It 2017 ****

While the original tv miniseries of It has plenty of commend it, not least Tim Curry’s fabulous turn as Pennywise the clown, this 2017 remake manages to resolve lots of underlying issues, not least the dreadful special effects in the second part. A group of kids including a tormented by an evil spirit that is haunting and kidnapping the children of Derry, Maine, and Pennywise the dancing clown is the character who haunts their dreams. Andy Muschietti’s horror-thriller is a real Rolls –Royce production, with brilliantly cast kids, a superb script from True Detective’s Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Stephen King’s original story given space to breathe; the past and present narratives are no longer juxtaposed, and with the adult story left to 2019’s sequel, this doubling-down on the quality of King’s work makes it one of the best adaptations of his work to date, and one of the most faithful to boot. Whether the magic will carry over to the sequel, without the kids, is a moot point, but this is a great horror film anyway.