It. A very entertaining horror movie.

Coulrophobia - A fear of clowns. Dismissed as a made up phobia by science but try telling that to the millions of people who suffer from it.

I was 13 when I watched the original miniseries of 'It'. Frightened the life out of me and my brother. He was 10 when he was subjected to it. The poor chap. Like the Stephen King book it was based on it was a story of two halves, one based in the late 50's and one in the mid 80's. The earlier half was about the kids and their experiences and the second half was them as adults. The first half was far superior.

The new film adaption is based on the first half of the book too. With part 2 coming next year. It's a damn fine horror film. The miniseries was tamed down to comply with 90's TV standards. The film isn't tame. Not at all.

It's set in a small Maine town called Derry in 1988-1989. A spate of missing children and teenagers has the town on edge. Chief among them is Bill Denborough who's brother Georgie is one of the missing. Over the course of the summer Bill and all his friends Richie, Eddie, Stan, Ben, Mike & Beverly have eerie and downright terrifying run ins with a clown like figure until they decide enough is enough and decide to take control of their own destiny.

'It' is an immensely entertaining crowd pleaser of a horror film and I mean that in a good way. It's very well written, crafted and acted. The young cast is just great and (nearly) everyone gets their moment to shine. The horror aspects of the film are well done without being too offputting. There's plenty of nasty stuff but the film doesn't revel in it and thankfully leaves a lot to your imagination. One particularly weird part of the original book has been excised and if you know what I'm talking about you'll be pleased to hear this. TBH it was unfilmable and I'm glad they didn't even attempt it. It's guilty of the LOUD NOISES and JUMP SCARES thing that modern horror seems to love but at least the jump scares work. I nearly lifted out of the chair during one particularly well crafted moment involving a slide machine. Because the action has been moved from the 1950's to 1989 it resonates more with today's audience too. It grounds the action well. Seeing films advertised in cinemas that we've seen. Terrible music that we laughed at. Manky jeans we all wore. Technology we all remember well. It all builds the atmosphere nicely. The scenes of exploration reminded me of my own youth. Me and friends sneaking into places we shouldn't have been. Heebee Jeebee time.

As mentioned the young cast hit the spot. They all get solid memorable moments in the spotlight. Except Stan. He was the only one who came across as unmemorable and tbh I had the same issue with the book and miniseries. Many he was just one character too much. Bill, Richie, Eddie and Bev are the stand outs. Cracking little characters you want to see survive til the end of the film. Each of them with characteristics we remember from our own youth or from friends. Played by Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard ( who was in Stranger Things), Jack Dylan Grazer and Sophia Lillis respectively they give their all and each add something unique to the mix. But the star of the film is Bill Skarsgård who is just perfect as Pennywise The Dancing Clown. His performance thankfully is its own thing and not a carbon copy of Tim Curry from the first adaption. He's creepy as hell. His odd mish-mash of an accent lends a weird and askew edge to Pennywise and his physicality is put to good use later in the story.

One aspect of the film I particularly liked was the suggestion that the town has been infected by 'It'. That his evil has seeped in over time. This was in the original book but mostly left out of the miniseries. It's a subtle evil. The adults that drive by a young boy being bullied. The predatory smile of a shopkeeper. The extremely over protective mother. The touch of a father that lingers that bit too long. The man who's bullying ways have created a self fulfilling prophecy. Insidious nastiness that allows true evil to develop without anyone noticing.

Another very welcome aspect was just how funny it all was. That was unexpected and very pleasing. Without the laughs it would have been too unrelenting. The kids were great and they actually talked like kids. Swearing up a storm at an age were profanity is still taboo and gleefully breaking that taboo with abandon. Richie and Eddie especially, the vast majority of their lines were gold.

Because the miniseries had to comply to TV regulations it had to tone down some of the books horror and be more subtle about it. The film doesn't have to do that and maybe suffers a little from it. Some of the sequences of horror are a bit too OTT. Combine that with the LOUD music and it does feel a bit like overkill in places. And of course there was the ubiquitous horror film lapse of logic. People wandering off by themselves when they really should stay in a group. But Ill forgive it this time because the characters are kids and not grown ups who should know better. Other annoyances were unexplained things left hanging but hopefully these will be looked into in chapter 2 of the story. Hopefully.

All in all though I thoroughly enjoyed this. It was great fun.  It's the perfect film to see in a packed cinema. It will make you laugh and then it will make you roar. Loads of goodies all wrapped around an excellent little cast. A thoroughly entertaining 2 hrs if you are brave enough to go for it. Go on. You know you want to.