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Review by E.C. McMullen Jr. |
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IT: IN CINEMA- 2017USA Release: Sept. 8, 2017 KatzSmith Productions, Lin Pictures, Vertigo Entertainment, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, New Line Cinema, Warner Bros. Rating: USA: R |
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The novel is so emotionally wrenching that loyal members of the Loser's Club will either return to visiting these characters over and over or, like the characters themselves, distance themselves from the events and never want to revisit the Horrors.
I'm in the latter category but only where the novel is concerned. I've watched the TV movie with Tim Curry and the feature film with Bill Skarsgård more than a few times.
So why won't I revisit the book if I love to read so much?
For the same reason that many people are afraid, in general, to read fiction at all. Unlike a movie you don't have someone else's vision of what's happening. When you read you aren't given the luxury of picking apart the special effects, your eye/brain connection instantly noticing the tiny details that warms you with the thought that this isn't really happening.
When you read your mind creates the world, drawing upon your own experiences to fill in the blanks. In the space of a single sentence you can be surprised, alarmed even, at the card shuffle construction your mind performs in a snap: open a long closed door, reminding you of an experience you'd prefer to forget, to remain locked away. When that moment comes as it often does to those who love fiction, you are no longer reading what happens in the story, the story is happening to you.
TRIVIA In the final days of Warner Bros. before the Discovery take over, the Post-It Note suits believed so strongly that they had screwed the movie so badly, and it would perform so terribly, that they didn't bother with preparing the second half of the movie or even having a script ready for it |
When I re-read a novel, especially a novel as huge as IT, there are moments in there, terrible moments, that I forgot.
In movies, the story is always happening to someone else: One point of removal. If you know of the actor, two points of removal. For the sake of editing they may have even removed the Horrific moment that turned its face away from the page and spoke directly to you.
That's my problem with Stephen King's IT, see? Reading fiction, the characters, makes me start to identify with one or more of them. I become part of the story as my mind fills in all of the blanks, things that aren't there, to complete this world. Stephen King seemingly knew his readers would do that. There are moments in the novel IT where King leads you to the point where you fill in the empty spaces with your suddenly remembered, personal horrors. In that second, often with a mere sentence, King's empty space is where your monster lives.
Now let me tell you about the 2017 movie, IT.
Copyright 2018 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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