It Chapter Two

I wasn’t a big fan of It Chapter One. While the filmmakers did a good job casting the kids and Pennywise, and updating the setting to the 80s worked like a charm, it cut out nearly all the character development, history of Derry and cosmic horror that made the book more than just a scary story. I was hopeful that with a bigger budget, longer running time and perhaps more freedom from the studio, Chapter Two would focus less on jump scares and more on building up the characters and the mythology. That is not the case.

The opening scene is tough to watch but does stick very closely to the first present day scene of the book, with the homophobic attack on Adrian Mellon and his subsequent murder by Pennywise. The introduction to all the adult Losers is also fairly faithful, though Bev having an abusive husband is kind of pointless since he is never seen or mentioned again after his one scene. We also briefly meet Bill’s wife Audra who, you guessed it, is also never seen or heard from again after.

By the time the surviving Losers are reunited at the Chinese restaurant, the film has taken a long time to get very little done, not helped by flashbacks to the kid versions of the characters which just reminds the audience how much better chemistry they had. The Ritual of Chüd is clumsily introduced into the story as something Mike stole from a Native American tribe (though we do at least get to see Pennywise arriving on Earth millions of years ago in a meteor), and in this version the Losers have to go on scavenger hunt across town to retrieve personal artifacts in order for the ritual to work or something (I kinda tuned out here). Any scenes that build some genuine menace (such as Bev encountering Mrs. Kersh) are quickly undone by some ludicrous CG. Although the giant Paul Bunyan that attacks Richie is kind of cool. Part of the problem is also that Pennywise doesn’t harm any of the adult Losers even when he has the opportunity to, leading to scenes of him attacking random kids just to try and generate some tension.

The film returns to the book for Henry Bowers escaping from a mental institution but since he ends up not doing any serious harm to the Losers, they might as well have cut this. Once the Losers end up in the sewers again, we get a big build-up to the Ritual of Chüd before the filmmakers decide, nah, that was a waste of time and have the survivors kill the Amazing Spider-Clown by being mean to him and making him small.

Despite this ho-hum conclusion, the film does generate some emotion with Richie’s reaction to Edddie’s death (it’s hinted at, though never explicitly stated, that Richie had romantic feelings for his friend). Then the friends all go their separate ways (though they keep their memories, unlike in the book) and the film somehow tries to put a positive spin on Stan committing suicide, too.

Despite all this griping, there are some things to like about this film. Bill Hader is very good as the grown-up Richie, and Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise remains an impressive creation (though it’s still ludicrous that any kid would want to get within fifty feet of him). James Ransone is fun to watch as a grown-up Eddie, though I was confused why he acts like he is in Goodfellas much of the time. The few parts that do successfully capture the book work like gangbusters, and while long it doesn’t seem nearly three hours long. Ultimately, as fun an exercise as it is to split the book into past and present day scenes, the story doesn’t really work separated this way. You need the kid scenes and adult scenes together to get the full effect. Maybe a supercut following the book’s structure might make the adaptation work better, but for now this has to be seen as interesting but ultimately deeply flawed attempt.