappointed that it wasn't terrifying. There were no effective jump scares, and any creepy psychological horror was undermined by seeing too much (and most of that was very clearly  computer generated). I also found this version of Pennywise to be too obviously evil and less-than-human from the very beginning, whereas (as I remember it) Tim Curry's ordinary man in a clown suit felt much more prosaic, making it feel more tangible and real and (in turn) scary. So as a horror film, this didn't scare me as much as I'd anticipated. Not that I particularly wanted to be terrified out of my wits. What with the posters and the premise I was just geared up for some big scares or to feel creeped-out afterwards and it felt slightly anti-climactic when it didn't happen. There is more good news than bad, though, because some of the surprises were very pleasant. Oh, how my stomach turned with some anticipatory antipathy when the 1988 date flashed up on screen and we were first introduced to the kids. I was expecting a barrage of contemporary speech patterns (vocal fry; uptalk; starting sentences with "kay?"; weird affected pauses, etc.) and my concern only grew during the earliest outdoor group scene with several of the boys where they spoke so quickly I couldn't understand what was said and consequently had no idea what the scene was even about. As it turns out, though, the casting was mostly satisfyingly good. I never spotted any 21st Century speech patterns from the kids and they felt era appropriate to me. Ironically, the biggest offender on this front was one of the adults:  as Kevin's AMC Pacer Wagon driving mother, Molly Atkinson's contemporary vocal fry grated like a gratey thing. The attention to detail was also good. From set dressings to Airwolf t-shirts to references such as Molly Ringwald to films like Batman and Nightmare On Elm Street 5 being shown in the cinema. It all worked for me. Most of all, the actors all felt like those on-screen in the Eighties. There's the one who evokes Elliot from E.T. or Kevin from The Wonder Years (or indeed, a younger Kevin from Sons And Daughters). And the one who's a bit like the overweight kid from The Goonies. One kid looks like a mini Tom Hanks. Sophia Lillis looks very much like Kirsten Dunst which may not be the right era but is certainly no bad thing.  All the performances were solid. Rather than child actors, they all felt like really good actors who happen to be young. Some of them were what my mother would have described as "little old men" or" old heads on young shoulders". The feeling of being young and isolated and then finding connection with others was one of this film's strongest elements. There was a youthful warmth to the film that really came across. I haven't watched Stand By Me or The Breakfast Club, but this is how I imagine those films to feel (and enjoying this aspect of It has given me an urge to rectify that soon by watching those two films). There's a fair bit of The Goonies in there as well. And it's all mixed in with Twin Peaks small town weirdness and secrecy. The small town thing is something this got really right. It didn't feel like the manicured, autumnal Maine one sees so often on-screen, but a more earthy feeling place. (I've never been to or anywhere near Maine, so I don't know how accurate either of these portrayals are. Somehow, though, It's version feels less cinematically polished and a little more truthful. This version of Derry feels very real, lived in and accessible. The other area where the series worked well was Benjamin Wallfisch's score. The simplest way to describe my enjoyment of the music is to say that I've ordered the soundtrack this morning.</blockquote>

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