Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard

Acting: The acting in “It” was mixed. Jaeden Lieberher managed to serve as a fine protagonist, and the surrounding cast around him formed a very likable main character roster that ultimately served their goal. However, many of the side players were either unmemorable or terrible in their depictions of their characters compared to the book, with many seemingly not having any passion or soul in the role that they were performing. These performances essentially took away from the impressive atmosphere the movie set that I will discuss later.

As Pennywise, Bill Skarsgård was magnificent, creating a new type of Pennywise that is all his own. Although he is rather an unsettling force compared to the creepy force of the book, he still masterfully captures the intellectual side of Pennywise. This new version of Pennywise truly paints him as a truly clever demon compared to the original, which solely put the focus on the horror aspect of Pennywise and was, by all account, very very bad.

Sophia Lillis was surprisingly the best one of the crew, giving a very memorable performance despite the being the sole female member in the crew. She captured the book’s version brilliantly, and I can see that she may be a future star in the making.

Plot: It possessed a plot that was very peculiar. By Andy Muschietti’s guidance, “It” follows a loose outline of the Stephen King novel, covering only the childhood portion of the novel and hinting at a sequel that will cover the remaining events. The cast itself is fleshed out an appropriate amount, with the acting in general being decent in most places. Many other characteristics of both the movie’s plot were very poor. The pacing was very unbalanced, with the beginning being very strong. However, as the movie progresses, it really becomes a disorganized mess that continually seems to lose more and more seriousness.

Another major flaw of “It” is its distinct lack of actual horror. Muschietti never really manages to capture the actual horror that the novel utilized so effectively. By rather opting to use the garden variety jump-scares and basic special effects that is now common in modern movies, we lose a true identity for “It,” and it slowly transforms into a standard flick that has lost all of its personality. It is honestly quite disgusting. The handling of Pennywise was also very sloppy. Pennywise, in his initial appearance, is presented in a truly in a frightening manner, yet this effect is quickly lost. By continually seeing him throughout the movie, he quickly loses his fright factor and becomes essentially standard. There was nothing that Skarsgård could do to prevent this, and I put the full blame on Muschietti. Honestly, after the absolute disgrace that was “Mama,” I am surprised the chump has a job at all. The true horror in this film is the job that Muschietti did, and I truly hope that the sequel may be the last movie that he has directed.

Overall: Despite having a well-developed and very decent cast of upcoming actors, “It” fails to capture the horror factor that was the main focus of the original story. It serves more as a coming-of-age story than an actual horror movie, and this fact alone spells doom for the movie that was crowned by many to be “the scariest movie in decades.” Muschietti has truly disappointed me, and I do hope that the future may be a bit better for the continually worsening horror movie industry.