If 1986's "Stand By Me" (based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" from his 1982 "Different Seasons" collection) had featured an evil supernatural entity who most frequently took the form of a demonic clown, it might have looked startlingly similar to "It: Chapter One," the first in a planned two-picture adaptation of King's epic, 1,138-page, 1986 best-selling novel. This acclaimed source material has been translated to film once before courtesy of an effective 1990 ABC miniseries, highlighted by Tim Curry's shiver-inducing performance as the monstrous Pennywise. Now, as a lavishly ghastly yet crucially heartfelt Warner Bros. feature directed by Andy Muschietti (2013's "Mama") and written by Gary Dauberman (2017's "Annabelle: Creation") and Chase Palmer & Cary Joji Fukunaga (2015's "Beasts of No Nation"), the author's tome has been gifted an exceedingly worthy cinematic rendering. To predict that, in time, it may well go down as a classic of the genre strikes as neither premature nor hyperbolic.
School's out for the kids of Derry, Maine, but in the summer of 1989 a dark shadow has cast itself over this quaint New England town. A rash of unsolved child disappearances has led to an after-dark curfew being set, and authorities are clueless as to who has taken the youngsters. For seven 13-year-old friends and classmates, the truth has gradually and terrifyingly revealed itself. Each one, in their own time, has narrowly escaped a horrific attack from a force that would seem otherworldly if not for how very real it is. The common denominator in their confrontations: a sharp-toothed clown (Bill Skarsgård) from which nightmares are made. Natural leader of the so-called "Losers' Club" is Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher), who has already been personally affected by this malevolent menace; eight months ago, his beloved younger brother, Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott), left home during a rainstorm to sail his paper boat and never returned.
See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review
