Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Bill Skarsgard, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransome, Andy Bean, Jaeden Martell, Wyatt Oleff, Jack Dylan Grazer, Finn Wolfhard, Sopia Lillis, Chosen Jacobs, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Teach Grant, Nicholas Hamilton, Javier Botet, Xavier Dolan, Taylor Frey, Molly Atkinson, Joan Gregson, Stephen Bogaert, Luke Roessler, Stephen King, Peter Bogdanovich, Will Beinbrink, Jess Weixler, Martha Girvin, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Jackson Robert Scott, Jake Weary, Katie Lunman, Kelly Van der Burg, Jason Fuchs, Joe Bostick, Megan Charpentier, Juno Rinaldi, Neil Crone, Ry Prior, Owen Teague.
We are framed by the fears we carry from childhood. The scars we think have healed remain with us under the surface, and no matter how we grow, they still fester inside, they resist change and it is the abuse, whether mental or physical that comes to the fore when we return to the place we might have once called home.
Everything is magnified by fear and possible ridicule when you are young, the confidence we hope to have in adulthood is determined by the way we deal with oppression, with the bullying nature of others and the deep held terror of our own imagination, and few books have ever truly captured this battle with in our selves than that of Stephen King’s It.
The first adaptation of the book, the slightly kitsch but enjoyable 1990 television two-parter which starred the brilliant Tim Curry as the titular character, is now perhaps dated but that doesn’t mean the latest version has to rest upon its laurels in its efforts to outshine its previous incarnation; and indeed in the first chapter which was released in 2017, the dynamic was such that it realised its absolute potential with superb results.
It: Chapter Two almost recreates the unnerving distress that the first chapter embodies, and even with a huge running time attributed to the viewer, it is only let down by what is doesn’t show on screen, rather than the excess others have striven for.
In any adaption there is always the words that are left behind that the viewer and the fan understand would have added just the extra momentum in which the film scream for, and whilst it is understandable that the figure of universal good that is embodied by the Turtle, a resonating figure of God, would arguably be difficult and time consuming to replicate for film audiences, there is the counter argument that the omission of Audra Denbrough and Beverly Marsh’s abusive husband Tom Rogan as a conduit of It’s evil is one that makes Chapter 2 less of the sum of the excellent parts that the first part obliged, and in which the novel demands.
It has always been a book which dealt with the loss of childhood, arguably one that resonates in the 21st Century with greater pains than might have been expected in the post Second World War sentiment of the 1950s through to the 1980s. This feeling is highlighted by the memory of those who first came across Stephen King’s novel as a teenager during the time of international upheaval, the fear of the final days of the Cold War, of alienation and guilt of being part of a generation that is seen to be feckless and out of control, all the same generalisations that can be placed at the door of those who inhabit the ages of those who took on the power of It.
There is a certain sense of power attached to this film to which other horror films have completely disregarded in their attempt to shock and horrify their audiences, and with Jessica Chastain and Sophia Lillis giving extraordinary performances as Beverly Marsh, the excellent Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Clown and Joan Gregson as Mrs Kersh, the artistic portrait that is placed down is one of continuality, of paying more than homage to the horror genre, it raises the bar in how we look at modern classics by horror writers who don’t succumb to the fantastical gore and who instead offer a reasoned, almost beautiful, way of story-telling.
It: Chapter 2 is a chilling conclusion to a great cinematic tale, one of great persuasion.
Ian D. Hall