'IT: Chapter Two' (2019)



I've been a fan of Stephen King's' books since, wow... way to go and make myself feel old... Dammit.
Lets try again. If I had to pick a favourite Stephen King book, it would be 'IT', no question about it. 'The Stand' comes a very close second (and you can tell now that I love it best when King goes epic) but there's something about King's tale of childhood innocence lost, and ravenous child eating clowns, that hits the spot for me. Pennywise is evil, sure, but navigating childhood can be far scarier. You know I'm right. If you were that kid on the outside of everything (me) then 'IT' will resonate with you like it did with me.

All of this had me looking forward to the big remake of 'IT'; that and having grown up in the late eighties/early nineties, a time when good Stephen King adaptations were really hard to come by. Don't get me wrong, the 1990 tv series had its moments but would you seriously tell me that if Tim Curry hadn't played 'Pennywise' you'd remember it with any real fondness? No, didn't think so.
I won't dwell too long on the first installment of the remake, lets just say that I thought it did everything that it needed to and it did it superbly. I'm not one of those people who wants to see a film blindly follow its source material to the letter. Things sometimes have to change on the big screen, the important thing is that a film stays true to the message that was in the book and I believe that 'IT' stayed true. What about 'IT: Chapter Two' though...?

'IT: Chapter Two' is party about unfinished business with Pennywise but also about what it's like to return home and take care of the kind of unfinished business that informs your whole life. What you get then is a lot of introspection interspersed with a lot of jump scares as Pennywise makes himself known. If you thought that you jumped loads in the first film, there are a couple of good ones here that will really make your heart race. Bill Skarsgard is just superb as Pennywise by the way, going for (and hitting) a mixture of chilling joviality and this look he does, while dribbling, that says, 'I want to eat your heart right now...'

It's the Losers though who really carry things this time, facing their deepest fears and not backing down. You can't help but root for all of them but its Bill Hader's Richie Tozier who's the star for me, especially when you see what he has been hiding, even from himself. I want to give him a hug...

'IT: Chapter Two' is a fitting finale and a real example of how good Stephen King's work can look on the screen, when it's done right. So good in fact that I might just have to pick up the book for another read. The only thing it was missing was a Tim Curry cameo but you can't have everything...

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