Nov 012017
 
two reels

A group of teens, each defined by one attribute (the Jewish one, the fat one, the black one, the girl, etc.), who are bullied and have terrible parents, are set upon by an evil clown (Bill SkarsgĂĄrd).

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, It removes the half of the book—the weird “cosmic” parts (no doubt saved for the sequel) as well as the infamous teen gang-bang—leaving some kids verses an evil clown. It is well filmed, with a reasonable level of tension. The kids are not realistic in myriad ways (and shift from being quite cowardly to insanely brave from scene to scene pretty much randomly), nor are the parents, and many decisions don’t make much sense, but the acting of these questionable characters is good.

This is a well-made film. It just isn’t about much. There’s no explanation for anything (that was in the removed sections). It’s abused kids vs evil clown. That’s it. If you are thinking, “I would like to see some teens beaten up,” then this movie has a lot of moments for you. If you like teens fighting an evil clown, then again, you are in luck. The clown isn’t actually scary, or interesting, with a particularly bland voice; shouldn’t an evil clown have a dramatic or intense voice? But it is an evil clown, if you like that sort of thing.

Are you getting the point? There is no meat here. I almost feel I should put a spoiler warning around the phrase, “teens verses evil clown” because that tells you the entire film. There is nothing else, so don’t come looking. Yes, I could dig into additional details, and no doubt other reviewers have, but why? There’s nothing else. Nothing else matters.

If you’ve already watched Killer Klowns From Outer Space and House of 1000 Corpses and feel you need one more evil clown feature before bedtime, It will do. Otherwise, there’s no point.

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