While King is best known for his massive and hugely successful horror catalog, it has always been his slice of life and non-genre work that has garnered the most critical acclaim, especially when it comes to big-screen success. Each has a part to play in piecing together the mystery of Pennywise, the dancing clown, and therein the film finds its greatest strength. When kids start to disappear in rural Derry, Maine, the town freaks out a bit but when little Georgie Denbrough goes missing, his big brother Bill takes it personally and won't stop until the mystery is solved.Īlong for the ride are the rest of his crew, the wise-cracking Richie Tozer, new kid in town and resident library denizen Ben Hanscom, germophobe and pragmatist of the group Eddie Kaspbrak, skeptic Stan Uris, home-school kid and apparently the only black child in town Mike Hanlon, and latecomer and token girl loser Beverly Marsh. In case you've been living under a rock for the last 35 years, It is the story of The Loser's Club, a group of misfit adolescents who are sucked into a battle with an otherworldly evil that takes the form of an old-timey circus clown.
Over the last few years, we've had a number of solid mid-budget horrors, from the Oculus films to the films in James Wan's Conjuring universe to the breakout success of Jordan Peele's Get Out just a few months back, and I feel confident counting this new telling of a fairly well-known story among that number. Director Andrés Muschietti's new adaptation of Stephen King's It is one of the best mainstream horror films in recent memory, and that is no small feat.