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All 19 Nicolas Cage Movies From The 1990s, Ranked

Eden review: i loved to hate ana de armas in ron howard's completely unhinged thriller [tiff], lucasfilm sued over rogue one's use of peter cushing as grand moff tarkin, as a coming of age parable, it succeeds at being both horrifying and emotionally-resonant, even while adapting only half of king's original story..

Adapted from the best-selling Stephen King novel of the same name (first published in 1986), the movie version of  IT spent a number of years in development under the watchful eye of filmmaker Cary Fukunaga ( Beasts of No Nation ) before ultimately making it to the big screen with Andy Muschietti (the director of  Mama ) at the helm. The change in directors was no doubt of concern to fans of both King's source material and the horror/thriller author's body of work in general, given that movie/TV adaptations of King's literature have (to put it simply) a spotty record, at best. Despite its drawn out pre-production process and change in creative personnel, IT  is one of the better cinematic interpretations of King's writing and certainly the best produced in modern times. As a coming of age parable, IT succeeds at being both horrifying and emotionally-resonant, even while adapting only half of King's original story.

On a rainy September day in the city of Derry, Maine, circa 1988, young Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) mysteriously goes missing after he sets off playing with a paper boat that his older brother, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), made for him. Several months later, at the start of the summer of 1989 (and the end of the school year), Bill sets out with his friends - who together form a group known as The Losers' Club - to try and find his younger sibling at long last, despite his parents having already decided that Georgie is dead and gone.

Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise in Stephen King's IT

However, in the process of searching for Georgie, The Losers' Club - along with new recruits in the forms of the socially-stigmatized Beverly (Sophia Lillis), home-schooled Mike (Chosen Jacob) and new kid Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) - discover the terrifying truth about Derry: that it is the home of a seemingly immortal creature that can shape-shift and feeds on children by taking on the form of one Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). When the Losers come to realize that Pennywise gains strength by feeding on their own fears, it falls to the young outsiders to band together and battle their demons from both within and from the outside world, if they are to stay alive.

In terms of narrative, IT  is more of a troubling and creepy fantasy allegory along the lines of Muschietti's directorial debut Mama than a "scary" piece of filmmaking. In that respect, though, the movie is faithful in spirit to King's source material, despite making some significant changes to the text - in particular, updating the time period in which the members of the Losers' Club are preteens from the 1950s to the 1980s. Muschietti isn't operating on quite the same level yet as the best modern mainstream horror directors (see James Wan, David F. Sandberg) when it comes to delivering scares through tension-fueled sequencing and/or building up to the spooky moments (e.g. jump scares). However, because it offers both more overtly disturbing imagery and narrative substance than many other studio horror films nowadays (even the R-Rated ones), IT  manages to be more "horrifying" than its peers, despite being less "scary."

IT Losers Club

The IT script, which is credited to Fukunaga and his writing partner Chase Palmer, as well as Gary Dauberman ( Annabelle: Creation ), explores the same themes of childhood grief and trauma as King's original novel does, as well as the timely-as-ever idea that evil must be actively confronted through mutual cooperation and trust, lest it be allowed to flourish. Muschietti's film adaptation does justice by these elements from King's novel, thanks in no small part to the charismatic and compelling young actors who bring The Losers' Club's various personalities to life. Between determined Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), kindly Beverly (Sophia Lillis), wise-guy Ritchie ( Stranger Things ' Finn Wolfhard), intellectual Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), courageous Mike (Chosen Jacobs), practical Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) and hypochondriac Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), the Losers bring both heart and humor to the proceedings here, making it easy to cheer for them as they battle terrors of both the fantastical and everyday variety during their adventure.

While IT  explores the pain and suffering of The Losers' Club with enough depth (some, like Bill and Beverly, more than others) to make their experiences and the characters feel grounded, it has less success at making both the adults that populate Derry and borderline-psychotic local bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) feel equally three-dimensional. Because  IT  only hints at the effect that its namesake has had on the town of Derry and the people who have long resided there (including, Beverly's own abusive father), the human villains in the film come off as being kitschy - as though they've been lifted straight from an actual 1980s coming of age movie, themselves. Pennywise's backstory and the mythology behind the creature isn't revealed in full here either (more on that later), but Bill Skarsgård nevertheless succeeds in leaving his mark on the role by putting a radically different (read: more chilling and inhuman) spin on the monster than Tim Curry did with his memorable performance as "The Dancing Clown" in the 1990s IT TV miniseries. However, whereas Curry succeeded in being a scene-stealer in the '90s small screen version of IT , the opposite is true for the movie, e.g. Skarsgård's Pennywise is overshadowed by the Losers' Club and their personal struggles.

IT - Neibolt Street house

Both Skarsgård's Pennywise and the setting of IT (2017) are, naturally, more polished in their presentation and design compared to their counterparts in the '90s TV adaptation. Thanks to costume designer Janie Bryant ( Mad Men ) and production designer Claude Paré ( The Age of Adaline ), the 1980s backdrop of IT is convincing and manages to include nods to the pop culture of the time in a more organic fashion that, arguably, something such as  Stranger Things does. Cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung ( Stoker ) likewise uses strikingly dark colors and shadows to create slick horror movie scenery (including, the sewers beneath Derry and the infamous Neibolt Street house) that looks far better and bigger than the film's modest budget might suggest. That being said, the movie admittedly has mixed success when it comes to using CGI to realize Pennywise's fantastical characteristics and the creations that he conjures from the Losers' imagination. Like Mama , IT is most effective when it applies its digital effects with a more subtle touch.

It's no secret that IT only adapts half of King's original novel for the big screen (as was mentioned earlier) - and though the film by and large works as a standalone narrative, it noticeably leaves a few smaller story threads dangling and questions unanswered, for IT: Chapter Two (as the sequel presumably will be titled) to pick up. The decision to split up King's massive source material into two separate parts was a smart call, since it allows Muschietti to deliver a solid horror filmgoing experience here - without having to sacrifice much of the substance of King's book in the process - along with the promise of a second installment in the IT  film saga that should only enrich its predecessor (and vice versa). Sine the film mostly lives up to the current expectations that are surrounding it, there's fair reason to think that IT: Chapter Two , with Muschietti back at the helm, will float equally well.

IT  is now playing in U.S. theaters nationwide. It is 135 minutes long and is Rated R for violence/horror, bloody images, and for language.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

IT Movie 2017 Poster

It Chapter One is a supernatural horror film based on the book by Stephen King where several children, including the younger brother of one of the film's protagonists, have gone missing. A group of kids called "The Loser's Club" decide to investigate the cause and hopefully save the others. However, they realize they may be in over their head when they discover their foe is an evil clown known as Pennywise, a being that preys on fear and has been the rumored cause of murders in the town of Derry for centuries. 

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The Critical Movie Critics

Movie Review: IT (2017)

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  • --> September 8, 2017

It can be a tricky thing to review horror films. The red-headed stepchild of the movie business, horror is an incredibly subjective genre for fans. Despite repeatedly being let down by film after film, we return to the theater with each new offering, hoping for a gem — a new classic. Remakes are especially daunting undertakings, as the new version is up against fiercely loyal fans who judge a new film by its poster, well before the first images even grace the screen. Add to these challenges book adaptations with already established film versions and you’re faced with an unscalable feat.

In the case of IT , there are some seriously huge clown shoes to fill — how do you successfully adapt a revered classic of horror literature written by the king himself (Stephen King, that is)? How do you remake an existing adaptation, featuring one of the most iconic horror characters with an unmatchable performance by the legendary Tim Curry?

Ask director Andy Muschietti. Ask screenwriters Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman. Ask Bill Skarsgård. They’ve done it, and they’ve done it admirably.

In October of 1988, young Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher, “ Midnight Special ”), sick in bed, builds a paper boat for his little brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) to sail on the rainy streets of Derry, Maine. The love the two brothers share is immediately apparent; Georgie looks up to Bill, and Bill is clearly his hero. When Bill warns Georgie to be careful outside, you know that Georgie would never think of doing otherwise; however, in the subsequent well-known (and well-publicized) scene, Georgie’s boat gets away from him and slips down into the sewer where it’s retrieved by Pennywise the Clown. After a tense and terrifying encounter, Georgie disappears, adding to the growing list of missing children in their small town.

The following June, Bill and his friends escape the doldrums of school into the freedom of summer. While his friends are excited about dumping their leftover folders and notebooks into the trash, Bill remains preoccupied with finding his little brother, studying sewer blueprints and maps in his garage. Meanwhile, his friends are haunted by different fears: Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer, “Scales: Mermaids Are Real”) is tormented by a skeletal leper that chases him from a dilapidated neighborhood house; a twisted ghostly woman leers at Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff, “ Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ”) from a painting in his father’s office; Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis, “37”) hears whispering children calling her for help from the drain in her bathroom sink; Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs, “Cops and Robbers”) barely escapes the reaching ghostly hands from the site of a historical fire; and Ben Hanscom’s (Jeremy Ray Taylor, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip”) studies are interrupted by something treacherous in the storage room of the local library . . . not to mention the very real-life threats they all face from bullies Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton, “ Captain Fantastic ”), Belch Huggins (Jake Sim, “Raising Expectations” TV series), Victor Criss (Logan Thompson), and Patrick Hockstetter (Owen Teague, “Echoes of War ”). The Derry kids — dubbed the Losers’ Club by Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard, “Stranger Things” TV series) — realize that there is a malicious evil in their small town, and that the adults will be of no help to them (in fact, they often just don’t see things happen . . . literally and figuratively). United in their fear of the terrifying clown they see around every corner, they decide their only defense is to venture after Pennywise together, hoping they can prevent any more children from going missing.

Stephen King’s classic New York Times bestseller IT is a doorstop of a book that stretches past 1000 pages, delving into brilliant characterizations, dreadful town histories, and bone-chilling encounters with an ancient evil that returns every 27 years. In 1990, Tommy Lee Wallace brought his version to the small screen in a four-hour miniseries that became the source point for many people with coulrophobia (fear of clowns). Andy Muschietti’s version of IT (this film being Chapter One) keeps the focus to the children of Derry, and the cast is pitch-perfect in their believability. One will be immediately charmed by each of the Losers’ Club members, and will feel strong nostalgic pangs for a simpler time of bike-riding and summer swimming trips. Their loyalty and love for each other is palpable, and the audience shares their faith in each other in their fight against the clown, masterfully recreated by Bill Skarsgård (“ Anna Karenina ”).

As incredible as Tim Curry was in 1990, Skarsgård embodies pure malevolence as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and his antics are guaranteed to create a new generation of clown phobics. While the CGI is a tad heavy-handed here and there, the overall effect of this new Pennywise is extremely unsettling and viewers will be just as entranced by his eyes as any of the characters in the film. Pennywise is truly fascinating to watch, and astonishingly, you’ll find yourself hoping for more terrifying doses of Skarsgård’s performance.

As a huge Stephen King fan myself, I’ve been anxiously anticipating the release of this film, as I’m frequently disappointed by lackluster and rushed adaptations of his work (case in point, this summer’s “ The Dark Tower ”); however, I was marvelously satisfied with Muschietti’s version of one of my favorite novels. While there are definitely small changes made that I’m not crazy about (far too little of Mike Hanlon, guys . . .) and one major change in particular near the end that I’m rather intrigued by (if you already know the novel, you’ll know what I mean when you [don’t] see it), IT has delivered an outstandingly well-written nostalgia trip into our past summers and past nightmares.

The voices of the children whisper that they “. . . all float down here” and warn that “You’ll float, too.” They’re not wrong. You’ll float, all right; you’ll float out of the theater with grim satisfaction, anxious for Chapter Two.

Tagged: children , clown , evil , murder , novel adaptation , remake

The Critical Movie Critics

School teacher by day. Horror aficionado by night.

Movie Review: Little Fish (2020) Movie Review: The Unholy (2021) Movie Review: The Mark of the Bell Witch (2020) Movie Review: Chop Chop (2020) Movie Review: Coven of Evil (2020) Movie Review: Mara (2018) Movie Review: The First Purge (2018)

'Movie Review: IT (2017)' have 8 comments

The Critical Movie Critics

September 8, 2017 @ 9:10 pm DevlonOchre

Totally psyched to see my favorite King story get a proper treatment for screen!

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The Critical Movie Critics

September 8, 2017 @ 9:56 pm wassupial

I definitely enjoyed it but it is not as dark and scary as I was hoping it’d be. Only the library scene got me to jump.

The Critical Movie Critics

September 8, 2017 @ 11:21 pm GoodSamaritan

Never read the book nor have I seen the mini-series so I went in knowing nothing other than a evil clown was responsible for killing some kids. I guess because of this I was a bit letdown because I was expecting Pennywise to be more like Freddy Krueger and the movie more like A Nightmare on Elm Street. Still it’s not a bad movie just not what I was prepared for.

The Critical Movie Critics

September 9, 2017 @ 12:17 am Pete

IT didn’t do anything for me.

The Critical Movie Critics

September 9, 2017 @ 10:30 am cheeryhead

“one major change in particular near the end that I’m rather intrigued by (if you already know the novel, you’ll know what I mean when you [don’t] see it)”

So the sex scene is omitted? I don’t think it ever belonged in the book anyway and I think King regretted writing it in.

The Critical Movie Critics

September 9, 2017 @ 12:02 pm Jackson War

I hear it described as The Goonies on horror steroids and uppers!

The Critical Movie Critics

September 9, 2017 @ 3:38 pm Madelyn

I loved it. It didn’t scare me to where I wanted to hide my eyes but it scared me that I had a constant pit in my stomach. Great job by all the kid actors and Bill Skarsgard, they were very convincing. I can only hope Chapter 2 is done as good.

The Critical Movie Critics

September 10, 2017 @ 6:01 am DanMaz

First chance I got I’d nope the hell outta that town!

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Review: ‘It’ Brings Back Stephen King’s Killer Clown

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By A.O. Scott

  • Sept. 6, 2017

Late in the summer of 1989, the marquee of the downtown movie theater in Derry, Me., advertises “A Nightmare on Elm Street 5.” This is an accurate period detail, and also a declaration of kinship, if not outright homage. “It,” Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of the novel by Stephen King, belongs in the same tradition of small-town terror as Wes Craven’s “Nightmare” franchise, though the question of influence has a certain chicken-and-egg quality. Pennywise the clown, the designated predator in “It,” (played by Bill Skarsgard) is, like Freddy Krueger, an avatar of deep childhood fears. And like Freddy, he’s also the literal, lethal manifestation of the evil of the world. As such, he has the potential to spawn endless sequels. He’ll be back.

Or rather, he is back. Mr. Muschietti’s “It,” written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga and Gary Dauberman, represents a second trip to this particular well. Mr. King’s novel, published in 1986, was adapted for network television in 1990. The new movie, a skillful blend of nostalgic sentiment and hair-raising effects, with the visual punch of big-screen digital hocus-pocus and the liberties of the R rating, still has the soothing charm of familiarity. The gang of misfit ’80s kids who face down the clown and the deeper horror he represents evoke both the middle school posse of the recent TV series “Stranger Things” (there’s some overlap in the cast), but also the intrepid brotherhood from “Stand by Me,” surely one of the all-time top five Stephen King movie adaptations.

We can argue about the others — I’m happy to make a case for John Carpenter’s underrated “Christine” — but this “It” doesn’t quite ascend to their level. Nonetheless, the filmmakers honor both the pastoral and the infernal dimensions of Mr. King’s distinctive literary vision. Derry, with its redbrick storefronts and its quirks and kinks, seems like a genuinely nice place to live in spite of the fact that its citizens, children in particular, turn up missing or maimed at an alarming rate.

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The supernatural nastiness embodied by Pennywise is abetted and to some extent camouflaged by the ordinary human awfulness that also afflicts Derry. In addition to menacing clowns, phantasmatic lepers and spooky paintings come to life, the town is home to an ugly assortment of bullies (the worst one played by Nicholas Hamilton), gossips and abusive parents.

Against these forces — the banal and the diabolical alike — “It” assembles a squad of early and preadolescent ghostbusters as varied as an infantry platoon in a World War II combat picture. The leader is Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), a melancholy, thoughtful boy whose little brother, Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott), has been spirited down a storm sewer by Pennywise. Bill’s comrades — they call themselves the Losers’ Club — include a nerdy chatterbox (Finn Wolfhard) and a germ-phobic mama’s boy (Jack Dylan Grazer), plus a Jewish kid (Wyatt Oleff), a black kid (Chosen Jacobs) and a new kid (Jeremy Ray Taylor). Also a girl, Bev (Sophia Lillis), who becomes part of a sweet, alliterative romantic triangle involving Bill and the new kid, whose name is Ben.

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It: Chapter Two

Where to watch.

Rent It: Chapter Two on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

What to Know

It: Chapter Two proves bigger doesn't always mean scarier for horror sequels, but a fine cast and faithful approach to the source material keep this follow-up afloat.

Critics Reviews

Audience reviews, cast & crew.

Andy Muschietti

Jessica Chastain

Beverly Marsh

James McAvoy

Bill Denbrough

Richie Tozier

Isaiah Mustafa

Mike Hanlon

Ben Hanscom

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‘IT’ Review: The Losers Are the Winners Here

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6 Things You Need To Know About That Long-Delayed 'Salem's Lot' Movie

First 'salem's lot' trailer dares you to explore a terrifying new stephen king adaptation, here's what mike flanagan does and doesn't change about stephen king's 'the life of chuck'.

In its broad strokes, IT follows the template of a monster movie—there’s a monster who is colorful and interesting, and there are victims who are terrorized by the monster. Traditionally, movies get us rooting for the monster and the victims are made into cannon fodder so they can be disposed of in a grotesque variety of ways. Ultimately, while the victims may be the protagonists, the filmmaker seems to have more empathy for the monster who wreaks havoc. However, Andy Muschietti ’s partial adaptation of Stephen King ’s novel (it adapts the first half of the story) firmly puts its empathy on the part of its young protagonists with “IT” as a terrifying monster, but one who repulses rather than entices. Rather than give into its audience’s bloodlust, IT is far more concerned with the trauma, both real and imagined, that its heroes will have to face in order to defeat a creature who feeds on fear. Vibrant, confident, and overflowing with a surprising amount of emotion, IT is almost everything you could want from a modern horror film.

In Derry, Maine in 1989, people are going missing. One of the latest to disappear is Georgie Denbrough ( Jackson Robert Scott ), the younger brother of Bill Denbrough ( Jaeden Lieberher ). Although Georgie has been missing for almost a year, Bill thinks that his brother’s disappearance has something to do with the sewer system. Along with dealing the loss of his brother, Bill and his friends Richie ( Finn Wolfhard ), Eddie ( Jack Dylan Grazer ), and Stan ( Wyatt Oleff ) also have to fend off bullies, who become the least of their problems when a supernatural entity appearing as a clown and calling itself Pennywise ( Bill Skarsgård ) begins popping up as their deepest fears. Forging a friendship with fellow outcasts Ben ( Jeremy Ray Taylor ), Beverly ( Sophia Lillis ), and Mike ( Chosen Jacobs ), the group, calling themselves “The Losers Club”, sets out to defeat “It” and stop the disappearances.

it-movie-losers-club

Thankfully, IT is in no rush to get there. While a streamlined version of the movie could have quickly assembled the Losers and invested more time in Pennywise, Muschietti’s movie is far more concerned with defining its young characters. Although some characters get more definition than others (Stan is basically “The Jewish kid who is afraid of a painting”), we ultimately care about them as a group and as individuals. We don’t like them simply because they’re underdogs or outcasts; we like them because of their friendship, chemistry, and personalities. They feel like real friends who are bonded not just because they’re fighting It, but because there’s actual affinity between them.

Additionally, Muschietti understands that his horror film can’t be all scares all the time. He clearly relishes the “scary” scenes, but there’s just as much effort put into the humor and emotions. The movie is a tricky balancing act because it has to recognize that there are imagined fears young people have like Richie’s fear of clowns or Stan’s fear of a painting, but there’s also legitimate trauma like Bill losing his brother or Beverly fending off her sexually abusive father. Muschietti doesn’t try to paint all fears as equal, and instead knows when something should be delightfully spooky like Richie wandering into a room full of clown dolls, and when something should make our skin crawl like the advances from Beverly’s father. IT has to juggle a lot of tones, and yet it all works together seamlessly.

it-movie-image-pennywise-bill-skarsgard

Some may level the complaint that IT isn’t particularly “scary”, and I suppose I can see their point, although I’m a giant wuss, so I was covering my ears for half the film to drown out jump scares. But I suppose why the film may not terrify is that it’s not particularly vicious. Muschietti excels at creepy imagery and setting up Pennywise’s attacks, but he’s not terribly concerned with making this It’s story. The film almost seems afraid to really let Skarsgard shine with Pennywise because he might overshadow the Losers. There are a few scenes where he really gets to let loose, but he’s stuck in a pattern—It is the predator, and the kids are his prey. The creature is only motivated by hunger and a need to feed on fear. That’s not particularly interesting, and while you can get some frightening images out of his creations, the heart of the movie needs to be the characters who can grow and change, the Losers.

If you measure the success of a horror film simply by how much it can scare you, then it really just comes down to, ironically, what you’re afraid of. I have a friend who refuses to see The Blair Witch Project because she knows that kind of movie is her trigger. I know other people who think that film couldn’t be less frightening. Rather than simply try to create a movie that scares everybody, Muschietti confidently emphasizes craft and focus of IT , a film that wants to terrify its audience but never abuse them. There are characters we want to root for, and Muschietti bundles it an alluring packaging.

it-movie-pennywise-losers

IT is a gorgeous movie with cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung making Derry look both mundane and otherworldly. Working with Muschietti, the two are able to make creepy moments but never overplay their hands. There’s never a scene in IT that wants you to pause and appreciate how creepy it is; instead, those scenes serve to build tension and illuminate what the characters fear. A scene where Bill follows the specter of Georgie may not be the scariest thing ever, but the pacing, visuals, and score are all exquisite.

But what really makes IT come alive more than anything is its heart. It would be a mistake to say that the horror genre is heartless, but it’s one that can be unforgiving. There’s an inherent brutality that, at its best, serves to illuminate rather than titillate. But IT stands apart because while it may not be the scariest movie of the year or perhaps even the adaptation that King’s fans wanted, it shows its ambition by where it chooses to show its attention. Pennywise may know what scares you, but the power belongs to the Losers.

it-pennywise-teaser-poster

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Film Review: ‘It: Chapter Two’

The clown is back, and the kids have grown up in part two of Stephen King's monster novel, which inspires an overlong, but suitably scary sequel.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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How many pages does it take for seven kids to defeat a killer clown? And how many hours does that translate to when adapting the story to screen? For fans of Stephen King, the answer always seems to be “never enough.” The pop pulp shiver-giver inspires in readers a kind of ravenous insatiability that has thwarted his false-alarm retirement and felled more trees than the fires blazing in the Amazon rainforest. That same appetite helped feed the excitement for director Andy Muschietti ’s “It” — a monster hit two years ago, earning more than $700 million — and ought to bring audiences back in even greater numbers for “ It: Chapter Two ,” an elaborate fun-house horror movie that springs pop-up gimmicks and boogie-boogie scares steadily enough to excuse its been-there story and self-important 169-minute running time.

From the “Lord of the Rings” saga to the “Avengers” sequels, length confers a kind of false legitimacy on middlebrow entertainment, no matter the medium. When first published in 1986, “It” was by far the longest-winded of King’s prolix books (outgassing “The Stand” by more than 200 pages), and its sheer heft gave the semblance of significance among the prolific author’s oeuvre, despite the doorstop’s relatively silly plot. Quality was almost irrelevant to the discussion. Teenagers who couldn’t be bothered to read Joseph Conrad’s slender “Heart of Darkness” in English class boasted about having conquered “It” on their own, inevitably touting it as King’s freakiest novel.

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And then they moved on. The fear faded. They forgot. Now, dear reader, it’s time to reunite and confront the specter of those things that frightened us most. At least, that’s the added-value appeal for King devotees, whose experience conceivably mirrors that of his characters: seven adolescent outcasts who dubbed themselves the Losers Club and thought they had vanquished Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), the supernatural child-killer with the oblong skull, splayed eyes and shark-like grin.

Twenty-seven years after they sent Pennywise back to whatever parallel dimension “It” came from, these unlikely heroes are called upon to make good on the blood oath they took as teens — a device that allows the movie to re-cast its adolescent ensemble as better-known movie stars. Of the group, only Mike (Chosen Jacobs before, now played by Isaiah Mustafa as an adult) has stuck around in Derry, Maine, working at the library, where he can freely obsess about the monster’s origins and how to defeat the creature should It ever return.

Now It has, like some kind of malevolent cicada, with no explanation of how It spent the interval. Instead — and more interestingly — Muschietti catches up with the original protagonists, cycling through where each of them is when they receive Mike’s urgent call. Richie (Bill Hader) has become a stand-up comic. Ever nervous, Eddie (James Ransone) is a natural for a career in risk assessment. A successful novelist, Bill ( James McAvoy , a curious choice) has found work in Hollywood. No longer the tomboy, Beverly ( Jessica Chastain ) married a rich creep, who knocks her around. And Ben (Jay Ryan) has hunked up to become the gang’s unofficial swan, leaving no trace of the misfit duckling (Jeremy Ray Taylor) we knew before.

Credit the hair and wardrobe team for an uncanny job matching the kids’ earlier look, good for a few bonus laughs as the adult stars channel their younger counterparts’ more colorful idiosyncrasies (Ransone is a ringer for Jack Dylan Grazer’s already spazzy antics, Hader amplifies Finn Wolfhard’s goggle-eyed awkwardness). The teenagers get a fair amount of screen time here, too, dragging out the second act with flashbacks as each recalls — and is forced to reckon with — those personal It-related encounters they banished from their memories when they moved away. Young Bill (Jaeden Martell) still blames himself for his brother’s death, Beverly (Sophia Lillis) realizes where her attraction to abusive men comes from, and so on.

As often happens with small-town escapees, their lives have changed far more than the place they left behind — although the movie omits some key details on how Derry has fared in their absence: Have no other children died during that time? Were no murders committed? Have the sewers smelled only of roses? Depriving us of answers, director Muschietti skips the intervening decades, opening “Chapter Two” with a horrific gay-bashing scene — a hate crime that’s true to the book and to Maine history (see the 1984 murder of Charlie Howard) but confusing in this context. Was it the sheer evil of this attack that brought Pennywise back? Did the clown somehow cause the incident (in which queer auteur Xavier Dolan plays the victim)? Or did It merely show up to deliver the finishing blow?

It’s a hard scene to stomach in a film that doesn’t feature all that many killings — certainly fewer than one would expect, and none as unnervingly realistic as the one depicted here. What happens to the perpetrators of this awful event? Clearly the news — paired with a red balloon and the words “Come Home” scrawled in blood under the bridge — was enough to convince Mike that Pennywise was back. But why, after upsetting us so, would the film let these homophobes go, unpunished and ignored for the rest of the film?

Muschietti has a strange narrative challenge to overcome here: On one hand, he’s obliged to compress all the plot that King could indulge in more than 1,100 pages (which explains why other killings and the local police’s dead-end investigations don’t make the cut), while on the other, he’s motivated to delay the final confrontation between Pennywise and the reunited Losers Club for as long as possible.

Nearly all the scares that follow are hallucinatory in nature, most of them sight gags made possible by CGI: Tiny digital monsters burst out of fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant; a Paul Bunyan statue lumbers cartoonishly after Richie with his giant ax; virtual spider legs sprout from an old friend’s decapitated head, skittering around like something out of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (a lot of the movie’s Lovecraft-ian moments owe a debt to that film, which achieved its trippy creature transformations practically). Spending too much time in flashbacks is risky, despite the creative “A Nightmare on Elm Street”-style surrealism, since audiences already know these characters don’t die as kids.

But King has saddled the director with an even bigger problem: At a certain point, the novel goes off the rails, veering beyond the merely supernatural into full-blown metaphysical mumbo-jumbo (enter King’s cosmic space turtle, the Matubin, and other “macroverse” oddities). The movie has almost no choice but to rethink the final act, anticipating the overhaul by way of a running joke. As the group’s resident novelist-screenwriter, Bill is teased constantly for not being able to write a satisfying ending. King has often suffered the same criticism. Can this movie fix the fact the book ends badly?

Yes, it can. “It: Chapter Two” is much longer than it needs to be, but it builds to something significant — and a lot of that filler feels justifiable in terms of how audiences’ consumption patterns are changing. Whereas the three-hour 1990 miniseries version was split across two nights, viewers now binge an entire season of “Stranger Things” — a shameless “It” knockoff that improves on King’s novel — in a single weekend. In retrospect, it’s easy to see that the 2017 film (already long at 135 minutes) was just a glorified trailer for this movie. Still, Muschietti could have used “It” to launch a franchise or an open-ended TV series, but instead, he recognizes the value in closure.

In a way, closure is what “It” is all about: You start something as kids, and then life happens. You lose interest, or confidence, or maybe just your nerve. Such evasion is a kind of fear, and one that King confronted head-on with this novel. It’s as if he’s daring you to come back and see how much worse It can get. And Muschietti obliges, embellishing the childish phobias we thought we’d outgrown en route to defeating that creepy, fearmongering clown once and for all.

Reviewed at Regency Village Theatre, Los Angeles, Aug. 26, 2019. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 169 MIN.

  • Production: A Warner Bros. release of a New Line Cinema presentation of a Double Dream, Vertigo Entertainment, Rideback production. Producers: Barbara Muschietti, Dan Lin, Roy Lee. Executive producers: Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Gary Dauberman, Marty Ewing, Seth Grahame-Smith, David Katzenberg.
  • Crew: Director: Andy Muschietti. Screenplay: Gary Dauberman, based on the novel “It” by Stephen King. Camera (color): Checco Varese. Editor: Jason Ballantine. Music: Benjamin Wallfisch.
  • With: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean , Jaeden Martell, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Finn Wolfhard, Sophia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Bill Skarsgård.

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If you look at the title of “It Follows,” an unsettling, and deservedly celebrated new horror film, and can’t tell what the movie is about, then the movie is already working. “It Follows,” the second feature by writer/director David Robert Mitchell (“The Myth of the American Sleepover”), works as well as it does because its creators keep viewers at arm’s length. It’s a ghost story, though dead people don’t necessarily haunt its suburban protagonists. And it’s about teenagers who have sex, though it’s neither a simple celebration nor condemnation of under-age necking. Instead, “It Follows” both prolongs and heightens the potency of high school-age fears until they appear to be ancient existential terrors. In that sense, “It Follows” is not really about sex, but an unbearable, unsinkable mood that descends when you come of age, and never completely dissipates, not even after climactic sexual, or other violent acts. 

Since “It Follows” concerns the never-ending state of hormonal crisis we call “adolescence,” the film is about illogical actions that have long-lasting consequences. Jay ( Maika Monroe ), a quintessentially sullen teen, learns this soon after she has sex with, and is summarily abducted by Hugh ( Jake Weary ). After he chloroforms and ties up Jay, Hugh deliberately, but impatiently tells her everything he knows: Jay is the latest victim of a sexually-transmitted haunting. She must pass this burden on to another person by having more sex. If she doesn’t, she will be relentlessly pursued by someone she knows…or maybe it will be a stranger…possibly living and/or dead. Whoever follows Jay—it varies from encounter to encounter—cannot be seen by anyone else, but can definitely hurt her. Jay passes this knowledge on to worried friends, like stymied love interest Paul (Keir Gilchrist). And they consequently try to help Jay banish whatever it is that’s after her.

Don’t panic: “It Follows” is not nearly as obtuse as it sounds. If anything, it’s a little frustrating in its limited view of kids that are always concerned with, but never really thinking about sex. Jay and her friends take for granted the fact that they’re living in a constant state of excitement. That’s a given, so Mitchell doesn’t exoticize, or exaggerate that aspect of their characters. He does, however, refuse to explain what Jay feels when she’s pursued by various pale, zombie-like followers. Jay’s not really introspective, so she only cursorily talks about her naive pre-sexual expectations. All we know is that she expects sex to be momentous and/or freeing, as she airily says to herself after she and Hugh fool around. Instead, it’s a momentary respite that’s inevitably followed by a series of confrontations with people she may or may not know (aka adulthood).

The horror at the heart of “It Follows” isn’t a singular threat, but the vague knowledge that nothing lasts forever. Jay and her friends try to connect with each other physically, but only wind up realizing that, while their bonds are not skin-deep, they’re also not liberating. Here’s where “It Follows” gets frustratingly—but pointedly—murky: if life after sex is purgatory, does that mean sex is bad, or that sex simply isn’t a cure-all for juvenile awkwardness? The latter seems more likely given an unnamed book passage that Jay’s loyal friend Yara ( Olivia Luccardi ) reads aloud later in the film. “Your soul will leave your body and you will no longer be a person,” Yara tells Jay, underscoring Jay’s implicit understanding of sex as an out-of-body vanishing act. Jay’s haunting either frustrates this vague fear, or confirms it. Either way, she is pursued, and may never know why.

That kind of primordial dread is embedded in the film’s visual style. Mitchell’s camera visually unifies the characters’ shared world, either through static panoramas that show several characters occupying the same space, or tracking shots and/or pans that follow characters from one end of the room to the other. We’re also given the impression of infinite space whenever Mitchell’s camera stands in for, or is positioned inside Paul or Jay’s cars. In these scenes, the road that stretches out in front of them/us is long, and there is never a set destination in sight. That concept is far more unnerving than any of the film’s more traditional scare scenes, though those are pretty good too (don’t look at me, experience them for yourself). No, what’s most disquieting about “It Follows” is the way it presents sex as neither abnormal, nor beneficial. By contrast, sex in “It Follows” indiscriminately draws pre-existing emotions out, like a cruel genie that can never be returned to his lamp. 

it movie review imdb

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

it movie review imdb

  • Jake Weary as Hugh
  • Olivia Luccardi as Yara
  • Keir Gilchrist as Paul
  • Maika Monroe as Jay
  • Lili Sepe as Kelly
  • Daniel Zovatto as Greg
  • Bailey Spry as Annie
  • David Robert Mitchell

Director of Photography

  • Mike Gioulakis

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It (1990) Poster Image

  • Common Sense Says
  • Parents Say 38 Reviews
  • Kids Say 188 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Charles Cassady Jr.

Stephen King pits kids vs. killer clown from hell.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that It is a made-for-TV miniseries from 1990 based on a Stephen King novel (not to be confused with the 2017 movie adaptation). It centers on a long series of unsolved child murders, and while the worst of the nasty stuff is kept offscreen, there are still apparitions of semi…

Why Age 14+?

Much blood -- erupting through sewers and out of exploded balloons. But it's "su

Social drinking, or drinking to calm nerves after a demonic attack. One girl's f

Swearing includes "bastard," "son of a bitch" and the "N" word.

Several characters start romantic liaisons but never finish them. Rather out of

Any Positive Content?

On the one hand, there's a killer clown. On the other the protagonists are decen

There's a strong message of friendship and staying in touch.

Violence & Scariness

Much blood -- erupting through sewers and out of exploded balloons. But it's "supernatural" blood, in that most people can't see it -- only the terrorized heroes. Kids bully, beat, and threaten each other with knives. A man is found dead in a tub (a suicide who slashed his wrists). A wife is slapped by her abusive husband. One character is stabbed. Rocks thrown at people and monsters.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Social drinking, or drinking to calm nerves after a demonic attack. One girl's father is an abusive drunk.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Several characters start romantic liaisons but never finish them. Rather out of the blue, a grown man admits (regretfully) to being a virgin.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

On the one hand, there's a killer clown. On the other the protagonists are decent-hearted kids that support one another in youth and adulthood against bullies, bad parents, and worse. Only the lone female in the bunch seems to have taken her childhood traumas visibly into adulthood, marrying an abusive man.

Positive Messages

Parents need to know that It is a made-for-TV miniseries from 1990 based on a Stephen King novel (not to be confused with the 2017 movie adaptation ). It centers on a long series of unsolved child murders, and while the worst of the nasty stuff is kept offscreen, there are still apparitions of semi-decayed juvenile ghosts, a werewolf, a fanged clown, and other monsters. Blood is shown frequently, gurgling out of drains and splashed around the community, but it's "supernatural" blood, only visible to the terrorized heroes and not other people. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

  • Parents say (38)
  • Kids say (188)

Based on 38 parent reviews

This is a classic

What's the story.

Based on Stephen King 's novel, IT is set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, where a supernatural curse has caused waves of violence, murders, and disappearances -- mostly of children -- since colonial times. Now, town librarian Mike Hanlon ( Tim Reid ) is calling a widely scattered group of adults who were once tight-knit friends as kids. Hanlon wants them to honor the promise they made back in 1958 to reunite and fight It once again, if It ever resurfaced. And It has -- children are disappearing or being horribly mutilated. Flashbacks show the difficult childhoods of the group, which includes successful architect Ben ( John Ritter ), and prominent fashion designer Beverly (Annette O'Toole). Once known as "The Losers," they were constantly tormented by town bully Henry (Michael Cole) and his creepy gang. But a worse threat soon materializes, a demonic clown called Pennywise ( Tim Curry ), who first kills the little brother of future successful novelist-scriptwriter George (Richard Thomas). Both in 1958 and in the present, Pennywise taunts the various Losers and assumes the shapes of their worst fears.

Is It Any Good?

Director Tommy Lee Wallace makes some of the shocks work, and it's interesting seeing young actors (like Seth Green ) matched against the adult ones (like Harry Anderson) playing the same part. But the ponderous nature of the twin-timelined material makes this a long trip (originally a TV miniseries, it's over three hours long). And, besides being a metaphor for the adversities of youth, what exactly is Pennywise, anyway? Once must read the 1,000 page Stephen King book to find out.

The flashbacks are often repetitious, to keep the TV viewer up on the story over successive nights and commercial breaks of the miniseries. And too bad It was made before computer graphics came into wide use. Instead, stiff puppetry and stop-motion depict such hallucinatory horrors as Pennywise squeezing out of tiny drains and turning into monsters.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the theme of friendship among the outcast kids in the movie and how it creates a secret world for them, one which (unlike the town's mainstream society of adults) allows them to perceive more clearly the menace of Pennywise and devise a plan to fight him. The plot continually hops across a 30-year timespan, seeing these characters both as grown ups and children.

Parents can talk about reunions with their own old friends and the importance of staying in touch (whether to defend against evil demons or for slightly more sentimental reasons).

Movie Details

  • In theaters : November 18, 1990
  • On DVD or streaming : October 1, 2002
  • Cast : John Ritter , Tim Curry , Tim Reid
  • Director : Tommy Lee Wallace
  • Inclusion Information : Black actors
  • Studio : Warner Home Video
  • Genre : Horror
  • Run time : 193 minutes
  • MPAA rating : NR
  • MPAA explanation : Not Rated
  • Last updated : February 28, 2022

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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  • Cast & crew
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It

Parents guide

Content rating.

  • Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Rated R for violence/horror, bloody images, and for language
  • Sex & Nudity: Mild
  • Violence & Gore: Severe
  • Profanity: Severe
  • Alcohol, Drugs & Smoking: Mild
  • Frightening & Intense Scenes: Severe

Sex & Nudity

Violence & gore, alcohol, drugs & smoking, frightening & intense scenes, certifications.

  • 14A Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba
  • 18A Ontario
  • 18A Toronto
  • 18+ tv rating
  • 15 Original Rating
  • 15 self-applied
  • R self-applied
  • 15 DVD rating
  • 16 self-applied
  • 15 cinema rating, 2017
  • NC16 Re-release

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COMMENTS

  1. It (2017)

    It: Directed by Andy Muschietti. With Jaeden Martell, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard. In the summer of 1989, a group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children of Derry, their small Maine town.

  2. It (2017)

    6/10. "It" shows flare, but needs to have more confidence in it's ability to scare. pecinqa 11 September 2017. "It" is a mostly successful horror film that, unlike it's peers, manages to easily surpass the quality of it's predecessor (although it did have a slight luxury in being a remake of a TV film).

  3. I.T. (2016)

    I.T.: Directed by John Moore. With Pierce Brosnan, Jason Barry, Karen Moskow, Kai Ryssdal. A millionaire has his life turned upside down after firing his I.T. consultant.

  4. It movie review & film summary (2017)

    Unlike King's novel and the 1990 original "It," the screenplay from Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga (the acclaimed writer-director of "Sin Nombre" and "Beasts of No Nation") and Gary Dauberman doesn't jump back and forth in time. It moves the time frame to 1988-89 and sticks with our core group of seven kids while they're still adolescent misfits, which grounds their story and ...

  5. It (2017)

    Brandon An amazing Horror movie!! Rated 4.5/5 Stars • Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 05/05/23 Full Review Blu B Pay Attention Hollywood. THIS is when a remake is warranted. The original isn't bad at ...

  6. It Movie Review

    It is a horror movie based on Stephen King's novel and is rated R for strong violence, language, and disturbing imagery. Due to the graphic and intense nature of the movie, it may not be suitable for children under 12 or 13. While some children may be able to handle the content of the movie, it is ultimately up to the parents or guardians to ...

  7. It (2017 film)

    It (titled onscreen as It Chapter One) is a 2017 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman.It is the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, primarily covering the first chronological half of the book.It is the first film in the It film series as well as being the ...

  8. It Chapter Two movie review & film summary (2019)

    As in the original, "It Chapter Two" works best when the members of the self-proclaimed Losers Club are bouncing off each other, their banter infused with a sparkling mix of hormones, humor, insecurity and camaraderie. Unfortunately, Muschietti and Dauberman spend a lot of their time keeping their perfectly picked actors apart on individual ...

  9. It (2017)

    Greatest remake of a movie ever made in my opinion. Even way scary then the original. Remade the death scenes way better as well. Love it! Read All Reviews. Media. Most Popular; Videos 11; Backdrops 61; Posters 153; Status Released Original Language English. Budget $35,000,000.00. Revenue $703,000,000.00. Keywords.

  10. IT (2017) Movie Review

    It (2017) 3.5. It Chapter One is a supernatural horror film based on the book by Stephen King where several children, including the younger brother of one of the film's protagonists, have gone missing. A group of kids called "The Loser's Club" decide to investigate the cause and hopefully save the others. However, they realize they may be in ...

  11. Movie Review: IT (2017)

    The red-headed stepchild of the movie business, horror is an incredibly subjective genre for fans. Despite repeatedly being let down by film after film, we return to the theater with each new offering, hoping for a gem — a new classic. Remakes are especially daunting undertakings, as the new version is up against fiercely loyal fans who judge ...

  12. It

    A touching, scary and compelling adaptation of Stephen King's tome. Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 30, 2020. Mike Massie Gone With The Twins. Countering the standard horror is an ...

  13. Review: 'It' Brings Back Stephen King's Killer Clown

    The new movie, a skillful blend of nostalgic sentiment and hair-raising effects, with the visual punch of big-screen digital hocus-pocus and the liberties of the R rating, still has the soothing ...

  14. It Chapter Two (2019)

    It Chapter Two: Directed by Andy Muschietti. With Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa. Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.

  15. It: Chapter Two

    It: Chapter Two. TRAILER. NEW. Defeated by members of the Losers' Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine, once again. Now adults, the childhood ...

  16. IT Review: Everything You Want from a Horror Movie

    Read Matt Goldberg's IT review; Andy Muschietti's film stars Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, and Wyatt Oleff.

  17. IMDb: Ratings, Reviews, and Where to Watch the Best Movies & TV Shows

    IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers.

  18. 'It: Chapter Two' Review: When Adults Face Their Childhood Fears

    Film Review: 'It: Chapter Two' The clown is back, and the kids have grown up in part two of Stephen King's monster novel, which inspires an overlong, but suitably scary sequel.

  19. It Chapter Two

    It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Gary Dauberman.It is the sequel to It (2017) and the second of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel It by Stephen King.The film stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise.

  20. It Follows movie review & film summary (2015)

    Since "It Follows" concerns the never-ending state of hormonal crisis we call "adolescence," the film is about illogical actions that have long-lasting consequences. Jay (Maika Monroe), a quintessentially sullen teen, learns this soon after she has sex with, and is summarily abducted by Hugh (Jake Weary). After he chloroforms and ties ...

  21. It (1990) Movie Review

    Parents need to know that It is a made-for-TV miniseries from 1990 based on a Stephen King novel (not to be confused with the 2017 movie adaptation). It centers on a long series of unsolved child murders, and while the worst of the nasty stuff is kept offscreen, there are still apparitions of semi-decayed juvenile ghosts, a werewolf, a fanged clown, and other monsters.

  22. It (TV Mini Series 1990)

    It: With Harry Anderson, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole. In 1960, seven pre-teen outcasts fight an evil demon who poses as a child-killing clown. Thirty years later, they reunite to stop the demon once and for all when it returns to their hometown.

  23. Am I Racist? (2024)

    Am I Racist?: Directed by Justin Folk. With Matt Walsh, Robin DiAngelo. A man investigates diversity, equity, and inclusion practices, exposing absurdities through undercover social experiments.

  24. It (2017)

    A sheep gets impailed through the head at min 10:15. (brief shoot of blood exiting the skull) A man is sleeping and a deranged teenager comes in and stabs him in the neck. So much blood is seen. Pennywise rips off a young boy's arm. Leaving him bleeding to death in the rain, it can be emotional to watch.