IT (2017): Chapter One (Movie).

IT (2017): Chapter One. I've stayed away from Horror movies for last few years especially after challenging myself to see a movie like Conjuring and The Shining and spending a few sleepless nights, taking cab to office as our official parking is Basement 4 :( etc etc. This weekend I decided to yet again check my guts and see if anything has changed as I am now way over 4 decades old (in numbers at-least) and what better movie I could watch but "IT" (2017) Chapter One. As Chapter Two released last Friday and I may gather enough guts and graduate to a horror movie on big screen after all. So how was the experience? For one, I lived to tell this tale and two, to impress you, I must tell you that I saw this in the dead of the night, started the movie at 1 AM sharp on Sunday with Volume at 130%. Technically I watched it alone but to tell you the truth, initially my friend was watching it with me but he found it so boring that he slept over in the first 30 minutes itself. I was well prepared to terrify myself as it is based on one of my all time favorite - Stephen King's Book of the same name and he is one of those few Authors, whose books I usually keep miles away from me and won't read more than one a year just to be on the safer side (and live long) as they are way too scary. But the movie altogether was a lukewarm affair for me. It had its own moments which kind of excited me but wasn't able to scare me one bit. As my friend slept over, I finished the movie in one shot, turned off the living room lights myself, went to my bedroom without help and slept peacefully. If a horror movie allows me to do all that, it cannot be considered a horror from any standard. A typical Horror movie setting in the First Chapter of IT, a small almost dead town, with a bunch of not so exciting kids going around their affairs and being bullied by their senior schoolmates. One of them loses his brother in a freak accident and sort of blames himself for the same. Before we are told that his brother wasn't the only kid missing, there is something more in the background who may be doing some horrific things to the missing kids. On top of that our own bunch of 7 kids (6 guys and 1 girl) go through their own set of horrible experiences, they are in a kind of a fix which only the could witness and no one else. By the time they and the audience puts the two and two together, and the story sort of moves, I had already lost a lot of interest and was only watching it for some thrills and fun it was offering which was strictly average. I have seen way better movies in the past with almost similar stories but with terrific visuals, this was no match to its earlier counterparts, I guess the book must be a superb scary read but the movie wasn't one bit. How it all is cooked up was nice, the calculations, the settings, the friendship angle, bullies in school and the kids family backgrounds, the way they stand up for each other was all good and works like a perfect drama but doesn't stand on its own two feet when it comes to making a thriller (at best) and no ways a Horror for sure. Overall it was a heart-break for me. Unfortunately (or say Fortunately) I haven't read the book yet and not even planning to read it any sooner, but I am all charged to see it's second part on Big Screen tomorrow for sure. Do let me know if you have read the book and seen the movie both or any one of them, if that worked for you. I will be right back with my post on the second chapter shortly.