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Starring Bill Skarsgard, Jaeden Lieberher, Finn Wolfhard, Sophie Lillis, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jeremy Ray Taylor and Chosen Jacobs. Directed by Andr茅s Muschietti. Opens Friday in GTA theatres. 135 minutes. 18A

How scared you are of Bill Skarsgard鈥檚 take on Pennywise the Dancing Clown, introduced by Stephen King in his 1986 epic horror novel It, will have everything to do with how triggering you find clowns. He鈥檚 definitely scarier than the wisecracking, turns-you-into-a-pizza-topping-and-eats-you Freddy Krueger, but not as menacing as Ryan Murphy鈥檚 demented Twisty the Clown, whose cobbled-together face was first seen on 2014鈥檚 American Horror Story: Freak Show and returns on AHS鈥檚 current Cult season.

In the hands of Mama director Andr茅s Muschietti, Pennywise does a lot of roaring into the camera and barfing black sludge. If you are looking for something more atmospheric, try Google Image searching 鈥渧intage clown鈥� (at your peril).

But, actually, how scary do you want a movie about a clown-slash-eternal-malevolent-spirit that murders children to be? Muschietti鈥檚 It strikes a nice balance between sleepover-ready gross-outs (tiptoeing through raw sewage, for example) and tender coming-of-age storytelling.

The movie opens in 1988, when adorable little kid Georgie Denbrough is lured into a sewer by a strange clown promising circus spectacles. His older brother Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) makes it his crusade to find him.

Instead, Bill and his friends 鈥� a group which ultimately grows to become the seven member Losers Club 鈥� draw the attention of the titular It, an evil force that鈥檚 cursed the town of Derry, Maine for generations, rearing its head every 27 years to go on a kiddie-killing spree.

The young actors pull off the unlikely feat of stealing It from It. As Bill鈥檚 best friend Richie, Vancouver actor Finn Wolfhard is charming in what could have been just another nerd role, proving his breakout performance on Stranger Things was more than beginner鈥檚 luck. The entire troupe of teen actors prove better than their tokenism roles 鈥� the girl (Sophie Lillis), the African-American kid (Chosen Jacobs), the kind-hearted fat kid (Jeremy Ray Taylor).

Those broadly identified characters have not aged well since the 1986 novel, which interwove the story of seven kids with their reunion as adults.

Let鈥檚 hope that introducing the adult characters doesn鈥檛 shatter It鈥檚 special magic. It: Chapter One (or is it too early to start calling it that?) features the kind of perceptive storytelling about teenagers that turned King adaptations such as Carrie and Stand By Me into classics. While Pennywise鈥檚 terrors can feel cartoony, It鈥檚 portrayal of adolescence is heartfelt in its realism.

Take, for example, a bully licking his palm and then wiping it across a kid鈥檚 face. It may not be as showy as a sink that gushes blood but, as an act of intimidation, it establishes its own lingering terror. Juxtaposing how kids are actually terrorized everyday with the eternal horror of Pennywise makes It resonate that much deeper.

Not that you need to bring your thinking brain to the theatre. Most of the movie鈥檚 scares are a scream, particularly when it comes to It鈥檚 promised kids vs. clown title match, which is tackled with a sense of adventure reminiscent of Amblin Entertainment鈥檚 1985 classic The Goonies.

The results are a thrilling, spooky story with a lot of heart that is more likely to trigger your gag reflex than haunt your nightmares