In the summer of 1989 in the small town of Derry children are going missing and it falls to a group of outcasts to battle against the malevolent manifestation of evil that is Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

“It” has a lot to live up to if you are of a certain age. Not only is it based on an iconic Stephen King novel, but there is also the Tim Curry starring mini series that scared many a child in the 90’s. Thankfully this updated version is spectacularly good, managing to be unbearably tense at times and featuring a delightfully chilling performance from Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise.

Rather than take on the entire 1300+ page novel, this film is just the children’s story with the adult tale due to follow in a sequel. Ultimately the film feels like a coming of age story as it follows the 7 children across a Summer, albeit whilst they fight the embodiment of evil that feeds on their fears, both real and imagined. Adults appear rarely in the story and when they do its generally not as a force for good, the kids have to face their fears together as they become adults.

As far as the horror goes, this works really well at ratcheting tension and has some good effects work, but it shouldn’t scare you out of your wits. Pennywise is chilling but as the children come to understand what he is you too should find his spell breaks a little.

Highly recommended and once you have seen it I am sure that you will float too.