How Creepy Was IT?

          I caught a showing of the remake of Stephen King’s “IT”.   It’s been years since I saw the first pair of movies, the ones with John Ritter and others, but that doesn’t really matter.   This newer version is much creepier.   The first iteration of the story took place in 1990.   So, horror films have had more than 25 years to push things.   The contrast between the old movie and the new are startling.   Go see “IT”.

          SPOILERS are everywhere.

          They’ve really stepped up their game in this remake.   In the first film of “IT”, the story started off similar to this new one.   A boy of about 7 or 8 went out in the rain to sail his newspaper boat in the gutter streams.   Where the films differ is in what is shown and what is implied.   In both films, little Georgie came across a clown in the sewer.   Both clowns fit the bill of the “Creepy Clown”.   In the old film, the scene cuts to the area being roped off with police tape.   We don’t actually see what happens to Georgie.   In the new film, we see Georgie reach for his boat and see Pennywise The Clown grow enormous, razor-sharp teeth and bite Georgie’s arm off.   Georgie is then sucked into the sewer drain,leaving a trail of bloody water.   This new scene sets the tone for the movie perfectly.   If a little boy can be brutally maimed, what does that spell for the rest of the characters?   The old film makes the viewer a little uncomfortable.   The new one sets the viewer on edge entirely, just with this scene alone.
          The rest of the movie only increases the creepiness.   The viewer starts to worry that some of the other characters might, actually, die.   It’s throughout the rest of the film that you find out that it isn’t just Pennywise who is a monster, but many of the people connected to the main characters.   Thanks to CGI, nothing is off limits.   In the first film, one of the characters, Richie, is afraid of werewolves, and comes across IT in the shape of one, which was a little lackluster.   In the new one, IT takes the form of a creepy painting that has someone with a misshapen head in it.   IT chases Stan around his rabbi’s room, which was creepy as hell before the painting came to life.
          In case I didn’t make it clear, I feel that this version of the story is far creepier than the original.   It’s done much better.   Of course, the first films were made for TV, which is really dumb for a horror movie.   This one is well worth seeing.   I give it 8 🎃🎃🎃 out of 10: it’s creepy and scary enough to fit the Halloween criteria; it just didn’t have anything to do with Halloween itself.   I’m definitely going to see Part 2 when it comes out.   Would you like a balloon…?