Show notes
In preparation for IT Chapter 2 coming out this week, we watched IT (2017) as well as the 1990 Miniseries starring Tim Curry. If you haven't seen IT and are a horror fan, you are probably in the minority, since it (IT?) is the highest grossing horror movie of all time.
IT 2017 Poster
We watched It. We already have seen it, but we watched it again. It was good. We liked it. THE MOVIE IT!
https://youtu.be/hAUTdjf9rko
IT is available to rent on Amazon Prime, Youtube and other places probably.
IT (2017)
Watch the full movie of IT (2017)
Rent/Buy on Amazon
IT 2017 Synopsis
IT (2017) is a total rip off of Stranger Things. It features a group of boys in the 80s who discover a young girl with the special power to give them boners.
Actually, IT (2017) is based on the Stephen King novel “IT”. The film follows “the losers club” which is a motley crew of six young boys and a girl who find themselves haunted by Pennywise the Dancing Clown played by Bill Skarsgård. Pennywise is very literally dread incarnate, and torments the group of kids with their worst fears. Upon research, the group finds out that Pennywise has been tormenting and killing children for millenia.
IT Movie Review
The film tackles the source material admirably. It’s hard to capture on screen the concept of the monster being fear itself. You get a real feeling of dread throughout, and it remains one of the best group coming of age stories, second only to King’s other adaptation: Stand By Me.
Check Out Our Review of Ready or Not
https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/08/28/ready-or-not-review/
I’m glad I got to watch this again, because my first viewing was so colored by my nostalgia for the 1990 TV miniseries starring Tim Curry. And while I still do like the direction of the Pennywise character a little better in the miniseries, I think that overall IT 2017 is a far superior film. We watched the miniseries to be able to compare it to this film and the upcoming Chapter 2, and I don’t know what to tell you, it does not hold up.
https://youtu.be/cmOLwrvH-Ag
IT 2017 is one of the best mainstream, general audience horror movies to come out in the last decade. Director Andy Muschietti keeps most of the dread from the source material and includes some modern production and jump scares to appeal to fans of the Conjuring universe. Overall, I really liked it even more the second time.
This film has probably the best child cast of all time. Comparisons are readily made to Stranger Things (especially since Finn Wolfhard is in both) but the acting from these kids in IT (2017) is far superior in my opinion.
Score for IT (2017) Movie
8/10
Check out our review of It Chapter Two
https://www.horrormovietalk.com/2019/09/11/it-chapter-two-review/
Spoilers for IT
Expand for Spoilers
The opening scene with Georgie losing the paper boat that Bill made for him. This is the scene that really sells every version of this story, whether it's the novel, the miniseries, or the modern iteration. The main difference here is that Muschietti leans into the "hard-R" when Georgie's arm is graphically ripped off by Pennywise.
Georgie, giving Pennywise a hand.
Pennywise isn't the only danger in IT. Henry Bowers and his gang torment the group of friends on the regular throughout the film. And torment is putting it lightly. Henry doesn't just bully them, he tortures them. In another scene that shows the commitment of making the film a heavy into the paint of an R-rating, Henry deeply carves his initials into poor Ben's stomach.
All of a sudden, the gimmicky side kicks obsessed with fire or belching seems strangely out of place. But, come on, who doesn't like a character named Belch?
BRRRRAAAAAUUUUUUPP
The Losers Club Fears
Throughout IT, there are scenes that show the different fears of the Losers Club.
Bill's fear of actually accepting that his brother Georgie is dead.
Mike's fear of burning alive like his parents
Stanley's fear of a creepy painting
Stanley's creepy painting coming to life.
Ben's fear of the headless kid he discovered during researching the town's history.
Bev's fear of the sink
Eddie's fear of germs / Lepers
Richie's fear of clowns
Some of these work better than others. Stanley's creepy painting feels like it is straight out of The Conjuring. Wait... It is taken straight out of the Conjuring.
Look Familiar?
Richie's fear of clowns also felt very tacked on. It seemed like an excuse to include a room full of clowns.
Ben's fear also felt kind of tacked on, but at least it made sense in the moment. As he was researching about the town's past tragedies, he notices a decapitated head in a tree.
Can we also just take a moment to point out how shitty the librarian is for encouraging Ben to stop studying and go play with friends?
Why you reading tho?
The Ending of IT 2017 Explained
The ending of the film is very satisfying. The children realize that Pennywise has no power over them as long as they aren't scared of him and realize that everything he throws at them is an illusion.
As Pennywise's power is sapped from him, they proceed to kick his ass and free all the children that are floating in his lair. Unfortunately, they all seem to be already dead.
Hey... I guess they do all float down here.
Final Recommendations for IT
I definitely recommend watching and even rewatching IT (2017) , especially as the sequel is coming out this week. It is a horror movie of the highest caliber, that doesn't shy away from shocking you with violence against children.
Transcription of the Episode
Expand for the full transcription of this week's episode
This episode of horror movie talk brought to you by seat creep, the best app for buying tickets to sporting events and concerts that you never had a chance to buy. What's that? You say you were on the ticket master site and ordered the second they went on sale and nothing good was left. That's because we bought them within nanoseconds of them going on sale so no one else could go ahead and cry to Ticketmaster. They're in on it, too. Sure, you could buy the tickets that are left at the back row behind a pillar, but you know you're going to buy from a scalper. Might as well be from us because fuck you. Hello and welcome to horror movie talk and opinionated and accidentally funny horror movie review Show your panel of experts. Hosts each week are Dr Bryce Hansen, who holds a phD in Spook ology, and Professor David Day, the foremost expert in Scare No nose. New theatrical releases always get priority, but we also review older horror movies both good and horrible. I am Bryce Hanson and I'm Davide, and we've been having technical difficulties. Yeah, man, it's been an hour of trying to get things set up, right. And now I have to get up again and adjust my I'm so irritated, and it's gonna be a great episode. Okay, Yeah. We have two identical mike's that I've had since, you know, for, like, a decade. But I haven't really used until now. And one of them just shit the bed for some reason. So we could really use some more patriotic of you. Anyways, uh, we got a great show for you today. We're gonna be talking about it. 2017 2017 0 I thought we were talking about sex. Oh, no, no. This little episode have been prayer Parent for the wrong thing on. Do that, though, before we get into it. I just want to plug our website horror movie talk dot com. There you can find links to our social media and various links to podcast subscription platforms. We post every Wednesday, so subscribe. And if you use iTunes Sorry. Use apple podcast. Leave us a rating. Also, our good friend David Day has a podcast on the side called the Positive A cast. This is a short daily podcast where I just tried to inject your day with some you know, some good feelings and rights groups, retreats, talking about making people feel good, talking about making yourself feel good. And just generally, you know, getting your day started off for ended off, right? So and it's actually it's been doing pretty good since the Rice Krispie treat debacle. Things have been picking up quite a bit so again today we're gonna be talking about it. The movie from 2017. We're going to start out by giving a brief review and our score for the film. We scored on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being miserable and ah, 10 being so good at transcends genre boundaries. And five just being a completely average film that hits all the expected marks. Yeah, you guys know how one through 10 works after we give the score will get into spoilers and take a deeper dive into what we like and hated about the film. And then later we'll be doing perennial favorite bit tagline haggling. Hey, um you know, uh, we kind of I wanted to do another round of horror or porno, which is probably my favorite bit that we've ever done from our last episode, but it might be like to. Well, first of all, I didn't have enough time to prepare for it. Because we've spent It's a very, very, very useful time watching the miniseries from 1990. So it was worth it. And ah, but also having it back to back, You know, we don't want to fatigue. Well, I mean, that's like a special. That's a special game, you know, though, I do it next time, you know, But that ready That last episode that we released, ready or not is I mean, so we're recording this, you know, obviously, before you're listening to this, we don't do this list. Isn't life? I thought this was radio. It's just how time works. You do things before they happen, as and sometimes as they're happening anyway, so that the past is more past In the past, we had this debate earlier, but ah, no, the ready or not episode it is on track to be one of our very best downloaded episodes ever. Um, and, uh, even that one had a debacle around it. We've had a Yeah, my wife. Rough technical issues Week. My wife is Ah,...
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