Episode 609 - "It" (2017)
Podcast |
One Movie Punch
Media Type |
audio
Podknife tags |
Movies
Reviews
TV & Film
Categories Via RSS |
Arts
Performing Arts
TV & Film
Publication Date |
Oct 13, 2019
Episode Duration |
00:13:44

NARRATOR: “Welcome back to Reign of Terror 2019! 31 straight days of horror movie reviews and interviews. Today’s episode will be a classic horror movie review from our... let’s call him a hero, Joseph for 2017’s ‘It’, the incredible adaptation by Andy Muschietti, Gary Dauberman, Chase Palmer, and Cary Joji Fukunaga.”

NARRATOR: “Before the review, however, we’ll be running a promo for Sponsor Sundays. If you like what you’re hearing, and want to support future projects, head over to patreon.com/onemoviepunch to support the podcast. All sponsors get to force Joseph to review a movie of their choice, with just a few exceptions. You’ll also find exclusive content, including part two of an interview with Kerry G. Fleming, about 2017’s ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’, written with Victor Fleming of the ‘Friday the 13th’ franchise, and directed by Tom Holland, director of the original ‘Child’s Play’.”

NARRATOR: “Can’t wait to check out that second part while it’s publicly available for a limited time. At least until Joseph makes it back home. If he makes it home. Will he? Let’s turn out attention back to the fate of our host, in Part Four of “FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT”.”

SCENE: Sewers.

JOSEPH: “Oh god...”

NARRATOR: “It smelled. Bad. Like, really bad.”

JOSEPH: “The... saur... us...” NARRATOR: “Like every visit to every bathroom in your life at once.”

JOSEPH: “Huuunnghhh...”

NARRATOR: “Like opening a wet bag of garbage that’s been sitting out in the sun.” 

JOSEPH: “Shut... Up...”

NARRATOR: “Like a pile of offal outside a rendering plant, filling the nostrils with the most putrid of substances.”

JOSEPH: “Bad... is... fine...”

NARRATOR: “It got worse... but then it got better, as he came out into a standpipe, housing the discarded and flushed remnants of a town called...” 

JOSEPH: “Derry? But that’s a fictional place.”

NARRATOR: “Fictional or not, it was very real at the moment. He landed on a makeshift raft, grabbing a pole and pushing his way across the water.”

JOSEPH: “I guess I can float down here.”

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “Oh, you’ll float down here, Joey!”

JOSEPH: “Oh God.”

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “God can’t help you now!”

JOSEPH: “I don’t want to die like this.”

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “Oh, you’re going to die, Joseph!” 

JOSEPH: “In a sewer of all places.”

NARRATOR: “It was in that moment that a rush of wind blew in, bringing with it the stench of the sewer in full concentration.”

JOSEPH: “Huuuuunnnghhh..”

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “No, don’t do that.”

JOSEPH: “I... huuuuunnnnnn...” 

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “No, if you start, then I’ll... hunnngh...”

JOSEPH: “Hunnngh..." 

JOSEPH: *clown voice* “Hunnngh...”

NARRATOR: “Back and forth it went, each daring the other one to let loose, until the second evil clown this adventure began projectile vomiting. With each explosive heave, his body mass began to decrease. It was only the paralyzing state of shock that kept Joseph from joining in the expulsions, until the clown fell into a floppy pile, much like a deflated balloon.”

JOSEPH: “Yuck. I need to get out of here.”

NARRATOR: “He looked at the two pipes big enough to take him out of here. The pipe he came in, and a pipe on the opposite side.” 

JOSEPH: “I wonder which way.”

ANDREW: *meek child voice* “Help me!”

JOSEPH: “That settles it.”

NARRATOR: “And so Joseph took the sewer pipe less traveled, and he was all the better for the decision. Or was he? Join us tomorrow, for Part One of “FOUR MORE STOPS”, when we’ll be joined by Julie and Kathleen from the How I Met Your Friends Podcast. I’m sure Joseph could use a few friends.” 

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<< SPONSOR SUNDAYS PROMO >>

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Today’s movie is “It” (2017), the Warner Bros and New Line Cinema horror film directed by Andy Muschietti and written for the screen by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga, and Gary Dauberman, based on the first half of Stephen King’s classic novel, “It”. The film follows a series of child disappearances in Derry, Maine, a town with a dark history, and a group of children over one summer who come together to form the Losers Club. After each of them begins to experience what appear to be hallucinations, they decide to track down and face the creature, named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). 

Spoilers ahead. 

In the early days of the Internet, many of us set out to find other people who shared our interests, especially those of us with eclectic taste in the smaller subcultures either not recognized or not welcome in rural America. One of those communities I ended up finding was called SKEMERs, The Stephen King E-mailers, and in a daily newsletter that worked like the letters pages in a comic book, we would read other people’s letters, then submit responses. It was a curated mailing list, and it spawned a huge community who met annually in Maine, and regionally every now and again. I went to two separate gatherings, one in Chicago, another near the Quad Cities, and each time I enjoyed being able to talk King with folks in person, and keep in touch via the newsletter after that. Of course, online communities come and go, and while the group is now defunct, its members are still out there, and I keep in touch with more than a few of them to this day. So, when I saw that they were remaking “It”, after a fairly decent (for the time) television version, I was suspicious, until I saw the critical response, and by then I had missed it in theaters. So getting to finally see it as part of getting caught up was such a treat.

“It”, as a novel, was told with two interweaving storylines: when the Losers Club were children in the mid-1950s, and when the Losers Club were adults in the mid-1980s, moving effortlessly back and forth. The latest adaptation, however, has decided to split the narrative chronologically, and bring both time periods forward about thirty years. It’s a bold and smart move for three reasons. First, there is simply too much source material for even a three hour film, and this first part comes in at a solid two hours and fifteen minutes. Second, you only need half the cast for each film, and don’t need to spend too much time on trying to manage the two versions of each character. And finally, moving the time period up makes the story more relatable to modern viewers, and cuts down tremendously on dealing with anachronisms while filming. We also get to use the entire vocabulary of Stephen King, with the R-rating, and yes, I mean all the swear words and content, which Finn Wolfhard clearly had an absolute blast with throughout the film.

In fact, I thought the whole cast was great, and not just the seven members of the Losers Club. The supporting cast was also excellent, especially with some of the deeper and darker content, like Beverly Marsh’s disturbing father, or Eddie’s Munchausen syndrome. Pennywise is excellent, with high marks for Bill Skarsgård’s performance, and with equal credit given to the amazing effects artists that made the shapeshifting realistic, despite its fantastic origins. I was captivated from the start, and more than a few scares made me jump or cry out, even knowing the story. And the comradery of the children reminds me a great deal of “Stand by Me”, especially how King can capture adolescent boy behavior, from the most innocuous to the most evil. And I was happy at the end, to see “Chapter One” appear, and then excited for next year’s sequel, which will continue the story.

“It” (2017) is easily one of the best Stephen King adaptations I have ever seen, capturing that unique mix of childhood nostalgia, small town feel, and in this case, neo-Lovecraftian horror. The ensemble cast is top notch, and the story is well told, from start to finish. Stephen King fans have already seen this film, and have either loved it or hated it, although not too many in the latter camp. Any other horror fans who have yet to check it out should definitely do so, then get in line for tickets to the sequel.

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