Director: Andy Muschietti
‘
Original Release Date: September 6, 2019
Summary: Defeated by members of the Losers’ Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine, once again. Now adults, the childhood friends have long since gone their separate ways. But when people start disappearing, Mike Hanlon calls the others home for one final stand. Damaged by scars from the past, the united Losers must conquer their deepest fears to destroy the shape-shifting Pennywise — now more powerful than ever.-IMDB
Hello Readers!
This is my movie review for IT: Chapter 2 directed by Andy Muschietti. This film is a sequel to the 2017 movie IT by the same director.
I really loved the themes of this movie and how they are presented in the story. The film is about dealing with the traumas of the past. It shows how overcoming fears and traumas can help us to heal and become better people. It also shows what can happen if we are unable to overcome those fears. This is shown in Stanley Uris’ suicide. He was unable to face his fear of Pennywise and took his own life as a result. In opposition, the rest of the losers return to Derry and face their childhood fears. Because of this, they can move on and find better lives for themselves. With the except for Eddie, who dies saving his best friend, Richie.
This film has an amazing cast. James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon, Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom, James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak, and Andy Bean as Stanley Uris. The cast also includes Bill Skarsgård reprising his role as Pennywise as well as the child actors reprising their roles. Each actor in the film plays their role perfectly. All of the adult actors feel like the adult versions of their younger counterparts. Skarsgård once again delivers an incredible performance as Pennywise that is sure to give audiences nightmares.
This is a horror movie and like most horror movies these days, it has a lot of jump scares. There seemed to be a jump scare moment at every turn. While I did find a few of them scary, most of them were pretty predictable. At the end of the day, there were just too many of them for all of them to have the right effect.
Despite the many jump scare moments, I felt the creepy and unsettling atmosphere the filmmakers created in the film. The town of Derry had this uneasy atmosphere that escalated up until Pennywise’s death. It really felt like Pennywise was a curse plaguing the town.
Most of the horrors monstrosities in this movie were created using CGI. I didn’t feel that the CGI was a strong as it could’ve been. For example, the final form of Pennywise. I thought I would be terrified of this, but instead, I was left unenthused. The same goes for the Kirsh monster that Bev sees. I wanted to be scared, but the CGI looked so bad that I just ended up laughing. While this isn’t something to get too upset about, the CG ended up being more of a distraction than anything.
I really liked how this movie feels like a continuation of the first movie. This film picks up 27 years after the events of the first movie. To bridge the gap, the movie shows the losers as kids through flashbacks. The flashbacks add layers to their stories and fill in the gaps of the first film. It was a nice way to connect this film to the first one.
This film is an adaptation of Stephen King’s book of the same name. Like with most adaptations, this film made some changes from the book. One of these changes was the ritual of Chud. Instead of the losers performing the ritual to defeat Pennywise, the loser overcome their fear of the clown to shrink him. While this change was appropriate to fit the theme of the movie, I didn’t really like the change. I would’ve preferred that the losers perform the ritual.
Another change the film made is Stanley Uris’ suicide. In the book, Stanley commits suicide due to his inability to confront Pennywise a second time. At the end of the film, the losers receive a letter from Stanley where he explains that he had to take his life for the group to defeat Pennywise. Again, I understand why the filmmakers decided to go this route with the character, I don’t feel like this change was necessary.
Overall, I thought the film was good. It was a good sequel to the first film and added some depth to the overall story. It also had some great horror elements. Even though I found some of the CGI unimpressive, there still were moments where I was scared. With some great performances, eerie setting, and touching moments, IT: Chapter 2 was a horror movie worth seeing. So if you’re looking for a scary film to watch this Halloween, might I recommend IT: Chapter 2. Â
Question: What did you think of IT:Chapter 2?Â
Until next time,
Filmster Blog 