Reviews have come flooding in for this highly anticipated Stephen King adaptation, and things are looking, ahem, scarily good.
Despite the name being a nightmare for search engines, It is currently sitting at a pretty 100% on aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes; a score likely to dwindle, but seemingly unlikely to completely plummet. This praise seems partly for Bill Skarsgard’s chilling portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but a lot of hype has built for the film’s talented child cast – featuring Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame.
A quick run-down: It tells the story of a group of kids called ‘The Losers Club’, who find their small town of Derry terrorised by an unstoppable, child-killing threat. In a tale brimming with classic King moments, the kids must band together and try standing up to the seemingly insurmountable beast before it kills every last one of them.
Let’s take a look at what the critics are saying:
IGN – William Bibbiani – 9.2/10
“Nightmares are scarier when they emerge from happy dreams, and happy endings mean a heck of a lot more when unthinkable horror precedes them.
“And of course, everything is creepier with a scary clown in it.”
Empire – John Nugent – 4/5
“Pennywise is generally used carefully and sparingly, and is all the more powerful for it. With his cracked porcelain forehead, mucky Victorian scruff and giant protruding bottom lip, this Pennywise is a triumph of make-up and design as much as anything else – but despite his minimal screen time shared with prosthetic artists and CGI compositors, Skarsgård leaves a hell of an impression.”
The Guardian – Peter Bradshaw – 3/5
“This is an ensemble smorgasbord of scariness, or maybe a portmanteau of petrification, throwing everything but the haunted kitchen-sink at the audience in the cause of freaking us out.”
Screenrant – Sandy Schaefer – 3.5/5
“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.”
the telegraph – tim robey – 4/5
“As a rattling ghost-train ride through sewers and derelict houses even David Lynch would think twice before exploring, the film toot-toots its way around at often deafening volume.”
Personally, I can’t wait. Expect our review of this seemingly excellent adaptation sometime Friday (the 8th), when It hits cinemas worldwide.
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