In its first weekend at the box office, “It” — which is based on the lengthy novel by Stephen King — became both the highest grossing September release ever and also set the record for the best opening weekend for a horror film of all time.

However, “It” is more than merely a jump-scare fest kind of horror movie — it’s also got a lot of heart. Much of “It” is a coming-of-age story that deals with issues of adulthood, responsibility, the inability to let things go and passivity. Because of this, “It” rises above standard horror clichés to become it’s own thing entirely — one that’s much more mature than one might exit.

“It” — the novel — was published in 1986 and almost single handedly gave everyone an inherent fear of clowns. Four years later, that fear was spread even further in the two-part “It” miniseries, when Tim Curry portrayed the monstrous Pennywise the Dancing Clown in a bone-chilling performance. While the mini-series doesn’t hold up all that well by today’s standards, “It” has always been a bankable property with a built in fan-base. A reboot was only a matter of time.

Now it’s 2017 and it’s finally here in all its absurd glory. “It” tells the story of a group of friends known as the Losers Club, growing up in the small town of Derry, Maine during the summer of 1986 (The movie wisely chose to move up its timeline to give it more of a “Stranger Things” vibe, as these events take place in 1958 in the novel).

Derry is not a normal city. People — especially children — go missing far more often than one would ever expect for such a small town . Bill Denbrough’s — leader of the Losers Club — little brother, Georgie, is one of these missing children, and Bill wants answers. Most of the adults don’t seem all too concerned with the matter, almost as if they’re under some sort of spell of passivity,  so the Losers decide that they’ll be the ones who are committed to finding out what’s wrong with Derry.

The answer they find is horrifying. There’s some sort of monster — one who primarily takes the shape of a demented clown named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), but is capable of becoming other entities as well — lurking under the city, preying on subjects and waiting to pick the Losers off one by one.

The film is directed by Andy Muscheietti (“Mama”) — a name you’re going to be hearing a lot more in the future. Muscheietti fully captures the essence and the characters (which all the child actors play perfectly) of King’s novel, while still have enough creative ambition to let the film be it’s own thing completely.

“It” is terrifying in nature, and Muscheietti once again knows how to direct these horror sequences almost in the same way certain directors, such as Chad Stahelski and David Leitch of “John Wick,” shoot action sequences — something that makes the scares all the more effective. Skarsgård gives the performance of his life in playing Pennywise, creating a new horror icon to be remembered for generations to come.

There’s a reason why so many people, including those who consider themselves to not be fans of horror movies, are seeing this movie — it’s a film that transcends the genre and is completely effective in what it sets to pull off.

Given the size of the book, “It” is being split into two different films,the second one announced for 2019. While this means fans have to wait a whole two years to see what happens next in Derry, we can rejoice in the fact that “It: Chapter 1” was everything fans of the book ever hoped it could be and more.