I just got back from one of the early showings of ‘IT Chapter 2’, and the movie was so fun. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you probably know that the 1990 It miniseries holds a very special place in my heart. It was one of the first real horror movies I got to watch (being only 5, I wasn’t too wordly yet). And I loved the first installment of the remake (Check out my review here).
For fans of the book, I really think this movie will hit a lot of high notes. I was very happy that it tackled some of the scenes left out of the miniseries (Paul Bunyan, anyone?). And I enjoyed all of the cameos and references sprinkled in here and there. Yes, it was almost 3 hours long, but I thought the runtime was justified. There was a lot of ground to cover.
Let’s get into it.
WARNING: HERE BE SPOILERS
The Adults
This cast was a home run for me. I think every actor did a wonderful job playing off the characters started by the children from the first chapter. I love James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and Jessica Chastain, so when they were cast, I did a little happy dance. I know the actors from the miniseries were big in their time, but I never expected some of my favorite people to be in the remake. So happy.
Then you have the Old Spice Guy (Isaiah Mustafa) playing Mike, the Deputy from the Sinister series (James Ransone) playing Eddie, and the Beast from the Beauty and the Beast tv series (Jay Ryan) playing Ben. Great jobs by everyone.
I especially loved Hader and Ransone’s barbs at each other throughout. So many laughs. I really think Hader was a wonderful choice for Richie.
The Children
So it took a while to get this movie made, and in the time that passed, the young Losers Club had kind of aged too much. I mean, I’m going to assume youve seen season 3 of Stranger Things. Finn Wolfhard definitely is looking older. So to mitigate this, the filmmakers used the new de-aging tech to make them young again.
I already knew they had used it, so I was looking for the signs. If you’re looking for it, you’ll see that there were some weird things going on with the faces of pretty much everyone. It stood out the most to me in young Richie and young Ben. If you’re not looking for it, you will probably still notice something seems off, but it’s good enough that it didn’t really bother me.
And with this new tech came the ability to do a few more scenes with the children that really added to the story. I loved that they were able to give us a little more scary moments the Losers Club experienced as children. I was hoping that the Paul Bunyan statue would come into play since it was shown in one of the trailers, and I wasn’t disappointed. Richie’s tangle with the murderous statue in the book was one of my favorite scenes, and I really liked how they did it here.
The Clown
Bill Skarsgard killed it again. His portrayal of Pennywise is so different from Curry’s version, but I love it almost just as much. He’s different. A little less comical, but a little more conniving. And they show him actually murderous and bloody, which I enjoy.
The Cameos & References
The man of the hour, Stephen King, made an appearance! I was so happy. He might not be on the Stan Lee level of cameos, but I was still expecting to see him. Loved that they were able to include him.
Another cameo I was happy to see was Brandon Crane. Crane played young Ben in the original miniseries, and here he plays an employee at new Ben’s architecture firm. It was a surprise to see him, but a good one.
There were multiple references to King’s work. The Shining stands out the most with Bower’s “Here’s Johnny” line. Chastain’s blood-drenched scene seemed to link to Carrie, and there were various references to the It book. The turtle model in the school, the theater, and the Ritual of Chud all made an appearance.
There was also a reference to one of my favorite horror movies of all time, The Thing. Young Stan’s head rolls out of the fridge in the house on Neibolt Street and sprouts spider legs. Richie says, “You’ve got to be f*cking kidding me,” immediately after. Cracked. Me. Up. But I was the only one in my theater that got it, it seemed. Sadness.
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So would I recommend ‘It Chapter Two?’ Of course, I would. If you loved the book, you’re going to get a lot more out of it, but even if you haven’t, I still think it’s pretty enjoyable.
Just make sure you run to the restroom beforehand. Three hours is a long time.