Sometimes, it happens that in the cinema there is an inversely proportional relationship between expectations and surprises. This could be the case with IT, which has been in Italian cinemas for a few days, based on the well-known story by Stephen King written in 1986. In fact, lovers of the horror, blood and fear genre have been waiting for this film for some time. So much expectation, but little surprise.
The American writer is undoubtedly among the best in the horror genre and, in the film adaptations, it is enough to remember his first Carrie, and then The Shining as well as Christine, the infernal machine. Not only horror but also thriller with the addition of scenic effects of unquestionable grip on the public that has always rewarded King both in book sales and in successful films. It is considered his masterpiece and millions of copies have been sold worldwide. For fans of the genre there was therefore a lot of anticipation to see how the pages of the story would be passed to the film.
The story takes place around the 80s in a small town in Maine where a group of seven young teenagers are faced with an entity, Pennywise the dancing clown, who kidnaps and kills young people and adults. The group of boys will try to understand who she is and why all this happens, starting with the mysterious disappearance of the young brother of one of the members of the "gang of losers" as they called themselves.
At this point the cinematographic story is divided into two parts: the first concerns the images, the problems, the difficulties of young teenagers in a small provincial town. The second part that runs parallel concerns the adults, mostly parents, who have a significant influence on the climate of tension and fear that surrounds them. Some of them are, perhaps, the real monsters to fear. This parallel story speaks volumes about the mechanisms of formation of the sense of fear that, since childhood, parents have proposed to their children starting from the most apparent and harmless fairy tales, starting with Little Red Riding Hood and her ravenous wolf. It goes without saying that, since it is a horror film, you will not read anything more that could distract the curiosity of going to the cinema and seeing how it ends, given that the production has anticipated a sequel expected in 2019. A film like this could be I can make sense to ask how and why certain things happen, but maybe a sensible closure.
The film flows sufficiently, even if the influence of a certain way of making cinema is strongly felt, especially in the more animated sequences, influenced by the world of video games and, in fact, as the film is proposed, it appears more aimed at a young audience than adults. Of terror, in the hall, little is felt and the usual sound effects or the dark scenes in cellars full of cobwebs are not enough to arouse great tension. For those who have in mind the memory of The Shining, it will be because the direction was by a certain Stanley Kubrick, the comparison with this direction by the Argentine almost newcomer Andrés Muschietti, does not hold up.
