The critically acclaimed horror film “It”, directed by Andy Muschietti, is based off the 1986 novel by Stephen King, and the 1990 miniseries of the same name. The story follows seven outcast teens, known as “The Loser’s Club”, searching for the cause of multiple disappearances of children in the summer of 1989. The group is led by Bill Denbrough, played by Jaeden Lieberher, whose goal is to find his missing little brother, Georgie.

During their search, they all have terrifying visions of their worst fears, spawned by a supernatural being known as “Pennywise the Dancing Clown”, or what the kids call him, “It”, played by Bill Skarsgård.

The other members include Stan Uris, the son of a rabbi. Ben Hanscom, the new kid who reveals to the other kids of the string of missing kids at Derry. Beverly Marsh, the only girl in the group, Eddie Kaspbrak, a momma’s boy and hypochondriac, Mike Hanlon, an African-American orphan and Richie Tozier, the loudmouth of the group,who is played by Finn Wolfhard, from the hit Netflix series “Stranger Things”. While on the hunt, they encounter the local bullies, led by Henry Bowers, the son of the town sheriff.

While on the search for the missing kids, the group arrives at 29 Neibolt Street, where they encounter “It”, and discover where that it’s hiding in a well under the house.

They go down the well, to find a large underground lair, with multiple bodies floating in the air, and that Beverly is going up with them.

The kids revive Beverly and find “It”, which was disguised as Bill’s missing little brother Georgie. After it’s revealed to be Pennywise, he takes Bill hostage, saying that if the other kids leave now, their lives are spared while he takes Bill. They reject the offer, and the whole group ends up fighting Pennywise. He’s defeated when the kids reveal to him that they’re no longer afraid of him anymore.

The group later swears a blood oath, saying that when “It” returns, they will all come back to Derry, Maine to fight it off.

Throughout the movie, there were a few factors that made the movie unique to viewers.

The first was the amount of “horror” in the movie. In the golden age of video editing and photoshop, anything can be made scary; and in this case, Pennywise was the least scary thing in this movie. The appearance of him during the scenes that show the characters’ worst fears was almost troublesome, as it signals that the scene is over.

Although most of the worst fears have photoshop written all over it,  it’s clear that whoever was in charge of the CGI department knew what they were doing.

Another factor about the movie is the constant change of the tone in the film. Depending on what part of the movie is going on, the tone changes from a dark and scary tone (ex:  Pennywise, the kids’ worst fears and, in some cases, the bullies themselves) to a more comfortable, comedic tone. This is something in a horror movie that, if done well, could entice viewers psychologically into a state of comfort in the scariest parts of the movie and this movie does exactly that. In this case, it’s done well enough to make the viewers sometimes not only see this as a horror movie, as it claims it is, but also a comedy and that’s what it felt like half the time: a comedy, and it’s great.

The final main factor that resonated throughout the movie was the character development. Sure, it’s clear from the adverts going around on social media about the movie, starting with the first trailer of the film, which has reached over 100 million views on Youtube, that they announce that Pennywise is the scariest character in the movie.

It’s when each main character is announced that the characters gives the viewers a series of personalities to relate to, especially to teenagers. Bill is the character who overcomes a tragedy to achieve his goal, in this case, the loss of his little brother and the goal to find him.

Eddie, as mentioned earlier, is the momma’s boy, the one who has limitations both from his mother and his inhaler.

Mike is seen as the orphan who barely knows his way, as he was taken immediately after his parents’ death to his grandfather to work at his farm.

Richie is the “comedian” of the group, portraying as a realistic representation of how kids acted during that time period.

Ben is the new kid of the group, as is also the one who breaks the news to the rest of the kids about the trend of missing kids in the city.

The most relatable character in the movie is Beverly, who’s going through many phases in her life from living with her abusive father, to rumors going around the town saying that she sleeps with all the boys in the school they all attend. It’s relatable because it resembles the anxiety that teenagers go through during this time in their lives, well, minus all of the blood and clowns.

In the end, I suggest this movie to anyone who likes Stephen King, because even though it’s not the best King adaptation, it’s surely up there, and with another sequel scheduled for 2019, the story is only beginning.

I give this movie 8.5/10 stars.