Directed by Andy Muschietti
* * *
I don’t find clowns scary. In turn, I can only be so scared by It,
Stephen King’s iconic story whose very anchor takes the form of a clown. With
the modern trends of mainstream horror, I choose to view It not so much
as a horror movie, but as a cinematic haunted house – it’s that fun brand of
spooky that jumps at you and startles you, but you end up strolling out of that
haunted house with a fun time had, rather than being terrified. As cynical as
that may sound, I emphasize that part about having fun – this was very much the
case for 2017’s It, and here we are with It: Chapter Two, and I
couldn’t find myself saying the same thing.
In 1989, a group of misfit children known as the Losers’ Club descended
into the sewers of Derry to confront the ultimate evil, an entity dubbed ‘It’ which
has taken the form of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgard), devouring the town’s
children. Unsure if they defeated It, they made a pact to reunite if It returns.
27 years later, Pennywise has indeed resurfaced to terrorize Derry. When the
news hits the Losers’ Club, it shakes them, but they band together to put this
evil to rest once and for all. The only way to defeat It is to sacrifice an
artifact from their childhood in what is called the Ritual of Chud. The Losers
go on their separate ways to find their artifact, to rediscover their forgotten
childhoods in the menacing townscape of Derry.
Like its predecessor, Chapter Two is distractingly overproduced.
The camera never sits still, rocking and shaking during scary moments with
those signature loud noises to startle you (this means you’re supposed to be
scared). These methods are already annoying to begin with, but are even more so
here because there are scenes that would be perfect otherwise, though
there are some solid moments here (more on those later).
Bonding with the Losers’ Club was my favorite
aspect of the predecessor (as well as the 1990 TV movie, for that matter), and
I was really excited to see them as adults. As soon as the movie begins, though,
it gets right to business. In turn, we never get much of a chance to get a true
grasp of where our beloved protagonists are in life, to enjoy the fruits of
their success – just a brief glance instead. With that, it was still great to
see the adult versions of themselves, even though they still speak like the
vulgar juveniles they were 27 years ago. This was distracting for me as well,
as there are times where it’s as if they haven’t matured at all, still telling “Your
Mom” jokes all the time, and trying way too hard with forced
one-liners.
On a side note, like Chapter
One,
Mike is thrown almost completely to the wayside, his only major contribution
being his explanation of the Ritual of Chud, a scene that is not well written and
kind of laughable in its attempt at being trippy, as if the director’s chair
was handed to Hunter S. Thompson for a moment.
Please don’t think I hated this movie. Quite
the opposite. The casting choices are perfect. Everybody not only nails their
role, but everybody bears almost identical appearance to their child
counterparts. I had no trouble picking out who was who just from looking at
them. I particularly enjoyed Jessica Chastain as Beverly, the sole female loser.
When I heard that Bill Hader would play the talkative Richie, I was immediately
sold on this movie. And then there’s
Bill Skarsgard as everybody’s favorite creepy clown, Pennywise. He tried a bit
too hard for my taste in Chapter One. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but to my surprise, he really won me
over in Chapter Two.
Chapter Two moves along at a
solid pace, in spite of problematic tonal imbalance. Chapter
Two frequently
goes back and forth between the past and the present, and this is handled
incredibly well, with seamless transitions between a 27-year gap. While the
movie may not make the best technical choices, it still manages to always keep
you interested in what’s going to happen next, which is vital here, as Chapter
Two runs at just under 3
hours.
I may have criticized this movie’s ideas of how to be scary, but believe
it or not, there are some scenes that are really bone chilling. Three sequences
stand out for me, one being a brief but tense confrontation between Pennywise and
a little girl under a set of bleachers, a scene that proves the slow-burn makes
all the difference. Beverly’s visit to her childhood home and her interaction
with its elderly inhabitant who isn’t quite right is also particularly creepy. Another
solid moment is Bill’s (James McAvoy) descent into a disorienting maze of mirrors
at a local carnival. Granted, these two scenes fall victim to the tropes
previously mentioned, but a solid A for effort.
And then there’s the climax, the final confrontation in the sewers which
is the film’s crowning achievement. Taking up the entire final hour of the
movie, you feel like this is what the It saga has been building up to, and it
delivers in an apogee of endless thrills. An excellent conclusion follows, putting
this saga to rest with a heartfelt coda that puts wonderful closure to this
nightmare of a story.
It’s up for debate whether King’s novel can be
truly captured on film. I don’t have the answer for this, but I will say that
to pull that off, it would require a mammoth of a runtime and unconventional
filmmaking methods, neither of which tickle the box office’s fancy. Maybe we’ll
get that movie someday, but for now we have these two movies: they may not be particularly
scary (unless you’re scared of clowns), but they have just enough character and
passion that it’ll satisfy and startle just fine for years to come.
