IT: Chapter Two Review

Been a while, I know, but I promise I'm hard at work on a few projects. The third novel in the Broken Gods series will likely be published in early 2020, and I have a few more manuscripts I'm working on to introduce to publishers. As for the movie, here we go!

THE GOOD: The acting is great, for one. Special effects are top-notch, so well done that you don't even realize that they're not real, for the most part. The screenplay sticks to the main points of the 1000 page novel quite well. The opening scenes of the movie are, in fact, the opening pages of the novel! This includes a homosexual couple getting attacked by bigots, one of them killed, and leads into the unique story of the movie. Pennywise is, yet again, a terror to behold. He ups the creepy factor with little need for CGI, which makes for an unsettling movie in many scenes. As a horror film, it isn't like the modern scary movie in one drastic, and may I say welcome, way. There are no jump scares. Now, there are some sudden scares, but they come when you expect them. Are they pretty much beyond what you imagined they could be? Yes, virtually every time. But never do you have the James Wan demon-nun leap out of the darkness after several tense moments of silence. The film balances humor (mostly from Richie, the wise-cracking member of the Loser's Club) with unsettling terror. It's rated R, but that is mostly for the unwavering flood of profanity. No nudity to speak of really, and while there is probably a few hundred gallons of blood thrown around, rarely is there grotesque amounts of gore. In the movie, you see a severed head, a pair of legs with the torso severed at the hips, someone's heart, and a nasty stab wound to the face. The rest is fairly tame, with only the presence of blood being unsettling. Beverly's backstory is made even more unsettling, and her life as an adult is less than stellar. So, beware of that. The old lady from the trailer? That scene is far better than they let on. As is the hall of mirrors where grown-up Bill is chasing after a young boy to save him. THE BAD: Mike is pretty mean. And obsessed. He's never left Derry, and calls all of the Losers back to the horrid town when Pennywise starts up his evil shenanigans. He has a means to kill Pennywise, but he needs all of the Losers to help. When they attempt to end the clown, it gets... messy. The bully, Bowers, is back. Still has a mullet, still wearing sleeveless clothes. He reunites with one of his old bully buddies after escaping the mental asylum he's locked up in, and goes on a bit of a spree. The Losers handle him, but don't really call the cops about their (two) encounters with him. In fact, Mike walks onto a crime scene where mutilated body parts were found, and nobody seems to notice or care. The whole town is either empty, or crowded with impatient townspeople.

The horny pharmacist is back, and even creepier. THE UGLY: Stephan King's cameo, where he scolds Bill for swearing. Also, and this is just an aside, the constant and annoying shots at King's habit of having underwhelming endings to his novels. Otherwise, amazing movie.