itt: it

sub-freddy nightmare house is embarrassing

Yeah, this stuff was all seemingly tailor-made to be imitated by small-town low-budget haunted houses for many Octobers to come.

Can we talk about all the kids sitting around in their tighty whiteys to the tune of Bust a Move during the quarry scene? A chick walks by you wish you could sex her/but you're standing on the wall like you was Poindexter. I didn't need anything about any of that.

The mike thing really ticked off the part of me that is still 15 and obsessed with the novel - they took away his whole deal and gave it to the kid who already has like two whole deals 😡

Yeah, completely unforgivable.

Stan otoh even in the book doesn't have much of a deal beyond "is going to kill himself", when you don't get that upfront it's just a bit of a nothing character

http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/cary-fukunaga-it-script-what-the-movie-changes.html

xp he also likes birds

Likes birds, is doomed: not gonna lie, it isn't much but it's more than this film could be bothered to come up with

Here we get: is Jewish, does uhhh Jewish stuff

the change made me wonder if they're planning to kill him off instead for some reason

wins otm. enjoyably Stranger Things, but not very scary and the payback was kind of a cop out 'I am not afraid of you' believe in yourself garbage. Shame really. I liked it more than I didn't like it

I should watch this, I guess. My sister loved it and she's the harshest horror fan I know. Nothing passes muster with her (the last film I can remember us giving a collective two thumbs up was Home Movie).

It isn't completely awful it just doesn't live up to its rep imo. Hopefully some people will come and say nice things about it at some point (jclc really liked it iirc)

If you like stranger things at its best you'll like the interactions between the kids for sure. Wee nebbish germophobe + Finn wolfhard are a legit hilarious double act

I appreciate it as a coming of age film, Finn Wolfhard (still can't believe this is his real name) was a great Richie, the actress who played Beverly was great. Like someone upthread said, it felt a little thin for 2.5 hours, but there were plenty of genuinely creepy moments

Finn wolfhard and chosen Jacobs

xp yeah, eddie was great too, his chapters were always the hardest for me to get through in the book, but the kid who played him had a lot of charm and one of the best "i'm horrified" looks in the biz

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zKZrMX1z_Tk/WeJSSyfB-uI/AAAAAAAAASg/F9tb9_c4unomxJ_ri1cdTY0KxyO8lUziwCJoC/w540-h256/IMG_0862.GIF

not enough sewergangbanging imo

It was interesting to read in that vulture piece that the original script had a version of that scene! (The fukunaga version of this would for sure have been better, nobody doubts this right)

it’s so weird to me that this beloved book, which has spawned a tv series and two movies and is to this day a cornerstone of its writer’s career, has a pivotal scene where a bunch of underage kids fuck in a sewer

no doubt. cary's a mean old daddy, but i like him fine.

xp it's surprisingly easy to forget about considering there are approximately 2000 pages where kids aren't fucking in a sewer

Another thing I thought was well done was what king in the book calls the apocalyptic rock fight. I like how they abruptly cut to a wide shot and it suddenly looks exactly as pathetic as a rock fight would irl. Reminds me of a similar moment in twin peaks s3 where shit's getting crazy and there's a sudden cut to a master shot that just hilariously deflates the scene

Cocaine is a helluva drug xp

I already discussed this in the thread on King adaptations as well, but I liked it. Nothing really scary beyond the prologue (though I did jump during the projector scene), and (echoing clemenza in the other thread), I'm just sick to death of busy CGI effects. It would be nice if the whole 80s nostalgia thing that a lot of movies/TV are going for these days would extend one of them using 80s-style practical FX.

The cast was fantastic, and I would go so far as to say that this is one of the best set of child actors I've ever seen on film. The film worked for me as both a coming-of-age movie and even as a sentimental Spielberg-esque suburban fantasy (call me a sap, but the stuff with the brothers worked for me in a straightforward tearjerker-y way). Just not so much as a horror movie.

the kids' swearing was the best part of the movie

loved the book and was disappointed by the movie, structurally it was a failure because the power and immensity of the evil of 'it' in the book is best demonstrated by the frequent flipping back and forth between the childhood/adult timelines. despite everything they went thru as kids, they forgot everything and ended up repeating and recreating the abusive and traumatic and toxic circumstances of their youth (i.e. beverly's husband). that was totally lost in the movie and defanged 'it'

this is one of the best set of child actors I've ever seen on film

otm. issues I had were with the script, not with the performances. the adults didn't really act like recognizable humans to me, but I kind of understand that as an artistic choice. the novel makes clear that It affects all the adults in Derry to make them either monsters or bystanders. but it could've been a little less bodysnatchers-y

Yeah I could see what they were going for and I liked that they made Henry's & Bev's dads and the pharmacist even nastier but it's a bit much to have every adult be a dead-eyed psychopath the whole time

Similarly the creepy tv show in the background the whole time is neat in some ways but having the adults be literally hypnotised by a subliminal message is a bit too, well, literal

Reminds me of a similar moment in twin peaks s3 where shit's getting crazy and there's a sudden cut to a master shot that just hilariously deflates the scene

― scrüt (wins), Thursday, February 1, 2018 9:32 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, okay, the TP scene you're referring to is hilarious and I think you've sold me on this for all the wrong reasons.

iirc from the book, the pharmacist was not a bad dude at all.

In the book it's suggested that even tho he's "doing the right thing" he takes a sadistic pleasure in upending eddie's world

Ha, okay, the TP scene you're referring to is hilarious and I think you've sold me on this for all the wrong reasons.

If you go in for the comedy those are prob the right reasons! It's what this film does well

yeah the pharmacist was certainly mean, at the very least. he was also very involved in the 1930 murder of the gangsters in the book.

Oh yeah, I remember that now.

i haven't watched this one yet but is it actually any good?

it got a lot of mixed reviews

maybe if you haven't read the book

i actually haven't

so a classic case of book is better?

worth watching for sure, prob better if you haven't read the book

FUCK THIS MOVIE

well then

lol

yeah i mean there isn't really any way to adapt a 1,100+ page novel into a two or even three hour movie. should've been another miniseries. but i can't emphasize enough how badly they fucked up the movie by altering the structure of the book. one of the central ideas/qualities of 'it' is that it is eternal & cyclical, and by flipping back and forth between the 50s and the 80s in the book, demonstrating how nothing has changed in the future even as the kids struggle and fight and do their best in teh 50s, the book really successfully conveys an omnipresent evil that is so much larger and more vague and scarier than its main avatar, a scary clown. the book is about childhood trauma and how it reverberates into adulthood. the movie is about killing an evil clown. dud

unfortunately i think w/the way Hollywood tries to maximize their product, dividing IT into two separate parts in this way was the most palatable way for the films to reach a wider audience. they can easily say, oh sure the kids in Pt 1 and the adults in Pt 2 and be done with it, they don't even have to be structurally clever or interesting.

obviously a weird decision but i mean this is an industry that turned a 300 page kids' book into a 9 hour trilogy just to get the most bang for their buck.

maybe not "weird" per se, it makes perfect sense, but it's the easy way out.

THIS STUPID MOVIE HAS CGI BLOOD IN LIKE THE FIRST 5 MINUTES. JUST USE REAL FAKE BLOOD, FUCKING IDIOTS. ALSO EVERYTHING DOESN'T HAVE TO BE STRANGER THINGS, DICKHEADS!

when that diaper baby "every one floats down here bobby" or whatever scene the baby boy gets dragged and it's like the worst cgi blood in the history of the medium fuck fyck fuckfyewhfoi

it's like the worst cgi blood in the history of the medium

why is this bad tho

because it look stup and dumb and not goopy and drippy

and like filmmakers that dont just drag a baby boy and use real fake blood in a fuckin HORROR MOVIE in a scene where a boy is dragged and blood is there are just shitty filmmakers by default and they should just kill themselves. also that stupid clown dance was stupid and for idiots.

https://media.giphy.com/media/XyAGm96eUIPsc/giphy.gif

WOW REAL SCARY

What is that happy crappy?

The making Pennywise small scene reminded me of the scene at the end of 2004s Peter Pan where the Lost Boys kill Hook by making him depressed

https://media.giphy.com/media/lTeDekrrolf6o/giphy.gif

I saw this last night and it was a Good Bad Movie, I will not be taking questions at this time.

direct me now to the many good epilogues in movies

oh also this movie had a brazen steal from Carpenter's "The Thing" that made me laugh and clap.

I saw this last night and it was a Good Bad Movie, I will not be taking questions at this time.

― I don't get wet because I am tall and thin and I am afraid of people (Eliza D.), Tuesday, September 10, 2019 6:01 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the take i was waiting for

I wouldn't have thought it would be too difficult to make a better version of the network miniseries featuring a slew of TV actors but I guess it actually is difficult.

I rewatched the miniseries a little while back and at least the first half held up surprisingly well. I don't think I need to see the new ones as it sounds like many of the decisions they made would aggravate me to no end.

The endings of both these films are so much worse than the end of the novel it's kind of hilarious

wait so they manage to be WORSE than a prepubescent orgy

i saw the first chapter (lol) the other day and like part one of the miniseries i thought it was pretty good! without the adult timeline it's a little like the goonies vs. evil clown but i could get down with the vibe. gonna start cleaning my bathroom to "six different ways." hated the camera-shaking scares though

I did enjoy the first volume a lot.

though the pacing did annoy me, it kept feeling like they were shuttling these characters into different scare zones. i hear it's even worse wrt part two

xp

That was my problem. I never was a fan of the haunted house jump scare parts, but there were fewer of them in the first volume. I connected more with the coming of age story.

It: Chapter Two (2019)
(dir. Andy Muschietti) pic.twitter.com/nMmxlmzE5w

— Simpsons Films (@simpsonsfilms) September 10, 2019

wins is otm that this was really bad, yet somehow i enjoyed it. i think it was just the overall vibe of "adults who were childhood friends get back together and rekindle the flame of first love," i'll take a shot of that no matter how poor the quality.

basically like The Big Chill crossed w/The Thing, there's even a suicide at the beginning.

that sounds like it would resonate with a lot of people but it definitely does not resonate with me

i guess i am the opposite of map when it comes to this i think it was just the overall vibe of "adults who were childhood friends get back together and rekindle the flame of first love," in that i am basically not interested under any circumstances.

not that it matters what i think or what i like -- It has a life of its own!

lol they were running the preview for this before MIDSOMMAR and at first I didn't recognize it and was all "huh this quiet scene with the creepy old lady in her house actually seems p cool" but then they showed the clown and I was like "oh hell no"

You were all about the naked crazy old lady?

wins is otm that this was really bad, yet somehow i enjoyed it. i think it was just the overall vibe of "adults who were childhood friends get back together and rekindle the flame of first love," i'll take a shot of that no matter how poor the quality.

direct me now to the many good epilogues in movies

they are all in Wild Things (1998)

You were all about the naked crazy old lady?

tbh... yes

actually it's gerontophilia

lol

somehow i enjoyed it. i think it was just the overall vibe of "adults who were childhood friends get back together and rekindle the flame of first love," i'll take a shot of that no matter how poor the quality.

This is basically where I'm at wrt "Chapter 2" also. What makes IT one of the only King books that still kinda has its hooks in me is the both-sides-now child-adult mirroring, with both halves regretting something they don't have yet/anymore. In any case, this one ditches almost all the Stranger Things shit that ruined the first part, so advantage belongs with this one.

Also, yes, scary fast hot naked booby granny gross tango was a highlight.

Also, Mike spiking Bill's water with root -- "What did you do to me?!"

Also, everything everyone negative to say about bullying Pennywise until he turns into Rubber Johnny and sheds copious tears of a murderous clown clearly has never read a single page from the legendarily and lovably embarrassing bibliography of one Stephen King.

Also, production values are entirely too high tbh.

Also, much hotter "not fat anymore" Ben than the ABC mini, even if his chemistry with the rest of the cast is at the level of a hologram.

Also, Xavier Dolan using his last dying breaths to make a joke about his gay basher's mullet looking like a Meg Ryan wig is chef's kiss, and only one of two anti-mullet punchlines made by someone badly wounded.

Also, I don't care what anyone else has to say on this, the curious decision to turn Richie urp-prone Trashmouth into a closeted homo carrying a torch for the somehow straight mama's boy Eddie inhaler-sucking Kaspbrak, and unveiling that plot point vis-a-vis a needle-drop appearance by Pennywise goading Richie into a game of Truth or Dare, and watching this all play out in a movie theater while sitting next to a straight childhood friend with whom I also experienced my first erections in the presence of another dude from sleepover games of "reluctant" Truth or Dare (emphasis on Dare), was let's just say a moment.

But yes, the endings sucked.

wins relentlessly otm on this thread esp here:

Nothing is allowed to matter

even torture porn horror schlock allows characters to present themselves as traumatized by the shit they're going through: they get jumpy, they become hyper-vigilant, they become constantly reactive to the possibility of further insult. tobe hooper was great at this -- once a person sees some truly soul-altering shit, he/she doesn't just start cracking wise five minutes later with the threat still present. nothing against good horror wisecracks but once you're down the well in this movie, you are fucked up, and you're going to be fucked up for a long time. nothing here seems to touch anybody, unless it kills them.

but it's also a good bad movie as eliza d. says: a fun watch with a bunch of dumb shit, like all the cheap 80s horror movies I love. And Skarsgard is fucking glorious, every minute he spends onscreen is a gift.

I am otm but probably too relentlessly sometimes - as a person who will rewatch thinner I am glad some people are enjoying this bad movie 🙂 I can see myself maybe softening on it over time as long as I never have to watch it again

Re the “curious decision” to make Richie the gay one (was trying not to spoil this earlier as it’s a surprising choice that actually works), I strongly suspect either that this was made after casting Hader or that the filmmakers were just big Richie fans - that actor/character is given the only interesting stuff to do p much. One of the more egregious examples of “nothing can matter” is the losers being surprised to see Richie grieve their friend who died horribly minutes before. It’s a good moment for him but shouldn’t those guys give a shit as well?

The mook they got to play hunky Ben = total void

I liked the first "chapter" for the engaging performances from the child actors and because it hit my 80s nostalgia sweet spot. Chapter 2 is three hours of expensive-looking CGI.

Otm

Yep. Tried watching the second one twice, fell asleep both times.

I stand by most of what I wrote (while buzzed) above but have no desire to ever watch it again, to be clear.

Ok, I did laugh at the King and Bogdanovich cameos.

Chapter 2 was definitely a chore

it was an assload of fuck