What is the best movie you saw last year?

This is by far one of the hardest questions I’ve answered this whole challenge.  As most of you have probably figured out by now there are not many films I dislike.  And I say dislike because even if I say, “Oh I hated that movie,” I can’t really say that I truly hate anything.  When taking into account all the films I saw last year I thought about the film I’ve wanted to watch over and over again since viewing that film in the theater.  The answer I came up with was simple when I took the following into consideration.  I saw this film twice in theaters.  I rented the film as soon as it was available to rent to show my father.  And I also watched the original not once, but twice last year as well.  Since there is a picture of Pennywise above, I think most people reading by now has figured out I’m writing about It.

Day 17: The best movie you saw last year – It

I was lucky enough to experience this film for the first time with most of my book club.  I’m also glad that I was able to sit next to Renee because she was hilarious to listen to during the film.  Her reactions to the various scenes, as well as those in the theater made the movie for me.  But the truth is also It truly creeped me out.  There were many scenes which filled my body with tension and made me wonder how the kids were going to get out of the situation they found themselves in.  That was not the only thing I wondered about by the end of the film though.  I found myself debating why they only focused on the children’s point of view, because I remember the mini series in the nineties focusing on the characters as adults.  Then of course I realized that there was a sequel in the works and knew all the scenes I expected to see in the first part would be in the second part.

Since then I have debated with myself, and others, which version of Pennywise is scarier.  Is Tim Curry’s Pennywise scarier than Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise?  I would say no ultimately.  I appreciate each performance for different reasons.  Curry’s Pennywise is beyond sarcastic, which ultimately makes me laugh now.  When I was younger he was the only clown who managed to scare me.  And after watching the remake I have to admit there is something far scarier about Skarsgard’s Pennywise.  In the original mini series we primarily see Pennywise as the clown, until the end of the series.  In the remake Pennywise takes on many forms.  He truly taps into the children’s deepest darkest fears.  And this is not to say he does not transform in the original, but with it being a made for television series the budget made scenes that flourish in the movie suffer.  With that said I still debate who did it better because I feel like they both did an amazing job, but both in different aspects of the character.

Likewise, the remake has sent me down a path of realizing the beauty that is Pennywise.  When I say beauty I mean how well Stephen King’s creation is constructed.  Pennywise is complex to say the least and there is nothing more beautiful than a well constructed villain.  The timeline that King creates with the shifter coming back roughly every twenty-seven years is oddly terrifying too.  If it doesn’t happen to you as a kid it might happen to your own children.  In a way, it would have been even more terrifying to me to have these children grow up and have children of their own that was targeted.  Not only do they have to save the town, but their children.  I also find that it was beyond genius that the mini series came out in 1990 and the remake arrived in theaters in 2017.  Whether that was planned or not I do not know, but it’s a factoid that puts a smile on my face.

Ultimately, It is a film that brings together a great amount of laughter, nostalgia, and scares.  There is something about that combination for me that makes a film beyond enjoyable and always makes me want to come back for more.  I cannot wait until the sequel comes out in 2019 and I’m hoping and dreaming of an amazing boxset that features both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.  I also yearn for a boxset with amazing behind the scenes featurettes that allows me inside the creation of the world that is Derry, Maine.  I want to get inside of the minds of the actors who have brought this characters to life.  I want to know all of these details after I have finally read my copy of It and seen all the silver screen has to offer me.  It makes me want more and any film that does not deserves to be in a favorite category somewhere.