As much as I looked forward to last night to go see this movie, I was apprehensive. Pennywise the Dancing Clown is one of my favorite evil characters, and I thought Tim Curry's portrayal in the 1990 TV movie was spot on and probably a mistake to try again. So I was prepared to be disappointed.

I was wrong.

Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise was scarier than the Curry character. King wrote the character as the embodiment of all childhood fears, every kid's Room 101 containing the thing they fear the most. Skarsgård nails that. His Pennywise has none of the campiness of Curry's version. He's pure evil. One nice touch: if you look close you can see he tends to drool a little bit down his lower lip when he is talking to one of the kids. It's the type of thing that when realized makes our skin crawl and props to either the actor or director.

The story focuses exclusively on the summer of 1989, the first appearance when the protagonists are all children. There is none of the time line jumping of the 1990 movie and the book. IMO this worked. It ratchets up the tension and obviously sets it up for the sequel as the reappearance 27 years later in 2016.

If I had one nitpick it would have to be the trope of characters who seem determined to check out situations where the normal reaction would be to run like hell. I know this is necessary for plot advancement, which is why it has become a trope, but like so many horror movies there are times you want to scream at the screen, "NO YOU IDIOT!!! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THERE!!!!" Personally if I am alone in the house and weird things start to happen like lights flickering and going out, and then a door suddenly opens by itself and the light in the room beyond flickers to life, my degree of curiosity to investigate these phenomena would be less than zero. But that's just me.

Anyway I loved this movie. Highly recommended and I can't wait for the sequel.