The serious dramatic themes ring hollow, however, leaving only the paperback boogety boogety to justify the Oscar-bait running time.

Full Review | Apr 9, 2020

The film depends - and succeeds - entirely on the strength of their performances, and for two hours that speed by all too quickly, it's not too much of a stretch to feel like we're on summer vacation with them.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Dec 8, 2017

It sticks with you to haunt and influence your nightmares!

Full Review | Nov 20, 2017

It's well-executed, marvelously acted, and has a few scary sequences. It also has just as many that are not, as well as a wobbly command of tone and trouble sustaining its own momentum.

Full Review | Sep 27, 2017

In the end, Muschietti's film is a big, fat, gorgeously produced love letter to King's epic novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 15, 2017

But while It is a good film that is skilled at recreating its milieu, it also made me a little sad. Boys get all the good nostalgia pieces.

Full Review | Sep 14, 2017

This It feels a little too much like pastiche, with its window on to an 80s informed by King as much as any other creator but a little further along the path to cartoonishness than the novel or the TV miniseries.

Full Review | Original Score: 4 | Sep 12, 2017

It is [a] study in trauma to match the best of them.

Full Review | Sep 12, 2017

I'm writing this not so much as a critic but as an ordinary moviegoer, experiencing Proustian transport via an old-fashioned scary movie executed by a team of filmmakers and actors at the top of their game.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 11, 2017

What we're left with is a solid but relatively conventional horror movie, above average but overlong.

Full Review | Sep 11, 2017

The movie is not terrifying but blandly edifying; its scares, foreshadowed as if by telegram, are delivered less effectively than its life lessons.

Full Review | Sep 11, 2017

While it may not be as frightening as some hardened horror fans desire, the archetypal terrors and fundamental friendships of King's source are slickly transferred to the screen with a ghoulish enthusiasm that proves hard to resist.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2017

Doesn't cut very deep and isn't very scary.

Full Review | Sep 9, 2017

It's such a great performance that you wish Muschietti had eased up on the CGI and just let Skarsgård do the talking.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 9, 2017

Even those unfamiliar with the book might wonder why this kids-only manifestation of IT feels strangely toothless on the horror front.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2017

This new It has more on its mind, and gives more body and voice to King's ideas of childhood anxieties and the corrosive power of fear.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2017

Horror's power here does not come from monstrous imagery, but from the encounter with evil... Muschietti seems to miss that, going for teeth over terror from the get-go.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 8, 2017

I liked It a lot. Its aftermath is so busy in my mind, that I'm tempted to award it four stars just for that. But based on what is on the screen I'll stick with 3 1/2.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 8, 2017

I can't say the first half of It scared me senseless, but it built up enough goodwill toward its young heroes to make me curious about what they'll be like in their grown-up incarnations.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2017

You'll scream bloody murder!

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2017