IT (2017)

“Pennywise isn’t clowning around this time.”


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🎥 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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🧾 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

Derry, Maine looks normal on the surface — but kids keep going missing. The Losers’ Club (Bill, Bev, Eddie, Mike, Richie, Ben, Stanley) figure out it isn’t just bad luck. It’s a monster that takes the form of whatever you fear most, and most of the time it chooses to be Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Cue one of the darkest coming-of-age stories ever, where kids have to face trauma, abusive families, and a nightmare clown living in the sewers.


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👥 Character Rundown

Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) – Forget Tim Curry’s goofy charm — this Pennywise is nightmare fuel. Orange hair, cracked makeup, yellow eyes, buck teeth, smile painted up over his eyes like a devil’s trident, and the eye trick where one looks at Georgie while the other stares right at you. His laugh is sinister, his outfit looks like a cursed jester’s uniform, and yeah… he bites a kid’s arm off in the opening scene.

Bill (Jaeden Martell) – The heart of the Losers’ Club, trying to find Georgie. His grief keeps the story moving.

Beverly (Sophia Lillis) – Brave, tough, but trapped with a creepy abusive dad. The heartbreaker of the group.

Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) – Germaphobe, hypochondriac, constantly terrified, but funny.

Richie (Finn Wolfhard) – The loudmouth comic relief. He’s afraid of clowns, so of course Pennywise uses that.

Mike (Chosen Jacobs) – Orphaned after his parents die in a fire, his fear visions are some of the scariest.

Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) – Sweet, shy, into Derry’s history. His encounter with the headless boy in the library is nightmare fuel.

Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) – Quiet, logical, gets tormented by the creepy flute lady.



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⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

It starts strong (Georgie’s death is brutal), then the film settles into a rhythm: each kid gets stalked by Pennywise in some horrifying form, they regroup, fight, split up, regroup again. Sometimes it feels like a series of short films stitched together, but it all builds to the big showdown in the sewers. It’s long, but the tension keeps rising, and the garage projector scene is one of the scariest “oh shit” moments of modern horror.


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✅ Pros

Pennywise’s design and performance — Bill Skarsgård is terrifying. The eye trick, the voice, the laugh — pure nightmare fuel.

The kids are perfectly cast. You actually care about them.

Each scare feels tailored to their personal trauma/fear.

The gore hits harder because the original miniseries barely showed any.

That projector scene? Instant horror classic.

The ending blood oath sets up Chapter 2 in a satisfying way.



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❌ Cons

Some of the CGI looks goofy (headless Ben, for example).

Pennywise occasionally gets a little too “video game boss fight.”

A couple of the kids’ subplots (like Mike’s family fire) feel changed just for the sake of change.



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💭 Final Thoughts

This is what a remake should do. It keeps the heart of the story, updates the horror, and makes Pennywise scary again. It’s dark, bloody, and it doesn’t hold back like the miniseries did. This was actually my first horror movie I ever saw in theaters, so it has a special place for me — and let me tell you, seeing Georgie get his arm bitten off in surround sound was a “what the hell have I signed up for” moment.


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⭐ Rating

9.4/10. Creepy, gory, and unforgettable. Pennywise came back swinging, and I walked out of the theater scarred in the best way.


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alright, sewer rats, let’s talk about the gore and the floaty bits.


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🩸 Spoilers

The film kicks off with Georgie and the paper boat. Except this time, Pennywise isn’t playing around — he chomps Georgie’s arm clean off. Blood everywhere. Georgie crawls in agony before Pennywise pulls him into the sewer. Boom, tone set.

Each Loser gets their scare: Mike sees his parents burning alive behind a door, Stanley’s haunted by the flute lady, Eddie gets the leper, Ben is stalked by a headless boy after researching Derry’s history, Bev deals with her creepy dad and a sink full of blood that literally paints the bathroom red. Bill even sees Georgie again, only for Pennywise to rot him away right in front of him.

The projector scene is the big turning point — Pennywise hijacks the slides, blows himself up to giant size, and crawls out of the screen with razor teeth flashing. It’s terrifying.

They finally decide to storm Pennywise’s lair in the haunted house on Neibolt Street. Richie gets locked in a clown room with a coffin that has a doll version of himself inside. Eddie breaks his arm after falling through the floor, only for Pennywise to crawl out of a fridge in the creepiest, most inhuman way possible. Beverly stabs him in the eye to save them, but they split up after the fight.

Henry Bowers loses it, kills his abusive dad, and gets recruited by Pennywise before tumbling down a well. Bev gets kidnapped. The Losers reunite and face Pennywise together. The final fight is brutal — Bev shoves a pipe down his throat, Ben gets slashed, everyone takes their turn beating him down until he retreats. For once, Pennywise looks scared.

The kids free the floating bodies of all his victims, Bill finds Georgie’s raincoat, and finally accepts his brother is dead. They make a blood oath to come back if IT ever returns, slice their palms, and seal it together. One by one, they go their separate ways, until only Bill and Bev remain. She leaves for her grandmother’s. They kiss.

Then the title card: IT: Chapter One.