By Travis Johnson
It’s been a long time coming and it arrives at the tail of a somewhat troubled production process (the temptation to focus on what Cary Fukunaga’s version might have been is strong, but let’s give Andres Muschietti his day in court) but here, at last, is the trailer for the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s childhood horror door-stopper, It. And it looks great.
There’s a couple of things to take away here right off the bat. First, the film is only adapting the sections of King’s novel set in 1955, which chronicle The Losers’ Club’s first battle with the child-killing demon that lives in the sewers of their hometown of Derry, Maine. Secondly, what was 1955 is now 1985, and the planned sequel will take place in 2015, just as the novel’s second timeframe took place in then-contemporary 1985. Got it?
Purists will balk but hey – that’s what purists do. Still, getting upset over that kind of thing is really throwing the baby out with the bathwater – the trailer looks great. Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise the Clown is creepy as all hell, and different enough from Tim Curry’s 1990 version to be distinct, while still recognisably rooted in the literary character. The setting is note-perfect – this might be the best screen version Stephen King Country yet, all rain-soaked and down-home Yankee and inexplicably creepy. There are some decent scares to be had – the slide projector scene is fantastic. And the kids?
Holy heck, the kids are perfect.
It opens in Australia on September 7. We are so there.
