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Stephen King's IT |OT| He thrusts his fists and then he posts (Unmarked spoilers)

Waldini

Member
So uhm, I'm not that keen on horror/thriller movies. I mean, I love watching them (safe) at home but this new IT movie has got me wondering if I should go see it.

I loved the old one (traumatised me as a kid lol) ... so how's this one?

O, I saw Paranormal Activity in cinema's... same goes for Blair Witch Project.
 

groansey

Member
So uhm, I'm not that keen on horror/thriller movies. I mean, I love watching them (safe) at home but this new IT movie has got me wondering if I should go see it.

I loved the old one (traumatised me as a kid lol) ... so how's this one?

O, I saw Paranormal Activity in cinema's... same goes for Blair Witch Project.

The film is great so you should see it, but the horror aspects are polarizing.

A lot of people flat out didn't find it scary.
I'm in my 30's and a pretty seasoned horror fan, and I found it terrifying. Like I've had nightmares for the first time in ages after watching a movie.

Guess for some people like me Pennywise just hits a nerve.
 

Waldini

Member
The film is great so you should see it, but the horror aspects are polarizing.

A lot of people flat out didn't find it scary.
I'm in my 30's and a pretty seasoned horror fan, and I found it terrifying. Like I've had nightmares for the first time in ages after watching a movie.

Guess for some people like me Pennywise just hits a nerve.

The first one "traumatised" me as a kid. Had nightmares for years. Untill I grew older and realised it was just a movie. So, yeah ... Pennywise hits that nerve.

This one looks great and gets alot of praise so ... yea. I still haven't decided.

Mind you, I'm 31 lol. Fucking clowns.
 
So uhm, I'm not that keen on horror/thriller movies. I mean, I love watching them (safe) at home but this new IT movie has got me wondering if I should go see it.

I loved the old one (traumatised me as a kid lol) ... so how's this one?

O, I saw Paranormal Activity in cinema's... same goes for Blair Witch Project.

For what its worth, I didn't think it was very scary, but I've got a pretty high tolerance for this sort of thing. It's got some creepy imagery and Pennywise is very well acted but they self-sabotage a lot of their scares via loud noises and drawing them out too long rather than embracing any sort of subtlety. The movie doesn't really do jump scares so that's definitely a point in its book; it relies primarily on ugly imagery and uncomfortable scenarios rather than just straight up "Boo!" scares. It's also quite a funny movie too, surprisingly, and does a good job of disarming it's tension when it's not in "scary mode", which I guess can be a point for or against depending on how you feel about horror movies.

Give it a watch. Even if it ends up being too scary for you at it's worse moments they are ultimately just half of what is otherwise a pretty good Stand By Me-esque coming of age movie.
 

Astral Dog

Member
I didn't think it was that scary, but some of the shots were great, like that warehouse scene, or it trying to scare Eddie.

Others were goofy and a bit lame but short, it hekps the kids are mostly great and the scenary looks amazing
that scary house

It would have helped if Pennywise had more characterization as it looks he is trying to scare a few children thw entire movie and fails but the fact the other characters carry the film is impressive.
 
Just finished watching the film. Really enjoyed alot of the film but was also scratching my head at some of the stuff they did as well. The kids outside of Bev, Bill, and Ben felt so underused. Honestly I did not like Bill at all. The character just seemed so driven to kill IT that he goes right into dumbass mode and continually puts his life and his friends in danger. Plus he forgets his friends so damn much especially at the end. Like he literally just leaves the group, finds Bev, and then leaves her to face off Georgie by himself. Plus I didn't buy that forced loved triangle at all lol. Ben/Bev shipper over here honestly so I didn't dig that last shot at all lol. Felt so unearned for Bill. Meanwhile the other 4 boys have to pick up the pieces to get some decent character development. The town, the bullies, and our titular villian suffer under the time length as well. This film desperately calls for an extended cut for at an extra half hour imo. Could have asked for some more on-screen deaths. For an R-rated film besides the cursing and certain abuses the kids went through, there were too few actual kills to show the menace and the fuckery of the clown.
I think I agree with whomever said that the child actors had real chemistry and felt like real close friends, but the Losers, themselves, didn't feel as close, especially when I think about the Losers from the book.

I liked that scene but why didn't Pennywise eat Ed before Billy and Richtie got free? Can he not eat unconscious kids?
The technical answer, the kill time so the characters of Bill and Richie could find their way down to that room. It was almost blatantly obvious, too.
 

Vectorman

Banned
I think I agree with whomever said that the child actors had real chemistry and felt like real close friends, but the Losers, themselves, didn't feel as close, especially when I think about the Losers from the book.


The technical answer, the kill time so the characters of Bill and Richie could find their way down to that room. It was almost blatantly obvious, too.

Yeah I just felt that was pulling me out of the film at times. I mean Pennywise started sucking on Stan's face immediately. I suppose it could be him trying to get him to fear him like someone else said. Also I can't believe that of all the people that constantly got hurt, Ben just was cool with all of the flesh wounds he was getting and apparently the Losers were fine with it as well. Like how are his parents not noticing these flesh wounds lol.
 

HeelPower

Member
wow ..IT was kind of...shIT!

I mean that sequence might as well be a JRPG boss battle.

The best part in the entire movie was the very first pennywise appearance.

Pennywise himself was underused.Scares were over the top and too blunt,character behavior was baffling and unbelievable.

Also, fuck that kid for getting the girl just because he was the good looking one.
 

Astral Dog

Member
wow ..IT was kind of...shIT!

I mean that sequence might as well be a JRPG boss battle.

The best part in the entire movie was the very first pennywise appearance.

Pennywise himself was underused.Scares were over the top and too blunt,character behavior was baffling and unbelievable.

Also, fuck that kid for getting the girl just because he was the good looking one.
Spoilers
i think thats addressed in the sequel, but anyways they already liked each other years before they just decided to focus the 'triangle' on the movie for some reason
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Just saw the movie. It was really good.

Favourite scene was easily the sewer one in the beginning. The guy playing Pennywise did phenomenal acting there, shame he didnt get to do more of that.
 

superfly

Junior Member
Overall pretty disappointed. Some of the scenes with the kids we're enjoyable but the tactic of setting up each kids fear but showing them not confiding in one another until they had all experienced something felt odd.

The film also did little outside of missing posters to show that there was a feeling of dread throughout the town with so many children disappearing.

As others have touched on having Pennywise more as a monster inhabiting a clown in someways reduced the fear factor. I found the more human clown from the miniseries to be far more scary.

I went in hoping to enjoy the film, and left thinking it was one of wasted potential, catering to a post stranger things form of 80s nostalgia and doing so in a mediocre manner.
 

bitbydeath

Member
The film also did little outside of missing posters to show that there was a feeling of dread throughout the town with so many children disappearing.

Parents don't care, they know about IT as they experienced it themselves 27 years prior, they choose to ignore IT to save themselves. Missing kids is expected.

It should have tried to stress that point more though as without knowing a lot more backstory I can understand the confusion.
 

pa22word

Member
Reading through this thread makes it pretty obvious that the movie's biggest issue wasn't all the little individual complaints this thread is filled with, but that they tried and only sorta succeed at fitting an incomplete version of a 1300ish page novel into a 2 hour movie.

Everything feels half baked and overall underdeveloped because well, it is. They didn't have time to properly develop the monster because it was a 2 hour movie. They didn't have time to develop the town as effectively into this sort of lovecraftian dystopia because it was a 2 hour movie. Some of the kids aren't as developed as they should be because it's a two hour movie. The bowers gang sucks because they didn't have time to properly develop them as....it's a two hour movie.

Of all the king properties that people call for adaptions of, IT is kind of the worst possible candidate for a successful adaption. The plot structure is just completely antithetical to movies because there's too much there to adapt into a single or possibly even 3 films, but the book has no clear lines of delineation that you can say "ah ha! here, and here is where we will split it!" As they did it anyways with the adult vs kid stuff for this new adaption it's already going to be trouble vs the book as essentially the book is like 70/30 kids, and what's there for the adults mostly all ties back into the kids stuff anyways. The only real meat to the adults section is their openings and the book's ending, and that's maybe worth about an hour of screen time? The rest of it is them working out the logistics of what happened when they were kids, which considering the audience coming in already knows what happened (this is worked out concurrently in the book) I don't really see the point in filming much of it. Someone said somewhere that they're going to be possibly doing the interludes as filler to make up the difference, and while you could get another full movie out of that it just seems like a rather inefficient delivery method when they could have just done a 4-5 hour adaption that did both the adults and kids at the same time.

Really, the only way I can ever see a really good IT adaption coming about would be if someone were to sit down and do a 10-12 episode short series on HBO or something. There's just too much meat spread too widely for it to work in the theaters.

That being said, I really did enjoy the movie for what it was. I went in with tempered expectations as I didn't think there was any way in hell they we're going to be able to make it work with the time they had, and as a cliff notes version of the book it's not bad. Very enjoyable to watch, and some really great scenes.
 

Hex

Banned
5BkNkXV.jpg


So I just saw the movie and one thing I noticed is this

Not the scene itself. But the dress Its wearing. The librarian who hands Ben the book is wearing a yellow dress. When it cuts back, we see her again, and she looks to be the same person, just a different dress. Either they got two actresses who look the same, or It is mimicking the librarians physically except it got the dress color on. When Ben turns around we see her gone, and a red balloon floats towards and past the Librarian who handed him the book, with the yellow dress.

Alot of people thought that some scenes were cut in this part or theres a continuity error because the librarian seemingly teleported around, but I think the scene played out correctly, because of the librarians dress color being wrong.

Its a neat detail that could easily be overlooked, the dress color.

I thought it was Pennywise because (from my memory) she was standing odd and had a weird look at her face staring at him.
 
I really liked the shot where one of the kids straight a painting, and the shot switches to the painting's perspective and he straightens the camera.

I thought it was Pennywise because (from my memory) she was standing odd and had a weird look at her face staring at him.

It is. Her face gets more fucked up every time the shot switches back to her.
 

NekoFever

Member
It is. Her face gets more fucked up every time the shot switches back to her.

Ah, that explains my confusion with this pic. I noticed her standing there when I saw the movie, but in my memory she looked almost like that Begotten face. I'll have to pay closer attention when I watch it again.
 
5BkNkXV.jpg


So I just saw the movie and one thing I noticed is this

Not the scene itself. But the dress Its wearing. The librarian who hands Ben the book is wearing a yellow dress. When it cuts back, we see her again, and she looks to be the same person, just a different dress. Either they got two actresses who look the same, or It is mimicking the librarians physically except it got the dress color on. When Ben turns around we see her gone, and a red balloon floats towards and past the Librarian who handed him the book, with the yellow dress.

Alot of people thought that some scenes were cut in this part or theres a continuity error because the librarian seemingly teleported around, but I think the scene played out correctly, because of the librarians dress color being wrong.

Its a neat detail that could easily be overlooked, the dress color.

One other thing worth considering is that the dress colour seems to pick up some of the colours of Pennywise's own clown outfit - perhaps intentional to give that subconscious link to Pennywise, so the posture and colours make you think of him without actually having him stood in the background?
 

DeathyBoy

Banned
The film is great so you should see it, but the horror aspects are polarizing.

A lot of people flat out didn't find it scary.
I'm in my 30's and a pretty seasoned horror fan, and I found it terrifying. Like I've had nightmares for the first time in ages after watching a movie.

Guess for some people like me Pennywise just hits a nerve.

I'm desensitised to horror and this terrified me. Amount of bad asses in this thread is amazing.
 

Mr. Sam

Member
I don't think fear is really something that can be measured in degrees but rather in varieties - some people find some things scary while others don't. Some people are scared by spiders and some by heights. It's probably the only thing more subjective than humour.
 

PowderedToast

Junior Member
the film felt like a haunted house ride which kinda disappointed me

I thought the score was overused and often too loud, which for me undercut the horror, and the fantastical elements were off. I feel like the leper would've been more effective had he not been so fantastical and absurd. pennywise is an incomprehensible and unknowable space monster, which is incredibly unnerving if done right. the film overplayed its hand too much on that front, it's so loud

it was a well made film but the fast pace is what hurts it the most, I never really got a sense of the world to understand how big of a presence IT was. they all get visited by IT one by one who is tailored to their own fear, but most of the characters aren't developed enough for you to have an emotional connection to their plight - so it just becomes a bit rote and formulaic

it could've easily been 3 hours long just focused on the kids.
 

aravuus

Member
Just saw it. Expected an alright romp, ended up being thoroughly entertained. Much more fun than I anticipated, loved how it looked visually and all the kids were great. I don’t really think it was that scary either for the most part, probably due to what I thought was massive overuse of jump scares and looouuudddd noises, but it did have a couple of terrifying visuals.

Definitely gonna check the book out at some point.
 

AlexBasch

Member
Saw it last night. Didn't get scared at all and even the jumpscares were quite tame IMO. Still, I can get why some people find it scary and I don't think less of the movie because of it. :)

Liked the bond between the kids, felt like Persona kids against a killer clown, or that's what I told my best friend. There was even an all out attack when they were beating the shit outta It.

The kid who played Richie was incredible, the way he cursed around had a very good comedic timing IMO, specially when they're about to bail on Bill and he turns it around to strike It. "Now we gotta kill this fucking clown" was incredible. Also, the New Kids on the Block door poster, LMAO.

Really liked it, and if adult Ben isn't played by Chris Pratt in chapter two, I'm calling it a disaster from now on.
 
The kid who played Richie was incredible, the way he cursed around had a very good comedic timing IMO, specially when they're about to bail on Bill and he turns it around to strike It. "Now we gotta kill this fucking clown" was incredible.

The mildest of spoilers from the book:
Ritchie grows up to be a drive-time radio DJ, and hugely successful at that.
 

KalBalboa

Banned
Saw it a second time.

My favorite bit of the film has to be Pennywise intimidating Eddie. Great swagger, creepy use of scale and perspective.
 

Bulzeeb

Member
ok, I finally saw the movie and I must say I liked it, I mean I dont think it was scary for me it was more of a thriller with some action at the end but I enjoyed it. I liked its effects and acting, I dare to say it is the best movie of the genre this year
 

Garlador

Member
The film is more creepy to me than scary, and I prefer that. It's unsettling, even if the "boo" humor never worked on me, so I'm glad it had the atmosphere and eeriness to fall back on.

I liked it quite a bit. If Tim Curry's version gave me a phobia that lasted for decades, this one would have sent me straight to the loony bin if I had seen it back then.
 

Eppy Thatcher

God's had his chance.
Saw it again and had to jump in here to mention something that I thought was a small and great little detail that maybe most people wouldn't notice and then everyone I've talked to has been like YES so I figured I would mention it here:

When he's talking to Georgie at the beginning and he has his moment where he's just overcome with hunger and anticipation for this snack he's about to get into. Everyone loves this scene cause it's perfect and great but the barely noticeable way that his façade fades besides kind of going quiet is SO GOOD. The drool, the change in his smile and most importantly his fucking left eye just kind of starts to wander off. The clown being an illusion he wraps himself in just kind of sloughing off a little because he's so distracted with this fearful snack was such a good touch. He's so excited to kill again that he can't even keep his fake human suit on right. It's fucking perfect.
 

Sulik2

Member
I am mixed on this movie. When it was actually moving the plot forward and dealing with the weird cthulian creature and Pennywise was actually on screen I thought it was solid. The obsession with the random horror movie bits happening to each kid felt out of place and made the movie disjointed. The movie really needed a more holistic approach to the kids getting their scares. Mike's was much better done then some of the others. Why was Georgie dead when all the other kids where just floating and alive?

I loved that the kids actually got to talk how kids talk. Terrible dick jokes and all. Letting kids swear the way they actually do was refreshing.

The best scene of the movie was the intro. Pennywise got to actually be creepy and act. Wish there had been more of that.
 

Kalnoky

Member
Finally watched it with my wife and we both agreed it was more goofy than scary. The Georgie scene at the front of the movie is probably the best part, I think. I also noticed the freaky IT librarian and thought that was a cool touch.

Like others have said, I think the movie wasn't given enough time to really develop out and breathe at 2 hours. Felt pretty rushed from set piece to set piece.
 

Bakercat

Member
So, my fiance and I went yesterday to see this movie without knowing much of the story or book at all. overall, I enjoyed the movie. i loved pennywise and the looks he gives, very creepy but badass looking lol. At first I didn't care for the kids, but by the halfway point I started to enjoy them. As a person that loves horror movies, It was a fresh relief to see some really nice special effects in the movie. The only thing I didn't like about the movie is that i felt like I was missing information or that things were not fleshed out as much as needed. After reading through a few pages of this thread I see others thought that aswell and I can understand that such a big book isn't gonna translate everything into a 2 hour movie.
 
I thought this scene was just a well-edited meme.

1e5.gif


I burst out laughing when it happened in the movie.

Gotta be honest, yeah, I did too. To me, that scene was just hokey and the way he was dancing, I couldn't help burst out laughing. It is also a scene that I just can't ever see Pennywise from the novel doing. Sure, he had a lot of goofus lines (which in context have a more sinister tinge to them), but dancing like that would've been a waste of time with perfectly good meat lying there. Yeah, he wanted to lure the other Losers, but he'd also know that the Losers were strongest together. The moment he appears and grabs Bev in her bathroom was enough to startle her and release some fear. That could've been enough to off her, or just kill her without eating her. Then again, I'm using the book's logic. It from the novel was wasteful as a son-of-a-bitch.

I am mixed on this movie. When it was actually moving the plot forward and dealing with the weird cthulian creature and Pennywise was actually on screen I thought it was solid. The obsession with the random horror movie bits happening to each kid felt out of place and made the movie disjointed. The movie really needed a more holistic approach to the kids getting their scares. Mike's was much better done then some of the others. Why was Georgie dead when all the other kids where just floating and alive?

They floating kids weren't alive.
 

HardRojo

Member
The painting lady was easily the scariest part of the movie for me. It looks like the ghost lady from P.T, but in a more abstract form.

The erratic and quick movements were what got me bad during the movie, Lisa in PT scared the fuck outta me with those too.
 

Socreges

Banned
Just want to get my complaints out of the way:

- Mike and Stan had relatively poor child actors. Shame
- Some cheap scares
- Some weird reactions from the kids at times. Often needed for a specific plot point, but didn't jive with the horror they were suffering

Otherwise really, really enjoyed it. Great film. Will be tough for Chapter 2 to match it, but I'm guessing the same writer and director is involved?

Btw what was up with Bowers? It gave him the knife that he'd lost, but did It do anything else to drive him to murder his father or try and kill the kids? Or did he just snap? Kind of a fucked up character given that they show you why he's violent...yet he just continues to get worse until he dies.
 

Spinluck

Member
Saw it again and had to jump in here to mention something that I thought was a small and great little detail that maybe most people wouldn't notice and then everyone I've talked to has been like YES so I figured I would mention it here:

When he's talking to Georgie at the beginning and he has his moment where he's just overcome with hunger and anticipation for this snack he's about to get into. Everyone loves this scene cause it's perfect and great but the barely noticeable way that his façade fades besides kind of going quiet is SO GOOD. The drool, the change in his smile and most importantly his fucking left eye just kind of starts to wander off. The clown being an illusion he wraps himself in just kind of sloughing off a little because he's so distracted with this fearful snack was such a good touch. He's so excited to kill again that he can't even keep his fake human suit on right. It's fucking perfect.

They were so good at conveying this.

It zoning out was more creepy than the abnoxious jump scare fails.
 
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