Random anecdote - while looking into those last few releases to write about at the end of the year I saw the Power Rangers reboot. Expecting a bland origin story with a few schlocky action sequences I was instead treated to a big mess of random teen angst bits that sort of work, and a lot of truly bad CGI nonsense that culminated in a battle to save Krispy Kreme from being squashed by a monster. How many times do they say Krispy Kreme? They say it a lot. It wasn't quite the utter waste I found under the glossy surface of Valerian, but it was still pretty much garbage and made me quit a planned third 2017 Catch Up in disgust. So after a quick break here we are ... with another unnecessary adaptation of a recognised property. Is it an entertaining effort for once or is it just another embarrassing, cringe inducing dumpster fire? Let's take a peek inside the storm drain to find out.
As mentioned in part two of that earlier catch up it feels like there have been a lot of Stephen King movies this year, and there are even more to come in the form of future film and TV releases. While I don't think this is as good as some of those others which were stronger in tone and narrative consistency, this is at least a thoroughly entertaining adventure. Disregarding how you feel about spooky clowns for a moment I think that this label is very appropriate here. This really isn't a pure dread fuelled horror nightmare, but instead it seems more like a throwback to the days of Poltergeist and a time where sudden moments of violence were included in fun house type horror movies that were as silly as they were hair raising. It's a colourful summer time romp which has mainstream appeal, while still remembering to include a few moments of grotesque monster violence.
There are a lot of fantasy sequences included, some that are shocking and others that are too outlandish to be anything but amusing. As the eponymous entity stalks the town in search of victims it comes in many pre-chosen forms, including living portraits and deformed vagrants. Pennywise the Dancing Clown still shows up frequently of course but it's the variety that keeps things interesting. The effects aren't all great which is unfortunate, but there's still plenty of random weirdness along the way. Eyes glistening in the dark or history book photos slowly changing prove that there are effective moments to be found with a subtle touch, but overall there's a whole lot of creepy and interesting stuff included beyond ideas that were used in the 1990 version.
The plot itself is pretty much the same, as Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) and his friends in The Losers Club realise the down of Derry, Maine is cursed by a mysterious evil living in the sewers. It needs to feed on the young and frightened, which is a good excuse for It to morph into all these different shapes. Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) is still the most frequent one, though his jaws are a bit more elastic than they were before. As a focal point for the story he's a fun villain, though at times both the CGI and the wacky antics are a bit weak. I'm not sure some of the face expanding effects or that jig he does were entirely necessary. However the opening of the film where he meets Bill's kid brother is the most effective moment in the whole film, and his performance is just strange enough to work.
Elsewhere the rest of the gang is likeable enough, and most of the performances are natural and provide a good group chemistry as things develop. It's just a shame that not all of them are developed equally, in particular Stan (Wyatt Oleff) and Mike (Chosen Jacobs) who get a little sidelined after their obligatory scare set pieces. The casting is all pretty good though, even if Bev (Sophie Lillis) seems a little old and Ben (Jeremy Taylor) seems a bit young. But as a team it's pretty solid and their innocent summer outings and collective foul mouths are a good mixture that creates the right amount of movie kid believability. This isn't Stand By Me or anything, but it's a decent effort.
The structure of the movie itself is less steady, and leads to a very shaky third act that lets things down. Early on it's got some decent atmosphere and pacing, but the nature of the plot in which each child meets their greatest fear before meeting Pennywise and getting away is problematic. I don't think that the jump scares are as grating as they have been in other modern horror releases but it does feel a little repetitive. It's very clear that none of the main characters will be in any real danger even for those unfamiliar with the story, and some of their escapes feel a bit silly at times. The idea to focus everything around a dilapidated old house also feels a bit of out place considering the way the rest of the town looks, and a scary well inside a scary building feels like overkill when the sewer itself was already both grounded and grotesque.
The climactic face off against evil should be where things come together, but unfortunately it's where things start to come apart. Kids who would have died in scenes earlier somehow live, the gang starts to act out of character just to have them split up minutes after they declare staying in a group is the safest approach, and the powers of It are never really explained enough to account for some of the inconsistencies. They should have focused on the script to make things more effective instead of just piling on the visual effects to make it look like a finale. Overall this is still all highly entertaining in a ridiculous fantasy horror kind of way, and most of the time it looks great. It still manages to capture enough of the youthful energy and sinister atmosphere for a story where the threat of poor parenting and evil monsters are both present. But it could have been stronger with more subtlety and more internal logic.
3/5
BONUS REVIEW
THE BELKO EXPERIMENT (2016)
On the subject of inconsistency let's take a quick look at a film that James Gunn wrote the script for but didn't direct, which means that the familiar faces (Michael Rooker, Sean Gunn, Gregg Henry) are all here, but things don't quite feel right as they mayhem begins. This is a Gregg McLean movie, the Wolf Creek guy, so you can imagine the issue. The premise is simple enough, as the employees of a shady North American company operating in Colombia find themselves sealed in the building. They realise the whole place is rigged with a metal barrier which covers the outside windows, and receive instructions to kill a number of their colleagues within a certain time frame. Failure to comply means that a mystery voice heard over the PA system will starting killing them himself but in larger quantities.
It's a situation that's been seen many times before, whether your point of reference is Battle Royale or something more recent like Circle. The usual themes are all here whether it's the darker side of the human instinct for survival, or the moral conundrum of doing what the voice is telling them. It's all presented in a standard fashion as the employees of Belko Industries realise they might not have a choice in the matter. Some plan to comply by making up rules on the value of life, others try to escape. Allegiances and loyalties are tested, friendships (and bones) are broken, and order dissolves. Spoiler alert; the creepy sex pest and the big angry guy are not going to make nicest choices when it comes down to the wire. It's not a story that offers any deep character complexity.
While this does offer a lot of tense moments, character drama and claustrophobic situations, the problem is that in some scenes it becomes super serious and in others it feels more like a dark comedy. Sick horror fans... sorry that is to say genre enthusiasts like myself will enjoy seeing a few real prop heads explode but it feels like they could have done more by choosing a firmer tone. A fight between two guys scrambling to use office stationary as weapons while the old 'there's no I in TEAM' message plays is the perfect example of what they could have achieved if things were tighter and more focused. But it's just one moment, and it jumps between seriously bleak and seriously twisted way too often. Ultimately this is something you've seen before that needs a sharper edge to make it stand out because it's just not that memorable or distinctive.
3/5
