On September 15, 1986, the greatest King of Horror Stephen King changed the world of literature with his massive (and it is really very large in size) book It, which was released in 1990 as a film. The modern adaptation of this “terrible” miracle was the film by Andy Muschietti, which lasted in 2019 with the sequel “It Chapter Two”, which we will talk about today. The movie doesn’t deviate much from the book, so it tells us the same story: the Losers club, consisting of six boys and one girl, fights against the magical power of It, one of whose guises is our beloved clown Pennywise.
What is the movie It Chapter Two about?
Events take place in the city of Derry, and the very power of It wakes up every 27 years in order to feast on local children, forcing adults to soon forget about the ongoing horror. The “lost” town is a kind of refuge for a monster, so that our already grown-up heroes completely forgot about what happened to them in childhood in Derry (these events are described in the 2017 movie It). But one of them still dared to stay in Derry, where he spent the last three decades – Mike. It is this guy who convenes, after so many years, the Losers club with the goal of again, but finally, defeating It. All but one – Stanley, who, having learned about the revival of It, committed suicide out of fear, come to the city, and then the fun begins!
The sequel to It Chapter Two runs for a full three hours, which is why many viewers were pretty indignant in their reviews. Indeed, the film goes on for a very long time, but it keeps the viewer in constant, unceasing tension, which cannot but be considered a plus of the picture! The plot of the film literally followed in the footsteps of the book, with the exception of minor details, although in some places the director nevertheless cut out important events and storylines only because of insufficient timing (although much more? Three whole hours!).
The meaning of the movie It Chapter Two
Like any film adaptation of the works of the King of Horrors, this film caused a storm of absolutely diverse comments from viewers of all ages. The underlying thought of the entire film (and the book, of course, too) is the fact that all childhood traumas, experiences and habits still remain with us in adulthood and not just remain – they have an excessively strong influence on our already adult decisions. Constant smooth and sometimes not even very noticeable transitions between the events of our days and the events that happened to the heroes in childhood clearly illustrate this idea and further strengthen our confidence in the immutability of the main characters.
Second, but not least, the author’s thought was to convey the childish (or rather, teenage) desire to unite in a group, to work together and search for comrades; the desire not to be alone and not to be lonely, the bond of friendship and camaraderie – this is the foundation of this work! This film is an incomprehensible mixture of chilling horror, a mystical thriller, inappropriate jokes, an amazing cast, and the theme of friendship and solidarity that managed to help defeat the Ancient Evil. The film repeatedly slipped jokes about the bad endings of the books of the protagonist – the writer Bill.
This can be called an indirect reference to the endings of the true author of this masterpiece – Stephen King, because at one time our beloved King of Horrors received negative reviews just about his ambiguous crumpled endings. Well, It is no exception to the rule; the movie, like the book, has a very vague and incomprehensible ending storyline that is very difficult to piece together. Even a viewer who has not read the book will understand that in the finale, it was thanks to the solidarity of childhood friends that the main characters managed to defeat the terrible monster and stay alive (except – for a moment of sadness and memory – beloved asthmatic Eddie Kaspbrak).
But, unfortunately or fortunately, we were not shown at the end the famous Turtle that created our world in the King’s universe. The final scenes would then come out incredibly absurd and would completely confuse the viewer, forcing him to forget about the key idea. It is also worth noting the amazing work done by actor Bill Skarsgard, who played the role of the awesome Pennywise. Recall, of course, there was a lot of makeup on the guy’s face, but all the facial expressions of the villain-clown are solely Bill’s merit.
