When Sept. 8 came around, I was ecstatic. I had been looking forward to the “It” movie ever since the first trailer was dropped, and I had been getting more and more excited with every spoiler and leak. At around 11:30 p.m., my friends and I got to our seats at Alamo Drafthouse, and then a clown came to get our order. Not a normal clown, but one that was covered in what I hoped was fake blood and a terrifying smile.

For the next 30 minutes, I watched little vignettes about clowns and the crazy shit they do. Those short videos definitely got the crowd and my friends in the mindset for the movie. And then it began, and I can honestly say that about the first 10 minutes of the movie are pretty horrific. As Bella Dillman, a sophomore who also saw the film, put it:

“The beginning was f””ing crazy.”

She isn’t exaggerating. The beginning is crazy and, while I would love to describe the whole movie, I would much rather people go and enjoy it for themselves.

“Not only was it a scary movie, but it was also a good movie,” Dillman told me. I agree. It was well worth the money.

“It” is a very long movie, with a run time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, but it’s worth it all. I myself have never been a fan of the horror genre, especially because the past 10 years have been filled with bland, boring rehashes of the same premises and cliches. One could make a case that “It” is just another rehashing of an old premise, yet, after watching, I believe one will see the movie has much more to offer.

What made me really love “It” was its characters. A major problem with horror is that the characters within that genre are generally boring and, when they are killed or taken or possessed, we don’t know them well enough or care enough to feel that bad for them. But with “It,” director Andy Muschietti dedicates considerable amounts of time to developing genuine and enjoyable characters. His “˜loser’ gang is filled with personality, each of the members representing an aspect of childhood and showing how hard childhood could be. Through these interactions and hardships, you grow to love the characters; from the funny kid to the fat one, each matters. And that makes it eight billion times scarier when you see one them get their face eaten by a painting.

Horror is also nothing without a scary linchpin, and Bill Skarsgard delivers.

“The unpredictability of Pennywise impressed and terrified me the most,” said sophomore Alec Trahan. Pennywise is the epitome of fear. Our first interaction is of him talking to Georgie, a young boy. Pennywise is peeking from a street-side gutter, water pouring over his face. Yet he doesn’t pay mind. All his focus is on the prey: the little boy above him. His eyes, a deeply-potent sky blue, are unflinching and eerie. As the movie goes on, you are also shown the true range of his powers. Skarsgard took the mantle of “It” and added a new, fresher take to the immortalized horror icon.

If I was forced to give a number rating to “It,” I would say it was an 8.75 of 10. It had great acting, stellar set design and a dedication to the message and plot of Stephen King’s original novel that few book-to-movie adaptations accomplish nowadays.


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