By: Kimberly Trice
The 2017 film “It” takes place in 1988 Derry, Maine. The film follows the “Loser Club”, a group of friends standing up against their town bullies and a killer clown. Pennywise, the dancing clown lures children and murders them. As more and more kids go missing the Loser Club decides it is time for the chaos to end. As a remake, I didn’t know what to expect from this film. Tim Curry made Pennywise an icon and fans including myself didn’t know how Bill Skarsgård would portray the character. But what Bill Skarsgård does with the role works well precisely because he doesn’t’t appear to be laboring so hard to frighten us. He doesn’t’t vamp it up. He’s coy—he toys with these kids—making his sudden bursts of insane clown hostility that much more shocking. There were many differences from the novel and the mini-series. The biggest change is what has been done to the period, which has jumped forward three decades. Instead of beginning with Georgie’s disappearance in 1960, we’re in the summer of 1988, which is roughly when the present-day, all-adults-now second half of King’s story originally took place. There are rumors that for the next chapter of the film will take place in present day for when the children return as adults which will make the audience feel uneasy that Pennywise will be tormenting again “today”. Infamously, Tim Curry’s take on the character in the 1990 TV miniseries version was so over-the-top, it was laughable—not that you’re looking for understatement in your homicidal clowns. This film was well casted because the “Loser Club” makes the movie what it is. Even though there was a killer clown on the loose, the group would joke around and lighten the mood. I would rate this film 4 out of 5 stars because it was well made but could have been more intertwined with the novel.
