'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...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘Deathworlder’ – Victoria Hayward (Black Library)

Image
Before I get into the review proper, thank you Black Library for sending me a copy of ‘Deathworlder’ in return for a fair and honest review. Talking of ‘fair and honest’… There will be loads of the latter but I enjoyed the hell out of ‘Deathworlder’ so… We’ll see how being fair goes ;o) That’s your only warning, lets talk ‘Deathworlder’… Lazulai is a world beyond the brink, its battle against the tyranids all but lost. Once-magnificent cities lie in ruin. The seas boil. The skies crack. Horrific alien bioforms devour. In mere days the planet will be consumed. The 903rd Catachan ‘Night Shrikes’ defend one of the last fortresses still standing. Led by Major Wulf Khan, to die fighting is all that is expected of them… until she is given one last mission: to lead a squad through the apocalypse and recover a piece of archeotech that may doom or deliver the entire Lazulai System. Facing insurmountable odds and zero hope for aid, the major must hold her squad together as they pick their way ...
Read more

‘Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth’ (1992)

Image
Every time Halloween comes round, I promise myself that I’ll watch more horror films and read more horror fiction; we’re halfway through the month and you can see how that’s going so far… There’s still plenty of October left though so lets see how I do from now until the end of the month ;o) First up is ‘Hellraiser 3’ which I watched last night, mostly because I love it (you can tell how this post is going to go, sorry…) but also because it was cheap on Prime and I’m still just on the wrong side of payday. Here goes… TV reporter Joey Summerskill’s life is changed forever when she witnesses the horrific death of a teenager, torn apart by bloody chains. Joey’s search for a story leads her to the Lament Configuration Box but it has already been opened, waking an old evil from its slumber… Now Pinhead walks the earth once more, creating a new army of Cenobites from the transmuted flesh of his victims; his one desire to reclaim the Box. Even with help from an unexpected source, Joey Summers...
Read more

‘Cursed City’ – C.L. Werner (Black Library)

Image
I always have these vague ‘reading resolutions’, for the New Year and without fail, they all come to absolutely nothing. I still read loads, just none of the books that I meant to… This year is panning out slightly differently and I think I’m going to enjoy it. All the books that were originally ‘out of sight, out of mind’, in the loft at my old place, are now all over my new place and wherever I look, I’m constantly discovering books that I totally forgot I had but now quite fancy reading. Books like ‘Cursed City’ for example… I’m not going to tell you how long ‘Cursed City’ was sat in my loft, lets just say it was long enough for me to totally forget it was there and buy myself another copy… Oh well. I found it on the shelf the other day (only the one copy now) and figured it was way overdue a read, let me tell you about it… Ulfenkarn is a city of nightmares. Its vampiric rulers have indulged their bloodlust in every shadow-clad alley, turning the once-proud metropolis into a charnel...
Read more