10 Best Horror Films Of The 2010s (So Far)

10. It

The classic Stephen King novel came to life in a thrilling new fashion in 2017, with Andres Muschietti's innovative new adaptation.

Though there had been attempts at the film before, none were capable of capturing the spirit and sense of lost innocence from the novel quite the way this film did. In looking so nostalgically back at the eighties, it becomes much more of a story about adolescence than it is about a multi-dimensional clown.

One of the film's greatest strengths is the way in which it presents the kids as real, flawed human beings. They each have their own specific troubles and traumas as well as their own wants and desires. They aren't sanitized or cookie-cutter, they're distinctly their own unique personalities.

Precisely because we are so enveloped in the characters and their world, Pennywise is able to wreak havoc. Skarsgard's performance is deranged and the film makes sure to utilize his shape-shifting capabilities to their fullest extent. Sequences such as the initial haunted house scene are so powerful because of how much we relate to the children and see ourselves in them.

Thus, seeing their traumas exploited and brought to life is all the more horrifying for them and for us.