'It' is no laughing matter as film hits the big screen
The supernatural horror movie version of the author’s 1986 novel follows a group of children who are terrorised by an evil clown called Pennywise.
It is the second adaptation of the book after the 1990 TV mini-series which saw Tim Curry appear as the shape-shifting supernatural villain, a role played by Bill Skarsgard in the new film.
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Hide AdMany critics have declared director Andres Muschietti’s new adaptation a “horror classic”, and it currently has a rating of 100 per cent on movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes.
The Guardian said It “is an ensemble smorgasbord of scariness, or maybe a portmanteau of petrification, throwing everything but the haunted kitchen-sink at the audience in the cause of freaking us out”.
The Telegraph gave It four out of five stars, saying it was “a ring-the-changes update, with the ramped-up set pieces and state-of-the-art grisliness to match”.
The name for the irrational fear of clowns is known as coulrophobia, with the prefix “coulro” coming from the ancient Greek word for “one who goes on stilts.”
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Hide AdHowever, some felt Skarsgard’s incarnation of the character could not eclipse Curry’s haunting portrayal in the television adaptation.
Much of the action is carried by the young cast playing a group of outsiders who call themselves The Losers’ Club.
The film, now showing at Wigan’s Empire Cinema, is expected to attract big crowds.