This iteration stands as a decent big-budget horror film while riding the nostalgia wave for all things 80's and 90's. Its a pretty good movie on most fronts, specifically as a coming of age adventure film slightly scarier than most. What makes this adaptation work is the casting of the kids and their shared chemistry and comedy. There are some standouts amongst a uniformly great cast, some of the children get short-changed, but the essential character quirks are conveyed. They banter and play naturalistically, and this goes far to making this film work. Unfortunately, most of the horror moments come from jump scares and big CG shocks but none of it is actually that scary. This iteration of Pennywise is genuinely unsettling, but a little too fond of jump-scares and running at the children gibbering madly. He goes more for shock than scares, and only in the opening demonstrates restraint or subtlety. The opening is actually one of the few creepy parts in this film, and most unsettling moments actually come in similar tension building and backdrop scenes... This director can do quite a bit with just a single balloon moving in a disquieting manner, an unsettling movement in shadows, or a quiet whisper of complicit evil. These small moments are far and few between but they are far more effective than jump scares or CG extravaganzas. Regardless of a lack of scares for diehard horror afficionados, this is a very well done and faithful adaptation of one of King's better novels.
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