By Sanjana Sanghani, Staff Reporter
Scary movies may often evoke memories of you screaming in fright or hiding under the covers; however, kicking off the fall, “It: Chapter Two,” fails to deliver on that promise.
The movie is set 27 years later after the events in Derry, Maine in which the “Losers Club”—a group of seven misfit children—battled Pennywise, a demonic clown. Pennywise emerges again to terrorize the town and the first horror the audience witnesses is a homophobic hate crime. The audience is horrified and the scene serves as a reminder of the ordinary human cruelty that is very real today. This crime perpetrated by Pennywise leads to Mike, the only member of the Loser Club to stay in Derry, to call the other members back home to defeat Pennywise once and for all.
The adults of the movie are very well-cast. For example, Bill, who is now a successful architect, is played by James McAvoy; Beverly, now suffers from an abusive husband, is played by Jessica Chastain; and Richie, now a stand-up comedian, is played by Bill Hader. Each pairing mirrors the other nicely. The young actor for Richie, played by Finn Wolfhard, and Hader are an especially unique pairing. Hader also proves to be a highlight in the film, with his scene-stealing comedic delivery.
Along the way, the audience is exposed to a few scares, but the movie seems to drag along through the losers’ individual excursions. Spectators are given insight into his or her own guilt, fear, or shame, but each journey ultimately reveals nothing that audience didn’t already know about the characters and results in a mire of repetition.
At the end of the movie, the big battle with Pennywise fails to be spectacle. The audience waits with bated breath the entire movie in order to see how Pennywise will be defeated, and is disappointed when the remedy is to insult the clown.
Sanjana Sanghani can be reached at [email protected]
