It * * 1/2

I’m surprised at the market position of this one.  It features children but it’s classification and subject content make it unsuitable  for them.  Maybe the inbetweeny  14-15 year old group featured in the film is the market they want.  They just scrape inside the M15 classification.

Why is this called "It"?

I’ve never read a Stephen King novel but I have seen quite a few films based on them, and other than The Shining I’ve never been much impressed by his celebrated plots. They just strike me as okay, but that might be  because the films of his work have been stripped of all the the nuances.  Who knows?  Not me.

Generally I find his means of trying to scare you is mechanical.  Devices which are not particularly frightening or imaginative.  In this film a girl  pokes at a plughole and hundreds of litres of blood pour into the room.  They watch a slideshow and an evil clown seems to take it over and then actually come out of the screen and into the room.  I don’t know why, but that doesn’t strike me as particularly imaginative.  It doesn't really open up the doors in your mind you’d rather keep closed. For me, a frightening concept is the possible, and even more frightening is the probable. This has only a few of those elements.

In a small town there is an evil clown who is responsible for the missing children.  The authorities in the town are the worst in the country. Hundred of kids missing in a tiny town and they still can’t find them. But we're told from the beginning it's a supernatural clown called Pennywise.

However, this film does have some horrible suggestions. Like relentless bullying of some of the children, and even worse the creepy incestuous overtones of a young girl's father. Elements which are scarier (at least, more disturbing), than the evil clown, because they could be real.