Twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, the Losers Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back.
Looking back at the 1990 version of Stephen King’s “IT,” Tim Curry was the only memorable aspect of that production. Unlike that version though, 2017’s “IT” and its sequel, “IT: Chapter Two,” manage to retain more than just Bill Skarsgård’s sadistic killer clown, the performances by all involved is probably the best aspect of both features. The young cast in the first iteration were wholly believable and you sided with each and every one of them and all the trials and tribulations they had to endure to make it to the end of the movie. With “Chapter Two,” while the majority of the film focuses on the kids all grown up, it does flash back occasionally and the intercutting between the kids and the adult versions of themselves, is practically flawless, the performances from both young and older alike is the most rewarding attribute of the entire story.
At the end of “IT,” the young friends of The Losers Club made a promise to each other, if Pennywise should ever return to their hometown of Derry in Maine, they agreed to return as well so they could fight it and hopefully kill it for good. As is the norm, they eventually all grew up and moved away to different cities and fell out of touch with each other. Twenty-seven years later, Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) is the only member of The Losers Club that stayed in Derry and when people start going missing again and various body parts start turning up in random locations around town, he reaches out to the rest of the club. He reminds them of the promise they made as kids and very reluctantly, each of them makes their way back to Derry. When they realize that one of them didn’t return, they learn that upon hearing about the reappearance of Pennywise, they took their own life.
Mike informs them that over the years he had spoken to Native Americans who told him that Pennywise was actually an alien that crashed into earth millions of years ago and has survived by devouring people in the surrounding area as it cannot stray too far from the craft it crashlanded in as that is where he gets his power from. In order to defeat the evil, the group must make their way to Pennywise’s lair and perform a Native American ritual but before they do, Mike tells them that they must each retrieve a childhood talisman and offer it up in the ritual as a way of purging themselves of “IT.” As adults who moved away from Derry, their childhood memories of Pennywise got hazy and clouded but once back in Derry, those memories start to return, reminding them just how damn scary and powerful Pennywise really is. With time running out and Pennywise growing stronger by the minute, the group must band together one more time and make their way into the bowels of Derry, and face off with their childhood fear, one last time.
Director Andy Muschietti successfully manages to retain a lot of the tension and fear he infused “Chapter One” with but after a while, the frequency with which Pennywise appears, begins to get old and you find yourself saying, “Oh, there’s Pennywise again, I wonder what he’s up to now.” Roger Corman once said, “Never show your monster in the daylight,” that is pretty self-evident as most of our fears come to life in the dark so showing Pennywise flouncing around a park in the middle of the day is more humorous than frightening and it’s at this point that the scare factor begins to diminish. At almost three hours long, “IT: Chapter Two” overstays its welcome about halfway through. The need these days for directors to turn what could have been a successful two-hour movie into a three-hour one is on the rise. Although “Avengers: Endgame” is one of my favorite films this year, at nearly three hours long it too could have been trimmed. Sometimes, more is definitely not better. In the end, “IT: Chapter Two” brings a finality to the story and thankfully does not leave the door open for “IT: Chapter Three.” But then again, this is Hollywood we are talking about and if we’ve learned anything by now, after bringing Freddy, Jason, Michael, and Pinhead back from the dead more times than we care to remember, anything is possible.
Now available on Digital and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD December 10th
