‘Blu-ray or Bust’
IT (2017, R, 135 minutes, WARNER BROTHERS/KATZSMITH PRODUCTIONS)
Any Stephen King fan will tell you that, while the author has written
several books that they consider masterpieces, one stands above them all as the
ultimate in his canon of epic terror: the 1986 tome “It”.
It is a book I have read multiple times; I will go through a phase every
two years or so in which I feel the need to re-read every King novel that I
love. We’re talking about a man that has
published over fifty novels, and hundreds of short stories, so this “task”
keeps me busy for a while. Occasionally,
I’ll skip a few; there are a few ardent King fans who will insist on reading
his works in a certain order to ensure one has grasped the full scope of how
the majority of the books tie in to each other.
We all know I’m a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic, but my
devotion to The Master of Terror doesn’t delve that deep. (Okay, it goes pretty deep, but everyone has
their own methods, right?)
The biggest problem with bringing King books to the big screen—and there
have been a literal smorgasbord of attempts—is that interpreting his tales of
horror and the macabre visually can be a tad difficult. The director that did it best may be Frank
Darabont, who gifted the world with THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, THE GREEN MILE,
and 2007’s moody and terrifying THE MIST.
Now we have Andy Muschietti (MAMA) to add to the list. Working with a screenplay hashed out by three
writers, he offers up a visual representation that not only captures the
terrors, dreads, and triumphs of childhood that King so masterfully captured in
his epic novel, but raises the bar for anyone else that thinks they can bring
his works to life.
For those not familiar with the tale, a group of kids in the town of Derry,
Maine, take it upon themselves to rid the town of an evil which has plagued it
for generations. Children are
disappearing, and it is up to this mixed bunch of adolescents to save the other
youths of the small town from the clutches of this evil—most notably
represented by a maleficent doppelganger named Pennywise the Dancing
Clown. The entire cast of kids is great,
but most effective are “Stranger Things” alum Finn Wolfhard as wise-cracking
Richie Tozier, and Sophia Lillis as Beverly Marsh. As the comedic relief and the conscience of
the story, this would be an entirely different film if those roles had gone to
other actors. Also notable is the
fast-talking Jack Dylan Grazer as the “frail” Eddie Kaspbrak, whose delivery
and acting ability solidifies the group in a way the character in the actual
book never did. This is one of the
nuances of this interpretation of the source material that marks this film as a
marvelously executed compliment to the book.
There are some differences, of course; the film is set in the eighties,
whereas the first part of the book takes place in the fifties. The childhood scares have changed a bit, as
well—with the changing of times, so changes the fears of generations. But the themes (first love, looming
adulthood, bullies, and the unbreakable bond of young friendship) remain the
same. Smart and creative moves on the
parts of the screenwriters, and vivid visualizations by Muschietti, make this
an intelligent and affective tale. There
are new scares here, and some of them are downright chilling.
And then there is Bill Skarsgård (“Hemlock Grove”) as Pennywise. When I
first saw this film, I was not totally sold on his performance—and I totally
blame myself for that. I went in
swearing to not compare what I was about to see by what I had read so many
times before, and I was successful in that endeavor. But my first thoughts upon seeing him in the
makeup? “He’s no Tim Curry.” Yep, fell right into the trap I was so
consciously trying to avoid. While the
first attempt to capture the book was a decent attempt that fell well short,
there was one standout in the TV miniseries from 1990, and that was Curry as
the evil shapeshifter. And while Skarsgård
may have felt he had big shoes to fill (apparently that’s what I was thinking,
deep down), his is, like the film itself, a different interpretation of the
source material. And he excels at
it. He is just as good in the role as
Curry was, and at times, even creepier.
The special features help flesh out just how much he physically
encapsulated the character; there is no CGI added to what Skarsgård looks like on screen; from the drooping lower lip to the crazy
eyes, he makes Pennywise his own. The special features include interviews with
the child actors, and the Master himself, Stephen King, talking about his epic
masterpiece and this latest Hollywood attempt to capture the fears and terrors
he so effectively puts on paper.
This is a two-part film; the second half will deal with the kids all grown
up and having to battle Pennywise once again.
Which is kind of how the book goes.
The movie is slated to be released next year, and Muschietti will helm
the second “chapter”. For once, I find
myself looking forward to the second film in a horror series. And I promise not to read the book again
until after I see the next one…
Film Grade: A
Special Features: A
Blu-ray Necessary: Abso-freakin’-lutely
-- T.S. Kummelman
No comments:
Post a Comment