IT: Chapter Two Review

Everyone's favorite killer clown is back in what is easily the horror event of the year. It's actually been a pretty decent month or so for horror as in just the last month I've done reviews for "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark," "47 Meters Down: Uncaged" and "Ready or Not." Then we had "Midsommar" back in July as well as "Child's Play" and "Annabelle Comes Home" back in June, the latter two of which I still haven't seen. We also had the little Sundance thriller "Don't Let Go" last weekend, but I also didn't get around to seeing that one. But, yeah, "IT: Chapter Two" is the big one as the first "IT" made an astronomically high $123 million opening weekend, which is practically unheard of for a horror film. Horror films are so cheap to make that if you get $40-50 million opening weekend, you're almost guaranteed to have 10 sequels coming in the next 10 years. You can even get away with only making $20-30 million overall in certain instances and still be considered profitable given that most of these films are budgeted at only a few million dollars. So yeah, $123 million in one weekend is insane. It went onto make $327 million domestically and $700 million worldwide. So here we are with "Chapter Two" as fast as they possibly could, which is also set to do quite well.

Sure, it might be unfair to expect "Chapter Two" to perform as high as the first one, but given that the first one was only budgeted at $35 million, it's not necessary for it to do as well, even though it does appear that they doubled the production budget to $60-70 million, which it's certainly guaranteed to make back in its upcoming opening weekend as it's on pace for somewhere between $80-100 million. In the meantime, Warner Bros. is probably trying to figure out a way to bring Pennywise back for a third outing, but I hope they can manage to restrain themselves and just keep it as these two movies because, with both movies combined, this is a solid five hour epic that has a perfect beginning, middle and end. We don't need more. As far as my feelings on this second half going in, I would label myself as being cautiously optimistic. I really enjoyed the first movie and I loved the idea of having the same director and team come for this second movie. I also loved the new cast they had for the adult versions of the losers club, highlighted by Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader. But if we're being real, the first half of the movie was the part that was easy to get right whereas they had their work cut out for them as the second half is the lesser half of the story.

I don't want to get too deep into my issues with this second half, in terms of the book and the 1990 TV miniseries, because most of that has to do with how this ends. It's not a good ending. Granted, I haven't physically read the 100,000 page book by Stephen King (OK, that's a slight exaggeration in terms of that length), but I've read and heard a lot about it, especially since I have seen the miniseries and when that ending came, I was like, "Wait, what? That's it?" A friend of mine once told me that, while Stephen King does an excellent job setting up his horror, mystery and suspense, he's not very good at his resolutions. I can't claim that as my personal opinion of his work since I haven't actually read most of his stuff, but in terms of the ending of "IT," I'd say that most certainly holds true. The other non-spoilery reason why I'm not as big of a fan of the second half of the story is that having Pennywise terrorize a group of teenage kids is a much more intriguing setup that simply works better for a horror film as compared to Pennywise terrorizing a group of adults. With the 2017 movie version, the fact that they made it take place in 80's was a perfect marriage as it felt like a classic 80's horror. And we all know how popular and fun 80's nostalgia vomit is right now. 

So yeah, the filmmakers here really had their work cut out for them, which is why I think I ended up enjoying and appreciating this film a lot more than I was expecting to. First and foremost, what really held this thing together was the cast. When I heard that they cast Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader, I knew I was going to get 110 percent out of those three. And I was exactly right. But what I also got was an equal amount of effort from the other three members of the adult losers club, played by Jay Ryan, James Ransone and Isaiah Mustafa. Yes, there were seven kids in the losers club in the first movie. If you don't know the story here, I'll let you figure out in the first 20 minutes what happens to the seventh one as an adult. But for the sake of this review, these six actors are our main group that are focused and I think it's impressive how much I bought the idea that they are grown up versions of the kids. There's a lot of flashbacks in this where they go back to them as kids and it helped me remember their personalities in the first movie, which in turn made it extremely impressive because those same personalities still existed in their adult selves. Despite being very well known actors, especially Chastain, McAvoy and Hader, they were all able to disappear into their roles and become these characters.

On top of there being six great performances in the movie, I also liked the focus of this being a character piece. A lot of horror films out there are focused first and foremost on the scares and the imagery, with story and characters being afterthoughts. Depending on how well said scares are set up, that can work as mindless entertainment, but where the horror genre really shines is when there's more depth. When the horror sequences are secondary in focus to the themes, characters and story. That's one thing that the first "IT" excelled at. You really cared about this group of young outcasts and what they were going through. Having them all bind together to face their fears and thus become stronger was quite touching and inspirational. It was a lot more than just a killer clown chasing kids around. I loved how "Chapter Two" built on that. Sometimes we make promises as kids, but life happens and we forget. In the movie, they literally forgot due to supernatural elements of the town, but I think it was very metaphorical. They had to remember who they were, come together again, and conquer their fears once and for all. For most of them, the struggles they had when they were younger carried over into their adult lives and all of that got forced to the surface when they reunited in Derry.

I found myself really enjoying watching all of them grow and progress as characters. I don't want to specifically single out one or two of them as having superior arcs because I liked all six of them. I also liked how the movie chose not to rush to a finale. There's a lot of story to tell here and they gave themselves plenty of time to tell it. It was a gamble to make the movie nearly three hours long (2 hours 49 minutes), but I think it payed off as nothing felt rushed or compromised. This could've easily been one of those 10-episode Netflix shows with how much material there is to work with, but I liked having this as a movie and I liked how well it has done because it's given them the financial freedom to do this story justice with high budget effects and top notch actors to go along with 2019 technology. It's allowed us to experience the "IT" story that we all deserve. And I think it's highly amusing that people will binge a whole season of "The Haunting of Hill House" in one weekend with zero complaints (that's nearly 10 hours worth of content), yet at the same time will walk out and complain that "IT: Chapter Two" was too long at just three hours. Yes, this movie is a bit of time investment, but if you're just going to watch Netflix all night anyways, you might as well invest that time, right?

Now it would certainly be foolish of me to review an "IT" movie and not talk about the scares. Because there's a lot of them. I don't know if I was cowering in my seat like I was with something like "Hereditary" or "Midsommar." I'm not even sure this was quite as terrifying as the first "IT." But I was really enjoying myself. Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise was again having the time of his life. Every time he showed up on screen, he just completely took over and had my full attention. Tim Curry as Pennywise is rightfully iconic, but Bill Skarsgard absolutely does the character justice and also does a great job of making it his own. These are two very different performances, but are both great in their own right. The advantage that Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise has is that it's not held back by being a TV miniseries. They can get away with being a lot more gruesome and graphic. Speaking of that, I felt that "Chapter Two" was even a lot more graphic than the first one. Given that they didn't know how successful that first movie was going to be, it felt like perhaps they were a bit cautious. But this time around, knowing that people will show up in droves, they did not hold back one bit. They completely unleashed the Pennywise fury.

With that does come a bit of a caution. If you don't have the stomach for graphic horror films, but yet you were considering maybe give "IT" and "IT: Chapter Two" a chance due to how culturally relevant and popular the movies are becoming, you might want to reconsider. Perhaps you can check out the first movie, I own it if you are a good friend of mine who lives close. And if that's too much for you, then steer clear of "Chapter Two" because they turn up intensity quite a bit. If you've only seen the 1990 miniseries, know that these two movies make that one look cheesy, childish and tame. But if you do have the stomach for these types of horror films, buckle up and enjoy the ride. Now "Chapter Two" is not being as widely acclaimed as the first movie, thus I think I might end up being one who is higher on the movie than most. As such, I was going to counter a lot of the common complaints that I didn't have an issue with, but there's an interesting psychological phenomenon with movies that once you hear a complaint about a movie you haven't seen, you often go in with that complaint in mind, thinking that you might also have the same complaint. So I'm not even going to put those negative thoughts about this movie into your brain. Maybe it'll give you more of a clean slate. 

As far as a final grade, I think I've handcuffed myself a bit. I really enjoyed last month's "Scary Stories" and gave it a really high score. And even though I liked "IT: Chapter Two" for very different reasons, I'm not quite sure which one I like more and I'm not ready to make that determination quite yet. So I feel obligated to give it the same score just to make my life easier. But at the same time, I will freely admit that the first "IT" is a more polished, refined, and scarier movie that "Chapter Two" simply because it was easier to get right, thus I was going to give "Chapter Two" a slightly lower grade than that one. But yet my score for "Scary Stories" and "IT" is the same exact score, so I'm in a bit of a bind. That's why I hope you don't put too much weight into the grades I give in my reviews. I like giving them because it's a good summation of how I feel. But yeah, what I say means a lot more than the number I give and this is a good example of why. I suppose this is deserving of the same score as the first simply because they had a bigger uphill battle to climb and they did an excellent job with the task that they were given. And without spoiling the ending, I left the movie with a huge smile on my face thanks to certain things they changed. So, sure. I'll give "IT: Chapter Two" a 9/10.