Pennywise receives makeover for ‘It’

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IT the clown Courtesy of itmovie

27 years later, It is back.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown, otherwise known as “It,” takes children and kills them to feed his hunger. In perhaps a nod to viewers who are aware of the previous movie and the source novel by Stephen King, “It” is said to come back every 27 years, and this new remake is released 27 years after the first movie. In a way, Pennywise is coming back into a new generation: in reality as well as fiction.

The story begins with Bill Denbrough giving his younger brother Georgie a paper boat. Georgie then lets the boat sail down the side of the street, in the midst of a downpour, and unintentionally, into a drain. Georgie tries to retrieve it, but Pennywise waits to claim his victim. Georgie goes missing and the story is set into motion as Bill and a group of his friends start looking into Georgie’s disappearance.

As the group of kids begin to look more and more into the mystery, they start seeing the clown himself, or even the eerie passing of his mark, the red balloon. Mysteries and tragedies continue to haunt the town as children continue to go missing, and the group begins to discover Its 27 year cycle.

In contrast to the original, the new movie gave more of an insight into each of the kid’s lives. As a vehicle of this, Pennywise uses the fears of each kid to torment them in unique ways. For example, Beverly Marsh fears blood, and the origin of which is multi-layered.

The movie gives room for the viewer to believe she is afraid of blood, in part, due to how it seems like her father has sexually abused her, and as the movie progresses the father keeps asking if Beverly is still his “little girl.” In the first movie, we get this insight as well, but the difference is slight but extremely important; Pennywise possesses her father and tries to sexually abuse her. Pennywise is manipulating Beverly’s pre-existing fear of her father. In the remake, Pennywise does not possess her father, but her father still tries to abuse her.

A difference I noticed in the movies the design change of Pennywise between the 1990 version and the recent remake. Outside of the expected graphics update that comes with 30 years of technological development, the aesthetic of the clown has evolved into a nightmare apparition compared to the cartoon-ish feeling of the original.

Overall, I would rate the movie a 4 out of 5. There were scary jump scenes, but there was also a lot of time getting the story into place. The remake did not meet my personal expectations on being horrified, but I still haven’t forgotten how terrified I was of clowns after watching the original as a kid.

Jessica Castillo can be reached at [email protected] or @_itzjess on Twitter.