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If ever there was something ripe for a remake, I think Stephen King’s It would be near the top of my list. The original 1990 TV mini-series is good, but it begins to fall apart in its second half, partly for budgetary reasons. Director Andy Muschietti (Mama) has re-adapted the tale into two feature films, giving the story and the characters much more time to develop and breathe, and the audience more time to soak up the creepy atmosphere and pervasive dread.

It: Chapter One is about a group of grade school kids who live in a town where children keep going missing, including one boy’s younger brother. The friends all have visions of Pennywise the Clown and eventually find a way to confront this sinister jokester before he kidnaps and kills again. Pennywise takes the form of your greatest fears, so he’s a bit of a shapeshifter — a point the remake makes more clear than the miniseries did. He feeds off your fear, so if you’re able to get a grip and overcome what terrifies you, you can hurt him. ‘Chapter One’ sees our group of kids, who call themselves the “Losers’ Club”, vanquishing Pennywise and vowing to come back together if he ever shows his painted face again.

It: Chapter One is a well-made, old-fashioned horror movie fueled by honest-to-goodness human emotion. You care about the kids. They’re self-proclaimed losers, for Christ’s sake. One of them is holding onto hope that he’ll find his little brother alive. All of them have assholes for parents. And it’s suggested that the lone girl of the group is being sexually abused by her father. You want to see these kids stick together and defeat not just Pennywise, but everything else life has coming at them.

The child actors do a great job. Jaeden Lieberher and Sophia Lillis get the most dramatic moments, and audiences are sure to love the snarky boys (Finn Wolfhard and Jack Dylan Grazer) who trade sexual barbs involving each others’ mothers. Then there’s Bill Skarsgård (Barbarian, Nosferatu) as Pennywise the Clown. He does a remarkable job taking over the role Tim Curry made so iconic in 1990. Horror fans will be inclined to pick sides, but I think there’s enough space in the world for two great Pennywises.

This film is a throwback to the 1980s, both literally and stylistically. It’s gloriously R-rated, like half the films in the 80s were, before PG-13 watered horror down forever after. Horror fans get their gore, children being mutilated, jump scares, suspense, terror — the whole nine yards. It delivers fully as a horror movie. Computer generated imagery is utilized, but it never takes me out of the movie. Most importantly, Muschietti isn’t afraid of human emotion. He lets the story be the star and he lets the audience feel everything Stephen King probably intended for us to feel. That may not seem like a retro filmmaking technique, but it has become one. I hope it starts a trend — because emotional filmmaking is good filmmaking.

With Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, and Nicholas Hamilton.