Jaeden Lieberher – Movies of the Soul

Vampire Owl: It has been a dangerous thing throughout the ages.

Vampire Bat: What are you talking about?

Vampire Owl: The one thing which is mentioned by the name “It”.

Vampire Bat: Are you referring to a certain clown like in this movie?

Vampire Owl: Only the humans are afraid of clowns. We have no clowns here; nobody has ever heard about a Vampire Clown.

Vampire Bat: Well, with this movie based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, the horror has shifted to the clowns.

Vampire Owl: You mean no more vampires, zombies, ghosts, demons and others?

Vampire Bat: I am afraid that humans keep moving from one supernatural creature to the other.

Vampire Owl: We need our own clowns then, and we can refer them by the name “It”.

Vampire Bat: Can you adjust with some fan boys and girls instead?

[Gets three cups of iced tea with Arrowroot biscuits].

What is the movie about? :: In the 1980s, we see a little boy being gifted with a paper boat, which he tries to sail through the water on the road, on a day of heavy rain and possibility of storm arriving. As the boats speeds up and goes down a sewer, the boy, George Denbrough a.k.a. Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) looks down only to find a clown that introduces himself as Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard) from the circus which closed down due to the storm. As the boy gets closer, the clown wastes no time in biting his arms and dragging him right down inside. Later, William Denbrough a.k.a. Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), his elder brother can’t just stop looking for Georgie. He along with his friends, Richard Tozier a.k.a. Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Edward Kaspbrak a.k.a. Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), and Stanley Uris a.k.a. Stan (Wyatt Oleff) keeps getting bullied by Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) and his gang.

So, what happens next in the movie? :: They are joined by two other outsiders, Beverly Marsh a.k.a. Bev (Sophia Lillis) who is considered immoral by the students, and Benjamin Hanscom a.k.a. Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor) who is the new kid around spending most of his time in the library with the less interesting books. As the town has had a history of disappearing children for a long time, the team decides to find the secret behind the same. They figure out that something strange has occured in every twenty seven years, and this is the year that the same is to happen again. They remember that they have all been frightened by one thing or the other, and a clown was the common thing in their visions – a headless person, a fountain of blood, a zombie-like man, a painting coming to life, and the ghost of Georgie are just more of their worst fear coming true.

And what is to follow next in this adventure? :: They come across another outsider, Michael Hanlon a.k.a. Mike (Chosen Jacobs) who also had visions of a clown and burnt people. They figure out that the creature is using sewer lines to move around, as they check where all the children went missing – all these sewers seem to lead to a well currently under the creepy, partially ruined, abandoned house at 29 Neibolt Street. Now, with the elders not ready to believe in the supernatural, the kids decide that it is their turn to do something about this menace of the clown. But the creature will only be happy to have the children visit his lair, and even they don’t, he is ready to come for them. So, what fate awaits the children as the clown has decided to open the circus again, to feed on enough children before he is ready to go back to sleep for twenty seven years?

The defence of It :: We were waiting for this for long, as the 2014 movie, Clown brought some idea about what we can expect with a movie which has a clown from circus and a kids in there. The scares are abundant with the clown around, and the first appearance of the creature might be the best of them all, as it is not just terrifying, but also disturbing with the attack on the little kid from beneath the sewers. Then there are many moments which contribute to the scares, one after the other, making a series of moments of terror, most of which are to be appreciated for being different from what was shown before. The child actors are too good too, especially Sophia Lillis who is a level above everyone else. Jaeden Lieberher is surely the right choice to play the lead character too, while the support never fails to do what they were to do. Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns can be a nice thing to have with this particular flick.

The claws of flaw :: It could have surely been scarier with the depth of its clown character though, as there could have far more terrifying illusions and hallucinations to go with him, and we could have also had something to take home as scares for the every day life – some interesting horror movies do come up with the same or a rather huge divergent idea. This one won’t claim that, as Lights Out would with each and every moment of darkness. This won’t be that big as Don’t Breathe and The Autopsy of Jane Doe became, redefining horror last year. The bullying also takes a little bit of too much time away from this movie which is already too long with its not that scary moments, going further than two hours. Well, they call it Chapter One, and so there could be more. Let the clown be more next time, with tricks that we can never imagine, raising the sequel to another level.

How it finishes :: We have always loved to watch a Stephen King novel on the screen, and it has been something which gives us assurance about horror, as well as the quality. The movies The Shining, The Mist, The Running Man and 1408 keep coming to my mind more often than the rest. This one here is no exception, and it will be there to satisfy our need for a wonderful movie experience, as long as the expectations are not at the top of the peak. You are not going to regret your choice to go for this particular horror movie, as the clown is no usual ghost or demon that you come up against in most of those movies. You will also feel that a sequel will do so much more that, a better equipped, returning clown is all that a horror fan can dream about, or rather have some wonderful nightmares about. So, watch It, and get ready for more in a sequel.

Release date: 8th September 2017
Running time: 135 minutes
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Bill Skarsgard, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Wyatt Oleff, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Chosen Jacobs, Jackson Robert Scott, Stephen Bogaert, Molly Atkinson, Geoffrey Pounsett, Pip Dwyer, Stuart Hughes, Steven Williams, Ari Cohen, Joe Bostick, Megan Charpentier

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Vampire Owl: Now this one should be more about us.

Vampire Bat: What? I don’t see why!

Vampire Owl: It is midnight special. We are people of the midnight.

Vampire Bat: That was long ago. We are anywhere at any moment of time these days.

Vampire Owl: But what about our attacks during midnight?

Vampire Bat: The special plans are no longer limited to midnight, and there are no attacks.

Vampire Owl: But I do come up with attacks. Even on the last midnight, I scared twenty three people from outside their room’s windows.

Vampire Bat: Yes, but as a whole, we are a peace loving community.

Vampire Owl: Never mind. I will launch my personal attacks with my zombie minions.

Vampire Bat: As long as you keep it not connected to the vampire community, it should be fine.

[Gets three cups of masala tea with potato chips].

What is the movie about? :: Roy Tomlin (Michael Shannon) and his friend, a former state trooper Lucas (Joel Edgerton) are on the run with an eight year old boy named Alton Meyer (Jaeden Lieberher), as alerts keep coming on the television about a missing boy with Roy named as the kidnapper. Roy is revealed to be the father of the boy, but he has been trying to escape from both the government as well as a mysterious and fanatic religious cult, both who have been chasing the group of three. But the group is not willing to stop at any cost, and hopes to get further away from those who wants to capture them. The boy who is extremely photosensitive is protected by them, who are joined by Sarah Tomlin (Kirsten Dunst) who is the boy’s mother who is extremely delighted to see them again, but is not happy with almost the whole country chasing them.

So, what is it really about? :: This fanatic religious cult called The Ranch has been raising Alton for a long time, as he is supposed to be some kind of a saviour for them, who has come after years of prayers from them. Pastor Calvin Meyer (Sam Shepard) will not stop until he has his cult’s messiah back with them, and has sent his people to find the boy. At the same time, Agent Paul Sevier (Adam Driver) finds encoded satellite transmissions in the pastor’s sermons which is supposed to have been found from Alton’s talks, and it has FBI right after them, finding the boy as a threat to the national security. more and more people seems to be after them, with running and hiding becoming rather too difficult for the group. With time running out for them, they decide to keep fighting.

So, what happens next? :: The fact that this special boy even brought one satellite down just because it was tracking them, doesn’t help their case at all. One boy with so much of power seems to be something which the government can’t afford to go free – they surely has more plans for him, as there are more people after him after causing what seemed to be a meteor shower in the form of a destroyed satellite. They are also involved in terrible confrontations with state troopers and don’t get much of help from even their old friend from the cult. As the journey goes on, the boy only gets weaker and weaker. With him seeming to be extremely sick and might even possibly die, there seems not be not many options around other than to give up. But Alton himself has another idea for him, which none of his guardians can agree to. In the end, will they find the secret behind his powers and get him to safety?

The defence of Midnight Special :: There is a different story in store here as this science fiction flick’s divergence works throughout its run. Its specialty should be that it keeps the supernatural at a distance rather than exposing it to us in the beginning itself. It successfully keeps us guessing in the beginning stages as we wonder what this boy is all about, and what big twist is coming up near end. There is something huge going to happen, but we have no idea what it is, and the more we guess, the more we get confused – this one provides that kind of a feeling throughout its stages. The whole movie goes on like some chase, and our protagonists rarely get to stop here or there. The power of visuals are there when they are used to the movie’s advantage, even though that last very less. We are also left with the hope for a sequel in the midst of an emotionally powerful ending that comes as the end is reached, and you know that the drama works towards the end – the finish has its sadness.

The claws of flaw :: Well, Midnight Special is a movie which had the potential to do something better both with its philosophy as well as its content which wanders rather too much on the emotional side, due to which the ending is also not a thrilling one – something which has surely contributed well to its lesser total collection from the theatres. If there was more focus on what was happening rather than diving deep into the emotional side without enough explanations, this one could have done a lot better for the common man as well as those who think. There are mysteries that are not solved, and there are moments which could have been presented in a better way. With some signs of the visual spectacle which it could have been, also there, maybe there was surely the idea to do more, but it was to make itself just a good movie instead of becoming that special movie which was to stay in our minds for a long time.

How it finishes :: One special thing about Midnight Special even when it slows down in pace so much, is that it is a science fiction movie with a stronger human side than many others including Interstellar and Gravity. With Michael Shannon coming up with an emotionally powerful performance, and Kirsten Dunst supporting the same later, we have Joel Edgerton’s character as the most likable, and Jaeden Lieberher does a very good job as the kid too. Despite not everyone liking this movie in this same way considering it as a flick which would depend on the tastes of people to have it loved, one can be sure that Midnight Special will affect its viewers in one way or the other. You will also wish that it was a better movie, but one feels that this is exactly how the makers wanted the movie to work, and in no other way. Take your time and find what can be termed “special” in Midnight Special.

Release date: 18th March 2016
Running time: 111 minutes
Directed by: Jeff Nichols
Starring: Jaeden Lieberher, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver, Sam Shepard, Paul Sparks, Nathan Brimmer, Bill Camp, Scott Haze, James DuMont, Billy Slaughter, Sean Bridgers