“It” doesn’t live up to its hype

Stephen King’s novel It is filled with suspense and intensity that leaves you on the edge of your seat, however the movie doesn’t exactly follow the beloved horror book.

It is about a group of outsider kids who see visions of a clown named Pennywise in their town, Derry, Maine. This town is haunted by the clown about every 27 years, so when sightings recur when they are grown up, they must unite together to try to defeat the powerful entity.

Throughout the course of the book, the plot changes from when the kids go to school in Derry to when they return to their hometown as adults in order to stop the clown’s evil intentions once and for all.

However, throughout the movie, the plot solely focuses on their days as kids and does not exhibit that they are still being affected by Pennywise in their later years, which is an important factor because it portrays how aggressive the clown is.

The movie also differs from the book in that it includes unmentioned characters that are highly unrealistic and far-fetched, like zombies and animated figures, decreasing the eerie sensations that readers get in the novel.

The movie also strays from the central storyline. While watching the film, it seemed that the scenes were jumbled and lacked a sense of direction that would effectively build and lead the plot. The scenes go from disturbing sightings of Pennywise to schoolyard fights with the school’s bullies, truly not having a purposeful angle.

The novel, however, is brilliantly written so that the different chapters and events are placed in an order that mesh well with the ending, so that the reader has no confusion and is intrigued every step of the way.

The film and novel have considerable differences from one another. The movie should have followed the premises of the book for consistency and because that is the way how King intended the audience to see It.

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