The original It miniseries from 1990 isn’t very good, despite a legend-making performance by Tim Curry. It is one of those stories that actually deserves a remake. And while we’re not getting the Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre, Beasts of No Nation) version that sounded so promising, the first trailer for Mama director Andrés Muschietti’s It doesn’t look like the disaster we were anticipating.
The 2017 It looks like a faithful take on Stephen King’s novel, It. Like the novel, It will be split over two time periods, although this first movie only seems to cover the 1980s childhoods of the main characters. Presumably they’ll return as adults in the sequel, which will be set in the modern day.
Here’s the trailer already:
That slideshow reveal of Pennywise is pretty scary, right!? The final moment in the basement is less effective, but there’s definitely something to this new It.
And there’s something else you might have missed too. In Stephen King’s It, the titular It takes many forms, including a werewolf, mummy and even a flesh-eating bird. Look at 1:52 in the bottom-right corner. One of the boys is being chased by a character called “the leper” (played by Javier Botet, whose SXSW movie Two Pigeons was a major highlight of the fest).
That could mean that It has some other monster surprises waiting for us. The new It comes out Sept. 8.
