It - film

Boo!

Did it at IMAX. I'm surprised they didn't release it in 3D actually because it would very much lend itself to that. Deffo worth seeing on the big screen either way. 

Saw this last week and yes it was scary and the actor playing Mr Pennywise, Bill Skarsgard, was excellent. Scarier still was the fact that there were only about 6 of us in the cinema and I spent a lot of the time expecting a clown to appear behind me and tap me on the shoulder.

I've had to sit through the trailer for this several times lately but have never understood - though I accept that it's the case - why people would want to undergo an experience they would find frightening, i.e. watching a horror film. Can anyone here explain that, please? I'm the opposite: I certainly don't want to be scared or kept in suspense for too long, as in crime/mystery films (the current Wind River is a good example), when you just know that someone is watching from a distance, preparing to take a shot at the character you do see, or the good guys search a building and the baddies are lying in wait, about to attack them.

Interestingly, I read that the viewer experience depends on whether you perceive your companion to be weaker or stronger than yourself, as you feel more/less frightened as a result, but I don't know if that's true or what happens to those who attend alone, as I take it some here have done.

........ BOOOOO!!! ........

I know the definitive answer to your question, and I'll tell you later.

Amusement park/fairground rides are another thing I don't do, so they go hand-in-hand with horror films for me. As a child I pleaded with my father to be allowed to go on a ride once and he kept telling me I'd hate it, but he gave in and took me on it and sure enough, I felt terrified and sick and couldn't wait to get off. It also took me some time to stop feeling physically sick and disorientated afterwards, so never again. And that was my experience of going with a stronger, trustworthy person so probably akin to the above comment about it probably being less adverse in those circumstances. Thank goodness I wasn't alone or with another scared child.

Btw I hear that professional clowns are concerned about the adverse impact of It on their business. I know some people are scared of, or even have a phobia of clowns, but at least I don't mind those, though I'd avoid anything involving them as I can't see the point.

I assume coulrophobia is something to do with a human's natural aversion to something that just doesn't look quite right. I remember my niece having a hysterical crying fit when she was tiny because she saw a pantomime dame. Honestly, if I had only recently got the hang of what constitutes a standard person then I encountered, say, a loud person with a painted face doing things that didn't seem wholly possible, I don't think I'd be a fan of clowns either. Childhood fears are quite tricky to overcome, they're so deep inside you. I have no issue with clowns myself, but it doesn't seem so outlandish to me that other people would be scared of them. Like spiders, but with fewer legs.

I do find it a bit silly that clowns are protesting this 2017 film for putting children off having clowns at their parties. If your child is young enough to have a clown at their party, they're too young to watch this film which is currently only on in the cinemas. The original book has been around since the mid-'80s, and it's far more possible for a kid to stumble over the '90s miniseries on TV or DVD or whathaveyou, and let's not forget the 2016 clown sightings that the media made such a fuss of. To specifically go after this new film could strike me, if I were cynical, as a publicity grab based around getting your clown face on TV and hoping to guilt-trip a few extra parents into placing bookings.

We have one clown as Prime Minister and another as Foreign Secretary.

We are right to fear clowns.

EDIT:  And then there's the USA President and the supreme ruler of North Korea.

Someone told me that the film currently in cinemas is only half the story, and presumably there is a sequel coming. Is that right?

I don't think they've even cast the sequel yet, I wouldn't expect it too soon. It's not so much a sequel as a second chapter though, the original book flipped between the characters as kids and the characters as adults, so it's really just the same story as it always was, just told in chronological order (but hopefully the second part will see a few flashbacks, there were some scenes that I felt were sorely missing in this film).

They managed to leave it out of the miniseries fairly uncontroversially, I'm pretty sure they'll find it even easier to cut out this time.

The sequel has been announced for September 2019.

Anyway, I saw it tonight and I was disappointed. A lot of style over substance (surely the motto of Stranger Things) and it was overly long. The were some very questionable/poor bits of direction which made it seem very stilted in parts.

A couple of tiny jumps but nothing more. Maybe I’m misremembering the mini-series but this did not have the same effect on me at all. I don’t think I will rewatch that though in case my memories get spoiled.

Oh well, I will see the sequel. This has proven the appetite for horror out there, just work on the actual scares, rather than the effects please, Hollywood.

It won't be in the second film, it's from the events portrayed in the first film and the filmmakers decided to cut it (apparently the scene where they cut palms to do blood-bonding is supposed to act as a replacement).

Yeah I get that. Went to the local multiplex to see Wind River (very good that), and was approached by an IT clown in the foyer. Poor clown was left in no uncertain terms he could do one. Something wrong about clowns