Anybody see IT? It kinda sucks. (spoilers)

Saw IT last night. Kind of tedious. If they cut out about 30 minutes of mindless super-gore, they'd have had a much better movie.

The parts of the movie that just focused on The Losers (the kids at the center of the movie) were pretty good. Sort of like a Stand By Me for horror. The lead kid in both movies actually look a lot alike.

But there were a lot of logical inconsistencies and things left hanging with no resolution.  Yes, it's a movie about a supernatural clown living in the storm drains, but that "world" has to have some logic to it or else everything just seems kind of arbitrary. The book had that consistency. That's part of what makes King's books so much fun to read.

e.g. Spoiler - at the end when the missing kids start to "not float"  - what does that mean? Do they come back to life? What?

This is another example of a movie that seems to have no reason to be getting such high ratings from critics. Kinda like Boyhood.



it doesn't have to have logic because the whole thing is that it's the kids' imaginations/ fears being played out. Like Nightmare on Elm Street.

I don't think the floating kids come back to life or are alive because the scene AFTER they said they were starting to float down is when he mourns Georgie and realizes he's gone. I think the floating is sort of like their souls are in limbo when they come down, their bodies and souls can be at rest.

I think the problem with this movie is that it is 1/2 the book. We're missing many of the key plot pieces by focusing only on the kids. 

I thought it was good and has the potential to be great if Chapter 2 fills in the plot holes/gaps. 

As for gorey, seemed light on gore for a horror movie to me. That clown was scary as f$&@ though, no? I can't get his creepy voice out of my head


Another example of a very good King book turned into a very mediocre movie. Reminded me of Stranger Things--another period piece with 12-year-olds fighting supernatural evil.


wait, is being a lot like Stranger Things a bad thing? I think that is a great show.


Neither bad nor good. Just reminded me of.


Given that one of the kids in the Loser group is the same actor in Stranger Things, I'm not surprised it reminded you of Stranger Things. 

I liked the movie and never read the book and never watched the TV series so I didn't go in with any expectations the movie couldn't meet. But, agree it should have been much shorter by at least 30 minutes.


The book was very good ... and very scary. It was sooooo much better than the movie, but isn't that always the case?

Maybe I've just seen too many movies and too many special effects, but I didn't find It especially scary. I can think of many movies scarier--Exorcist, The Fly, Alien, even perhaps Rosemary's Baby. Quick camera cuts are cheap thrills, and the zombie thing has been so overdone. I'd give It 2.5 stars at most. I'm surprised by how well it's doing at the box office. 

Side note: I saw at least 4 people texting during the movie. Freakin' addicts!


not scary per se. Not jump,out of your seat. But that clown and his voice were the creepiest thing I've seen in a while. 

And, if anything, Stranger Things copied the coming of age, teen horror/ sci fi thing from King - It and Stand By Me or Spielberg with ET.


Yes, Stranger Things probably did imitate many of those elements from other sources.

For my money, the scariest scene in It is the little brother's first encounter with the clown in the sewer. (And that probably would have been ever scarier if I hadn't been expecting Pennywise from having read the book.) On the other hand, the climactic battle at the end lacked genuine scares, at least for me. I could probably single out 2 or 3 scenes in Hitchcock's The Birds that were scarier.


wasn't there a weird, creepy sex thing in the book? I read it 30 years ago, and it was fabulous until the end. It was almost like there wasn't any possible ending that could've lived up to the greatness that preceded it.  The movie was ok. My daughter loved it. Sometimes the clown voice/mannerisms gave me Jack Nicholson flashbacks.


Agreed on that scene. More jarring for me because we HAD seen that scene in the trailer so totally unexpected.

unicorn33 said:

Yes, Stranger Things probably did imitate many of those elements from other sources.

For my money, the scariest scene in It is the little brother's first encounter with the clown in the sewer. (And that probably would have been ever scarier if I hadn't been expecting Pennywise from having read the book.) On the other hand, the climactic battle at the end lacked genuine scares, at least for me. I could probably single out 2 or 3 scenes in Hitchcock's The Birds that were scarier.



YES there is a weird creepy sex thing in the book...I thought that's why the movie was rated R.  But I hear they did not keep that part in the movie.

callista said:

wasn't there a weird, creepy sex thing in the book? I read it 30 years ago, and it was fabulous until the end. It was almost like there wasn't any possible ending that could've lived up to the greatness that preceded it.  The movie was ok. My daughter loved it. Sometimes the clown voice/mannerisms gave me Jack Nicholson flashbacks.




callista said:

wasn't there a weird, creepy sex thing in the book? I read it 30 years ago, and it was fabulous until the end. It was almost like there wasn't any possible ending that could've lived up to the greatness that preceded it.  The movie was ok. My daughter loved it. Sometimes the clown voice/mannerisms gave me Jack Nicholson flashbacks.

This.  I read the book years ago, but I do remember that I wasn't happy with the ending.  My memory might be murky as I read it decades ago, but I think there was a part where he is on the bike with his comatose wife, and he yells "Hi Ho Silver, Away" and she suddenly puts her arms around him.  That corny, sappy ending was not what I had grown to expect from Stephen King at all.  And the sex scene was just disturbing, to say the least. 


I enjoyed it. Honestly, I don't recall the tv version or if there was a movie version, which is odd because I enjoy horror movies. Mr. Kibbegirl said it was Stand By Me with a clown. 


It wasn't terrible. (I know I opened the thread with "it sucks", but it doesn't really suck.)

Hell, I don't think I slept more than twice for more than just a few seconds.

It's ok as a coming of age story, mezza-mezza as horror, and terribly desperate in how it uses gore for gore's sake. But you can't not love those kids.

And I admit there was one jump cut that made me jump.


what is this excessive gore you keep talking about? Did you see the same movie? It's a horror movie with considerably less gore than most.


I don't recall amounts of gore either. There were more pop up scares than anything else. There's that bathroom scene that's pretty gnarly but other than that, not much gore. 

There's something about cursing kids that crack me up. Not my kids, but others oh oh These two kids in "It" are destined to be a stars:


I thought the book was terrible. And the first adaptation was beyond terrible. I can't be bothered with this one. The only thing I remember about the ending was being happy it had finally arrived. 

King often has trouble with his endings. "Under The Dome" was a really great read until the daemonium ex machina ending. 


I enjoyed it. As a horror movie fan and someone who can usually see the "scares" coming a mile away, I thought IT had great suspense and a few good jump scares. I found myself clutching my husband's arm several times and screamed once. That's a great movie going experience in my book.

Now, if you were to ask me about Mother!....



I thought It was fairly widely regarded as one of King's best books?


I'm on the fence re: Mother. I'm confused by the trailers. 

Hahaha said:

I enjoyed it. As a horror movie fan and someone who can usually see the "scares" coming a mile away, I thought IT had great suspense and a few good jump scares. I found myself clutching my husband's arm several times and screamed once. That's a great movie going experience in my book.



Now, if you were to ask me about Mother!....



mother to me looks like one of those supremely terrible movies that they used flash and confusion and star power for in a desperate attempt at a decent opening weekend before reviews came out


Certainly one of my favorites, and I've read a lot of King over the years. But to each his/her own, and it's not uncommon for people to disagree over his books. For example, many people were fans of Misery, but I thought is was a sadistic and thoroughly unpleasant book. As for Cell, I thought it was 100% awful. On the other hand, I really enjoyed Firestarter, Pet Sematary, and The Shining. (The latter two were made into fairly good movies.) 

conandrob240 said:

I thought It was fairly widely regarded as one of King's best books?



I think the bathroom scene just by itself was way over the top. I just hate gratuitous blood and guts. I stopped watching The Walking Dead for exactly that reason.

I have no problem with gore - I've seen some pretty edgy stuff - but I hate when it's there for no reason.

But people who watch stuff like Saw, maybe, would think this movie is pretty tame. It's all relative.

conandrob240 said:

what is this excessive gore you keep talking about? Did you see the same movie? It's a horror movie with considerably less gore than most.



the best King book, by the way, is The Stand.

Though The Talisman, his collaboration with Peter Straub was freaking awesome and is a close second.


well, it's a horror movie. It's not like it was a different genre and was gorey. And, yes, by horror movie standards it was light gore.

As for TWD, well it's a show about zombies in the apocalypse so I'm not sure how it wouldn't be constantly violent and gorey. It's sort of foundational to the series. 


really? How many heads did you see get blown to bits in Night of the Living Dead, for example.

Which is better?

TWD takes the cheap way out. The writers are either lazy as sh**, or the network must mandate x minutes of gore each episode.

Art it ain't.


conandrob240 said:

well, it's a horror movie. It's not like it was a different genre and was gorey. And, yes, by horror movie standards it was light gore.

As for TWD, well it's a show about zombies in the apocalypse so I'm not sure how it wouldn't be constantly violent and gorey. It's sort of foundational to the series. 



I thought the bathroom scene was silly. Didn't work for me at all. (And why did the kids feel the need to clean it up? And why could only the kids see the blood?)


I enjoyed The Stand but it was longer than it had to be. Haven't read The Talisman.

As far as "horror" is concerned, there certainly are different kinds, some bloodier than others. Some of the scariest moments are more suggestive than bloody. And there's a huge range from traditional horror movies (remember Frankenstein and Dracula?) to slasher films. I enjoy the former, won't watch the latter.


because only the kids can see It. He lives in their fears. Typical King theme- grown ups suck and can't see the world around them, kids are the visionaries.

I saw the blood as her "coming of age" fear. Being raped by her father when she now menstruates has a different level of fear for her.

And they help her clean it up because it's her darkest fear all over her walls and she's scared Her friends want to erase the pain for her.




Totally disagree ( with this and really just about everything you say). aside from a great story, the deaths of the zombies are some of the most creative, fun parts of the show. It's hysterical. When rick and michonne drove side by side with the wire between them last season, slicing dozens of zombies in half- awesome idea and fantastic make up/special effects. I love all movies and genres though- gore is fun and has it's place.  It was certainly not overused in It.

drummerboy said:

really? How many heads did you see get blown to bits in Night of the Living Dead, for example.


Which is better?


TWD takes the cheap way out. The writers are either lazy as sh**, or the network must mandate x minutes of gore each episode.

Art it ain't.



conandrob240 said:

well, it's a horror movie. It's not like it was a different genre and was gorey. And, yes, by horror movie standards it was light gore.

As for TWD, well it's a show about zombies in the apocalypse so I'm not sure how it wouldn't be constantly violent and gorey. It's sort of foundational to the series. 



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