Movie Review: IT Chapter Two

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It Chapter Two is the sequel to the 2017 film It, both based on the 1986 novel It by Stephen King. Featuring a stellar cast and impeccable style and tone throughout its 170-minute runtime, it’s inarguably one of the finest horror stories – and King adaptations – we’ve had on screen to date.

Since I was a child, I’ve revered Stephen King as one of the greatest storytellers of all time, and the 1,138-page tome that brought Pennywise and the Losers Club into my life always struck me as an impossible dream of cinematic adaptation. The 1990 film succeeded largely due to the deadpan menace of Tim Curry, but fell victim to the cinematic style and special-effects limitations of its day, while the 2017 film coasted through its failings thanks to a charming and magnetic ensemble cast.

It Chapter Two is that impossible dream for horror fans and King fans alike, improving on almost every aspect of its predecessor and presenting nearly three hours of gorgeous cinema that effortlessly carousels between laugh-out-loud comedy and chilling horror. It’s a faithful adaptation of the novel minus a few of the more controversial sections – which, admittedly, would have felt perfectly aligned with the tone of the film – with director, Andy Muschietti, offering brilliantly entertaining thrills alongside naturally unfolding emotional and mental subtext from start to finish.

Set in 2016, 27 years after the events depicted in the first film, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård in a much-refined and terrifying performance) returns to the little town of Derry, Maine to exact revenge following his unexpected defeat at the hands of the teenage Losers Club.

Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) is the only one of the Losers who has remained in Derry, and consequently the only member still capable of remembering his childhood trauma due to the supernatural amnesia caused by the town’s boundary. Once Pennywise resurfaces from his vengeful recuperation, Mike contacts the adult Losers and reminds them of the blood oath they made nearly three decades earlier, forcing the forgotten group of friends to return to Derry and destroy Pennywise once and for all.

Bill (James McAvoy) is now a successful novelist and screenwriter unable to produce a satisfying ending for his most recent adaptation, Bev (Jessica Chastain) is a professional success but still plagued by horrifying physical and mental abuse from her husband, fast-talking germaphobe Eddie (James Ransone) works in high-level business risk assessment, while Richie (Bill Hader) has developed his acerbic wit into a standup career, Ben (Jay Ryan) is now a jaw-droppingly gorgeous master architect, and Stanley (Andy Bean) is still troublingly complex and skittishly sensitive.

Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Wyatt Oleff reprise their roles as the younger Losers in additional flashback scenes, all of whom present a consistent confidence and clarity in their performances that was lacking in the previous film. Sophia Lillis is still the flawless standout actor of the group, delivering a level of engaging charm and sparkle of humanity that is unfortunately absent from her adult counterpart, Jessica Chastain, for the majority of the film. While Chastain’s off-note portrayal doesn’t devalue the film as a whole, it feels strangely manufactured and almost alien, without the necessary depth applied to her story to justify what feels like a cold and forced rendition of the earlier character.

The standout performances in the adults come from Ransone, Hader, and Ryan. While the first two provide flawless comedy and perfect portrayals of their younger selves, it’s Ryan that seems to ignite every frame he occupies with an unexpected level of emotional vulnerability and maturity. Despite a slightly Benedict Cumberbatch doubletake, his performance seems the most naturally effortless and authentic here, relying on nuanced facial expressions and subtle body language to express painfully authentic emotion and a genuine yearning for wholeness.

Uncompromising, highly adult horror is front and centre from the opening scenes of It Chapter Two, and the film refuses to pull its punches or drift away from unsettlingly graphic, brutal violence and terror. The first twenty minutes of the film are a masterclass in blunt-force-trauma horror cinema, punctuated with a slightly typical but often-surprising score by Benjamin Wallfisch, and the film follows this by throwing every sliver of production value into its grand set pieces and mix of monster and body horror. The influences – as with the monsters and scares – are vast here, wrapping the film in a Goosebumps-meets-Eraserhead-meets-Silent Hill flavour that seems perfectly designed for adult horror fans – it’s a film that respects its audience and its source material to levels very rarely seen in high-budget horror.

It Chapter Two will no doubt provide further reveals to fans upon a rewatch, but even an initial screening elevates it beyond much of the mainstream horror recently released – providing a worthy adaptation of an impossible novel and an authentic piece of horror cinema that brings to mind the timeless brilliance of Stand By Me and The Shining. It’s a Stephen King film for true horror fans, and – at almost three hours long – is an experience designed for the spooky, inescapable, and unrelenting environment of a pitch-black cinema: “Come on back and we’ll see if you remember the simplest thing of all – how it is to be children, secure in belief and thus afraid of the dark.”

Director: Andy Muschietti  Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Bill Skarsgård

~Oxford Lamoureaux

 

 

 

 

 

Oxford Lamoureaux
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