It Chapter Two

Whenever famous horror authors come to mind, Stephen King is probably going to be one that a good chunk of people (whether they have an extensive list of authors or not) will know about. His influence on writing as well as the memorability of his work has easily made him a household treasure for any novel-fanatic and while his movies, particularly his horror work, aren’t always adapted to the screen in the best way due to struggling to convey his often-insane content in a visual sense without it coming across a silly, there still have been occasions where they are handled quite well. The 2017 film version of his popular 1986 novel, It, grabbed audiences with its creative scares, very likeable actors, and enough understanding of its source material as well as classic horror movies to make something enjoyable and frightening, enough so that it got fans eagerly waiting for the continuation years later. This continuation, Chapter Two, released in 2019, manages to end the saga in a passable, but very muddled and incredibly ridiculous way, which seems perfectly fitting for something based on a Stephen King story. 27 years after the events of the first movie, the loser club consisting of Bill (played by James McAvoy), Ben (played by Jay Ryan), Eddie (played by James Ransone), Richie (played by Bill Hader), and Beverly (played by Jessica Chastain) return to their old childhood town of Derry, Maine, after their old friend Mike (played by Isaiah Mustafa) explains that Pennywise the Clown (played by Bill Skarsgard) has returned to devour more children. After finding out their other friend Stanley (played by Andy Bean) has killed himself to avoid having to face the creature that tormented all of their childhoods, the loser’s club join forces once more to finally take down their childhood demon once and for all, having to properly confront their past demons (both supernatural and tragically real) in order to finally find peace for themselves and prevent this evil from hurting anyone ever again. The quick and short response to this is film is that it works better than the original 1990 miniseries as it has a better understanding of character as well as being able to take this concept and let audiences grasp it in a (mostly) comprehensible way.  Also, the film is home to some good acting, solid directing, and enough creativity behind itself that makes it a watch. However, the film struggles with a weak narrative, confusing character decisions, an overly long length, and worst of all, very weak scares. No matter how you slice it, even if it works better, it’s hard to say it’s particularly good.

The movie definitely feels more like a continuation of a film rather than a sequel, but not exactly in a good way. It lacks that sense of individuality that the first film was able to emulate, as it was able to exist by itself and impress audiences with its own elements, whereas this one doesn’t stand as strong without tying itself back constantly to its first outing (which is going to happen in a segmented project, but it shouldn’t be to this extent). The two year wait for the movie doesn’t feel warranted as nothing is dramatic or interesting enough to build much anticipation, no questions are truly answered, the film still lacks any real personality (maybe even less than the first one) and the conclusion is surprisingly weak for something that was split into two movies. The movie’s driving force is also very weak, with little dramatic tension pushing the audience or the movie itself to keep going. Scenes feel like they could be placed anywhere and not much would change as a whole, including a bizarre opening that isn’t very effective even if it’s incredibly brutal and real, as well as many of the character moments throughout the movie that kind of feel like retreads of what were already explored concepts from the last film. The main cause of this disjointed narrative is most likely coming from the screenplay by Gary Dauberman (the only returning screenwriter from the last film which may explain this dip in quality) and its overall connection with the book. As very clearly stated in the movie, Stephen King isn’t the best at ending his work, and It was home to a very needlessly complicated and rather stupid conclusion that took some ”interesting liberties” to say the least. Since you can tell the filmmakers are trying to work around said ending without completely tossing it aside, there’s some distinction alterations that help in avoiding the silly ending and its overly complicated explanations, but it also leaves the movie without a satisfying conclusion as well as a feeble plotline holding this story together. The whole movie feels like an epilogue to the first movie; reminding or re-establishing character issues as well as resolutions before the conclusion while rushing through the meat holding it all together and that mixed with the long running time can make getting through the movie a little grinding. With that said, director Andy Muschietti (who also directed the previous film) clearly has talent behind the camera and while not perfectly leading the film from a scripting or even tonally area, it features plenty of good shoots, very well directed actors, and can handle the dramatic moments well enough even underneath this horrible goofy experience.

The film is held together by its use of the characters, or rather how the actors portray them. The characters and by extension the actors are what make this series as likeable as it is and are clearly the starring attraction to this remake and they have taken their time in given them identifiable, even brutally tragic, issues that allow the audience to relate with and care about. For this film, getting replacements for the original kids may seem like a little bit of a risk, but thankfully most of the actors chosen are pretty good. While the kids are technically better as they were connected to better material and seem to offer more in terms of personality, you can still feel the adult actors putting in effort to emulate their younger counterparts and take this material seriously (as best they can). They have good chemistry with each other, they can handle the fear as well as the emotion nice enough, and while they are a little bland by comparison, it still feels like these kids grown up. Skarsgard as Pennywise is still equally funny as he was previously, but it feels like he’s gotten better at the creepy stuff as well with a few nice scenes sprinkled throughout (even if he isn’t given much actual screen time despite the expansive length). While the actors are good and even some of the side actors are having fun hamming their parts up, the characters themselves have some very strange directions that either come out of nowhere or were built up with no pay-off. There’s a love triangle that goes nowhere, Ritchie is given a relatively weak twist to his character that feels overall pointless in the grand scheme of the film, some of the group like Mike and Ben are not used to their fullest, and the audience can’t get a good grasp of how, if, or why they have changed between the two films. Even if it acted well, the characters aren’t handled in a consistent or even believable way. Though the performances are good, it’s hard to say that any of them provide for strong characters, outside of Bill Hader whose pretty funny throughout most of this movie.

The worst thing that could happen to a horror movie is to not be scary, and IT has that exact problem. The scares in this movie are predictable, overwhelmed by highly distracting music composed by Benjamin Wallfisch, and feature nothing but less-than-realistic non-frightening CGI. When every creature that is meant to be scary is made up of something that’s fake, it’s not going to scare anyone because it’s obviously not real. It’s not that the scares are painful or cheap loud noises, but rather it attempts to scare the audience with something that is visually un-threatening and even a little too silly to be intimidating. The first film had amazing setups for scares and used most of its effects (which could also be a little odd looking) cleverly where it was needed, whereas here the effects are all they really use.  The only real creepy thing in the movie is what isn’t seen, like terrified screams of children coming from the drains, the ambiguity is what makes the scene scary. What balances this lack of a scare factor is that at the very least, the scares they try to do have some nice build-up to them as well as enough creativity behind them that at least it is more memorable than a ghost going ‘BOO!’’ and failing miserably, there is effort behind thinking out the scares even if they aren’t executed well. Also, the ending is not going to have anyone screaming, but it will definitely have people laughing with how ridiculous the visual is and how it thinks that it’s a scary image when it’s clearly not.  The film does have some pretty inventive shots and transitions by cinematographer Cheeco Varese that would only really work in a set-up and tone like this movie, which allows for a lot more creative and wacky shots without ruining the mood.

It Chapter Two is a fine conclusion to this two-part film with enough positive to keep it from being a complete wash, but it doesn’t feel like it will be remembered like its first part, as it really only works when played immediately after the first half rather than standing on its own merits.  It does have decent direction, but the film is too drawn out, the actors are good actors, but the characters can be inconsistent, the tone is a good mix between funny and tense although sometimes to a fault, and even if the scares are a major flop, the movie still tries to make the scares more visually different than a traditional bad jump scare. The story needed a large rewrite as well as many of the character’s narrative direction, but for what it’s worth, bringing back killer clowns into the mainstream media has mainly come from this franchise and will no doubt become a new staple in Halloween movie viewings from fans all over the world. A passable finale, but not one that was worth the two-year wait and will definitely be looked back upon with chuckles rather than shrieks. The miniseries was a goofy ride that slowly drowned, the new IT movie had potential and good moments but was treading water, this one was like watching a flaming car slowing sinking into the water, a fascinating, almost comically over-the-top mess, but still a mess regardless.