Summer is over. We're entering the weekend past Labor Day.
And yet, officially, technically (sorry everyone back in school), we've still got two more weeks. Lucky us. Lucky that now, when someone comes a knocking slinging nonsense like, "The summer of 2017 was a real bust for Stephen King adaptations," you can saunter back with a "Hold your horses there, hombre! What about It?" For The Dark Tower has already happened, already come, gone, and set itself direct for an early release on home theater as moviegoers and fans of the epic fantasy series weren't sold. The Dark Tower, likely King's most expensive adaptation, will be marked as part of one of Hollywood's bleakest August and summer tallies in years. Then It happened, and while It can't save summer, it surely can save King's batting average.
It occurred to me to label this Stephen King's best film adaptation ever. But that was premature, and likely very untrue. While a lot of Stephen King's adapted work has been forgettable and largely a letdown from the material it sourced, the credits sheet is not without wins nor heavy hitters. Take, for instance, a little known film you may have heard of called The Shawshank Redemption. It was for years, and still is to this day, the IMDB.com user most highly rated film (it still just barely edges out The Godfather)--arguments on whether it's that good or not aside, it's immensely popular, and deservedly so.
Titles like The Shining and Carrie are horror and film classics. And many others are standouts. Many, many others. It's why I keep framing this conversation by speaking of Stephen King, and not say Stanley Kubrick who directed The Shining, because King's adapted works span over 40 years. This guy's career as a provider of source material has outlasted that of all who have been directing the adaptations; it's the only logical way to frame the conversation.
Here's the sticky point and the parting of ways. Clearly, I can't call It King's best adaptation. Subjectivity and objectivity aside. It'd be going up against a few film behemoths, and many horror and cultural staples and classics (Salem's Lot, Firestarter and The Running Man (both of which were homaged in poster form just this week by Stranger Things), Pet Cemetery, Misery, Children of the Corn, The Green Mile, etc. But what I can safely say, and this is no minor statement for the man who's long been known as the master of horror, is that It is Stephen King's scariest in decades, if not ever.
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