So, I have seen the trailer for the upcoming 2017 remake of Stephen King's It, and I have overall mixed feelings about it. For one, I don't personally like Pennywise's new design. Now, I understand that they amped it up because they wanted to enhance his scare factor. However, by doing this, I feel that they are missing the point. While many kids fear clowns, one can make the argument that 1990's Pennywise was specifically designed to appear friendly so that it could lure victims. By having Pennywise look nightmarish right from the get go, it really makes me question Georgie's poor judgment. I mean, if any kid saw a clown like that in the sewer drain, they would be scared off. Pennywise's new design just screams "edgy."
Additionally, the trailer is riddled with jump scares, which is a cheap tactic several horror films use to get cheap thrills. When Georgie's ghost manifests before Bill, he starts to repeatedly say "you'll float too," which of course is there to set up the jumpscare of Pennywise running full speed in a contorted fashion. Besides that, it also comes off as unintentionally hilarious, especially with how Georgie screams at the top of his lungs towards the end. Or how about earlier in the trailer when he is hit in the head by a random sawhorse that seemingly manifests out of nowhere?
Not only that, but they replaced the original writer with a more subpar one because his screenplay didn't fit in with conventional horror films. Yeah, because no one likes psychological horror and suspense. No, they love blood and gore. One thing I want for the remake is an expansion on It's origin. In the book, It was a primordial being from a different plane of existence known as the Macroverse. With It was the Turtle, who had unintentionally created all of existence by vomiting everything into existence. Despite It's insistence that the Turtle is old and stupid, he helps the Losers Club defeat It for the first time. It came to Earth somehow knowing that humanity will arrive, so it rests for every 30 years, waiting to feed. As the book was more complex in its subject matter, it was pretty understandable that it wouldn't be able to be fully realized in the 1990s film, I hope that the 2017 remake is more faithful to the book.