IT CHAPTER 2 / CERT: / DIRECTOR: ANDY MUSCHIETTI / SCREENPLAY: GARY DAUBERMAN / STARRING: JESSICA CHASTAIN, JAMES MCAVOY, BILL SKARSGARD / RELEASE DATE: 13TH JANUARY
The second half of Andy Muschietti’s adaptation tackles the adult portion of Stephen King’s novel, in which the Losers return to Derry in a last-ditch effort to put Pennywise down for good. The gang’s (almost) all here, with James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader playing Bill, Beverley and Richie’s adult counterparts. Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone and Andy Bean fill the shoes of Mike, Ben, Eddie and Stanley (poor Stanley) and slip into the roles much easier, by virtue of their carrying less baggage than the A-list stars.
Of course, Bill Skarsgård is back as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and the otherworldly menace is as hungry as ever. This sequel opens with the brutal beating and murder of Adrian Mellor (handled more sensitively than King did back in the 80s); a promise to audiences that Pennywise is taking no prisoners these days. Neither child nor adult is safe from the clown’s bloodlust, and It Chapter Two is a roundly meaner, nastier sequel that pulls few punches.
But unlike its stars, it has gotten paunchier in its old age. Running at almost three hours, this is a complete immersion into the horrors of modern Derry, ensuring that (almost) each of the Losers gets a complete character arc and faces their childhood demon(s) in full. While Mike and Stan get the short end of the stick again, Bill Hader’s Richie and James Ransone’s Eddie emerge as the breakout heroes, their stories deepening and enriching the characters as we knew them. If only Big Bill (sounding like one of McAvoy’s Split voices and saddled with stupid hair), Bev (underwritten) and Ben (boring) had been updated and served so well. If only the meat of the story wasn’t essentially just five individual Horcrux quests with Pennywise at the end of each one.
And yet, for its considerable flaws, Chapter Two is a more nuanced, interesting film than its predecessor. While not scarier, it is crueler, sillier and weirder (no turtle, but the ritual of Chüd mostly makes it through). Ransone, in particular, is put through the wringer, abused and terrorised like the protagonist of a Sam Raimi horror film. Even with its extended runtime, this is a streamlined version of It, missing swathes of the novel’s characters and plotlines. How audiences react will depend on one’s relationship with the novel and the characters as portrayed here. For better and worse, this adaptation is its own entity, with its own ideas and themes. Given that it spends the whole film ribbing King for his often flubbed endings, it largely walks the walk, wrapping the story up in a satisfying and thoughtful manner.
While this home release offers the opportunity to watch both chapters in the one butt-numbing sitting, there’s a sense that It‘s final form has yet to be revealed; either in the rumoured director’s ‘super’ cut or something else entirely. Let’s just hope it doesn’t take them the whole twenty seven years to figure out what that is.
