Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: IT

Just to start...I'll warn you I hate this film – its creepy, weird and makes me jump.

Seven helpless and bullied children are forced to face their worst nightmares when Pennywise, a shape-shifting clown, reappears. The clown, an ancient evil torments children before feeding on them.

We start the film with brothers Bill & Georgie making a paper boat for Georgie, it's 0.2 seconds in and I”ve shit my pants, because Bill turned on the walkie talkie. Luckily for Georgie it’s raining and he decides he is going to sail his boat in the street, however it falls down a storm drain – as someone who works in the Waste Water Industry, at this point I’d be like ‘oh well, its gone, you can’t pay me to go down there’. But no, not Georgie, he decided to retrieve it, when he meets ‘Pennywise the Dancing Clown’, who appears to live in the sewer and wants to show Georgie his home, when instead he rips his arm off and drags him into the underworld.

The next Summer, Bill is still haunted by the disappearance of his little brother, while one of his classmates Ben, learns about children going missing in the town for years. Ben is running away from the town bullies when he comes across Bill and his friends in the Barrens wasteland, where they find the shoe of a girl who has recently gone missing called Betty. Having chase Ben towards the sewers, one of the bullies, Patrick, gets killed by Pennywise who has moved further into the sewer system on the hunt for more kids.

The group have a newbie join them, a girl called Beverly, who is rejected by her peers due to being promiscuous – which I think is unfair. They also befriend an orphan called Mike, who we met earlier in the film on a sheep farm where he is being taught how to kill the sheep, after he is bullied by Henry Bower, the bully’s main leader. All the group have had terrifying visions of the same clown who attacked Georgie, but what’s clever is it appears to them in different ways, representing their deepest fears. For Ben it’s a headless, undead boy. For Beverly, a sink that spews blood, Eddie sees a diseased, rotting person, Stan sees a weird painting come to life, Mike witnesses his parent burning alive, and Bill sees Georgie. The group, now known as The Losers Club, tell each other about these visions and realise they are all linked to the same clown, which they start calling It.

They discover, that It wakes up every 27 years, eats a load of children and then goes back to sleep – to be honest, if the eating children bit was eating a full Sunday roast followed by crumble and custard and then going back to sleep, I’d be well up for it! They also learn that It uses the sewer network to get around, and find that the sewer lines all lead to a well under an abandoned house, which naturally they go and investigate – again I have no clue why people can’t just leave shit alone! Once in the house, It/Pennywise attacks them – who would have guessed – but its okay, with the Losers Club fighting together, Beverly rams a stick through his head making the clown run away, with the kids also taking the opportunity to make a swift exit too.

Turns about Beverly was sexually abused by her father, and one day a few weeks after their Pennywise encounter, she confronts her dad and incapacitates him, however during this attack, Pennywise abducts her, causing the Losers Club – some of whom are a little bit in love with her – to go back to the creepy house to rescue her. Bowers, it turns out, is very weak minded having killed his own abusive father and been driven insane by It, attacks the group, but Mikey boy does the trick and pushes him down the well, meaning no more trouble from him.

They enter the sewers under the house and find Pennywise’s lair, with abandoned circus pops and children’s belongings, while their owns are floating in mid-air in a catatonic state, including Beverly. It turns out that true loves kiss conquers all, including It’s weird glowing mouth, with Ben kissing her and brining her back to the modern day. Bill sees Georgie, but he isn’t stupid, he knows it’s Just Pennywise in disguise, however he isn’t quick enough to move and is taken hostage by the psychotic clown, who tells the rest of the losers he will leave them alone if they let him have Bill.

Clearly It has never met a gang before because their answer is 100% no, and they each battle with him, overcoming their own personal fears, until it eventually retreats back into the sewer. Bill has an overwhelming moment, where he finds Georgie’s coat and realises that he truly is gone.

At the end of the summer, Beverly is leaving Derry to sat with her aunt, but she tells the group that while she was comatose, she had a vision of them fighting Pennywise again, but this time when they are adults. The gang, obviously united by what they have seen that summer, vow to return as adults and fight it if Pennywise returns.

As I said in the beginning, I hate this film, its far too jumpy for me! Am not a fan of this flick at all. Whether it's Curry or Skarsgard as Pennywise, they are both bloody terrifying.