Adam Wenkoff

Before I begin, I want to disclose some information about myself. I’m terrified of clowns and I hate jump scares with a passion. That being said, I managed to love watching “IT,” a movie where the main antagonist is a killer clown and there’s a jump scare about every five minutes.

“IT” takes place in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, and follows a group of kids (the self-proclaimed “Losers’ Club”) who investigate a series of disappearances of kids in their town.

The Losers’ Club’s characters instantly make you like them, and they are the main reason why I really enjoyed watching “IT.” Bill Denbrough, played by Jaeden Lieberher, is the group’s strong yet sincere leader who lost his younger brother as a result of the disappearances. Then, there’s Beverly Marsh, played by Sophia Lillis, who is the bravest member of the Club and suffers from an abusive father. In a male-dominated movie like “IT,” Lillis gives the male-heavy movie a much-needed strong female character. Then there’s a lovable overweight fan of poetry, Ben Hanscom, who is played by Jeremy Ray Taylor. However, my favorite character was Finn Wolfhard, who is played by “Stranger Things” star Richie Tozier and provides a ton of comedic relief with his aggressively crude humor.

In addition to the great characters, the directing in the film was fantastic. I was constantly blown away from the beautiful camera work, awe-inspiring imagery and a bone-chilling score. It was by far and away one of the most incredible works of art that I’ve seen on the screen this year.

My only complaint for “IT” was that it’s main character and antagonist, Pennywise the Clown, lacked the depth that normally comes with a character of his magnitude. Not much background information was given on him, he didn’t have much dialogue in the film, and his motives for terrorizing Derry were still unclear even after the movie came to an end. Not a huge issue, but some more information about Pennywise would have been great to have in the otherwise fantastic film.

Staying true to the world-famous Stephen King novel, I think that “IT” is going to be the movie that brings horror back as one of the general public’s favorite genres. Earlier this year, “Get Out” started this movement, but this movie is definitely much scarier and more true to the roots of horror. All in all, I really enjoyed watching “IT,” and anyone that thinks they can handle the jump scares should definitely go and see “IT” while “IT”’s still in theaters.