4/24/2023 0 Comments Synalyze it reviewWith his gangly arms and marionette gait, Skarsgård’s wall-eyed killer clown resembles a baby-faced relative of Freddy Krueger. As for Sophia Lillis’s abused but strongly self-sufficient Beverly (“Who invited Molly Ringwald into the group?”), her Carrie-like anxieties manifest in a bloody eruption that owes less to the lift sequence from The Shining than to Johnny Depp’s demise in A Nightmare on Elm Street. ![]() Mike (Chosen Jacobs) sees visions of fiery tragedy that chime with suppressed memories of childhood trauma Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) is distracted from his bar mitzvah rehearsals by a chaotic face that leers at him from a painting hypochondriac Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) is pursued by “a walking infection” that seems to embody his mother’s overprotective fantasies. Significantly, each of our key characters is haunted by nightmarish apparitions that feed upon their individual fears. As the summer vacation of ’89 rolls around, and yet more youngsters disappear, a group of variously bullied “Losers” embark upon a Stand By Me-style quest through the woods and into the sewers, in search of a mythical monster. Riddled with guilt and grief, Georgie’s older brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher, who shone in Midnight Special), becomes obsessed with finding the lost boy. Here, poor Georgie Denbrough is dragged into a storm drain by the evil Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, ably filling Curry’s oversize clown shoes). Tackling only the early years of King’s chunky source, this “Chapter One” (a sequel is due to follow) relocates the coming-of-age section of the novel from the 50s to the late 80s. ![]() The chills may be more funhouse than frightful, but Muschietti’s tangible affection for the misfit schoolkids at the centre of this story draws us into their world, lending engaging weight to their (pre)adolescent trials and tribulations. Drawing heavily on such 80s screen favourites as Poltergeist and The Goonies (both of which were co-written/produced by Steven Spielberg), this latest incarnation will resonate with audiences hooked on the nostalgic weirdness of Netflix’s Stranger Things. Now, the Argentinean director Andy Muschietti, who directed 2013’s creepy Mama, brings a touch of widescreen gloss to King’s enduring horror-adventure.
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