Andy Muschietti’s two-part movie adaptation of Stephen King’s 1,000-page doorstop a string of well-crafted jump scares, and above all, Bill Skarsgård’s chilling portrayal of Pennywise made It a must-see horror movie. In fact, it became the genre’s highest-grossing entry of all time by far.
Although the first It movie, retroactively dubbed Chapter One, was much better-made than its sequel, which disappointed just about everyone, it wasn’t quite perfect. Despite the widespread acclaim the movie received, it wasn’t without some just criticism.
Right: Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise
The MVP of It is, without a doubt, a horror movie villain for the ages.
Although he took initial inspiration from Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker in The Dark Knight, Skarsgård did plenty to differentiate his own performance. He took the haunting reality of Ledger’s Joker and added an out-of-this-world supernatural element.
Wrong: Overreliance On Jump Scares
Like so many of today’s horror movies, It relies far too much on jump scares. Most of them are literal jump scares, too; every few minutes, Pennywise jumps out at one of the Losers’ Club.
Andy Muschietti manages to create a creepy atmosphere in each scene, but more often than not, that atmosphere only exists to set up another jump scare.
Right: Creepy Atmosphere
Although the creepy atmosphere in It often serves to establish a jump scare, that atmosphere is there nonetheless. When Ben follows a balloon into the basement of the library, the suspense is more than palpable.
Creating this kind of atmosphere requires a special tandem between the blocking, camerawork, and editing that’s tricky to pull off, so it’s quite an accomplishment.
Wrong: Borrowing From Other Movies
Andy Muschietti borrowed too much from previous movies to give It an identity of its own. Directors like Quentin Tarantino get away with stealing from earlier movies because movies like Stand by Me and Poltergeist as a crutch, simply to nod to the audience, so they hold the movie back.
Right: On-Screen Chemistry Shared By The Child Actors
Child actors can be trickier to work with than adult actors. With kids, it’s sometimes difficult to overlook the artifice of a performance. But the young performers in It are not only perfect for their individual characters, they all share impeccable chemistry.
From the romantic tension between Jaeden Lieberher as Bill and Sophia Lillis as Bev to the bickering back-and-forth between Finn Wolfhard as Richie and Jack Dylan Grazer as Eddie, the cast of It are as well-matched as that of The Goonies or Stand by Me.
Wrong: Inconsistent Tone
The tone of It is completely inconsistent. It flits between sinister all-out horror and some kind of comedy-horror hybrid, never quite deciding what it wants to be.
Bev's sexual abuse at the hands of her father and Richie’s scatological jokes have no business being in the same movie. What’s worse is that Andy Muschietti doesn’t put much of a buffer between the tonal shifts.
Right: Not Sanitizing The ‘80s Setting
While it’s been lumped in with ‘80s-based nostalgia trips like Stranger Things, Bumblebee, and Ready Player One as a symptom of the 2010s’ wave of nostalgia for the flashy, long-gone decade, It doesn’t sanitize the ‘80s.
The bullies are ten times more sadistic and violent than today’s bullies, while racism and sexism are rampant throughout Derry. It depicts the ‘80s, warts and all.
Wrong: Repetitive Scares
The script for It is pretty repetitive. While there are some inventive moments, like Pennywise’s appearance in the photo slideshow, a lot of the movie’s scares follow the same tired formula.
Pennywise pretty much has two tricks — revealing himself from behind red balloons and jumping out of hidden spaces — and the movie beats them both to death.
Right: Chung-hoon Chung’s Cinematography
From the gorgeous recreation of small-town America in the ‘80s to the dimly lit spooky set pieces, It is beautifully shot by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung.
Presumably, Chung was unavailable to shoot the sequel, because Checco Varese’s cinematography in Chapter Two pales in comparison to the original.
Wrong: Cheesy Ending
After sending the Losers’ Club to hell and back in some of the most terrifying scenes put on film in recent memory, Andy Muschietti lets them off the hook with an agonizingly cheesy ending. They all hold hands and promise to reunite as adults as a setup for the sequel, then Bill and Bev share a little romantic moment.
This would be an appropriate ending for a teen drama where the main conflict was whether or not a pair of high schoolers would go to the same college, but not for a horror movie where that conflict is the brutal killing of a little brother.
