“For 27 years, I dreamt of you. I craved you. I’ve missed you.” -Pennywise
Two years ago, director Andy Muschietti took us into the town of Derry, Maine, and right into the grips of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). Although the 1990 made-for-TV IT miniseries gave us one of Tim Curry’s most beloved performances, IT Chapter 1 has gone down as one of the best Stephen King film adaptations, and rightfully so. Now, Muschietti takes us to Derry once more for the conclusion with IT Chapter 2.
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After the release of the first film, speculations were thrown around as to who would play the grownup versions of the young cast. As Chapter 2 would feature the adult Losers’ Club going to back to finish what they started, the right casting was crucial and needed to feel authentic. The most on-the-nose casting choice was by far Bill Hader as the adult version of Finn Wolfhard’s Richie Tozier. Aside from physical appearance, Richie is once again the effective comedy relief, especially when paired with James Ransone’s Eddie (kid version played by Jack Dylan Grazer). The rest of the adult Losers’ Club consists of Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh (young: Sophia Lillis), James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough (young: Jaeden Martell), Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon (young: Chosen Jacobs), Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom (young: Jeremy Ray Taylor), and Andy Bean as Stanley Uris (young: Wyatt Oleff). While the adult casting choices were all extremely well-paired, Hader is without a doubt the standout.
Although IT Chapter 2 focuses on the adults returning to Derry, the younger cast is featured throughout in flashbacks, some giving new brushes with Pennywise not seen in the first film. These scenes are far too often, detracting from the adults when we needed to see the characters more developed. A few of the flashbacks were also simply unneeded, coming off as forced horror, such as young Eddie in the pharmacy basement. The adults’ interactions with Pennywise is consistently coupled with youth horror stories, when they could have easily stood on their own.
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As we saw in Chapter 1, Bill Skarsgård is legitimately frightening as Pennywise; even without the make-up his contorted facial expressions are the stuff of nightmares. He simply didn’t need to morph into messy CGI characters as often as he did for cheap scares. As with the adults, Skarsgård is strong enough on his own and the creatures were simply not scary, instead coming off as something from a horror flick intended for kids.
Even with the film’s flaws, there is still plenty to appreciate here. The chemistry between the adult cast felt just as genuine as the first time around, which is needed in the friendship-dependent story. The performances across the board were solid and the humor was spot-on and well-received. We just needed to see more effective horror to tip that scale.
After the success of Chapter 1, the sequel had some big shoes to fill, and while IT Chapter 2 did not quite reach that height, fans were given an emotionally-satisfying conclusion for our beloved Losers’ Club.
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