It

One thing that puzzled me as I read It was, Why wasn't it scary? I finally came to the conclusion that the problem is that It is meant for kids or at least teenagers. When Pennywise makes his first appearance, he entices his young victim with the promise that once in Pennywise's realm, he will have lots of cotton candy and games and won't ever have to grow old. The echo of Peter Pan and Pinocchio's Pleasure Island is clear, and I think It makes much more sense when you consider it along those lines.

I have to admit that while some people find Pennywise completely terrifying, I thought he didn't quite work. Part of it is the way King structures the story. Our first sighting of the clown is when he murders someone when he's clearly some sort of monster, so there's no frisson, no ambiguity, when he starts showing up in his various guises. His habit of changing into cinematic villains to stalk the young protagonists also struck me as counterproductive, a postmodern sort of move which served mainly to remind me that Pennywise, like the Wolfman, the Mummy or the Creature from the Black Lagoon, is just another pop cultural artifact.

King also errs in going Lovecraftian, as he doesn't really have the temperament to pull it off. It is closer to Smaug than to Cthulhu, though I wonder if it would be possible to write a horror story that encompasses King's humanistic approach when dealing with its characters and Lovecraft's cosmic approach when dealing with its outer beings.

Anyway, I give it four stars because I acknowledge I'm not really the audience for it but still think it's good at what it sets out to do.