IT: CHAPTER TWO
USA, 2019 - 165'
Direction: Andrés Muschietti / Screenplay: Gary Dauberman, Stephen King / Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Skarsgård, Bill Hader, Sophia Lillis / Music: Benjamin Wallfisch / Cinematography: Checco Varese / Editing: Jason Ballantyne
It was 1989 when the Losers' Club kids defeated, without eliminating it, the evil Pennywise, a shifter entity living in Derry's sewers who periodically feeds on its inhabitants and in particular on children, his favourite preys.
In 2016, 27 years after, the group is destined to a new confrontation. Protagonists have grown, almost everyone left Derry, leaving the horror behind, as well as many details of their friendship. Only Mike remained so he's the only one who can prepare them to the final battle.
It: Chapter Two is a sequel not taken for granted, so much that the previous film has been distributed simply as It, as if it were a completed work - and actually it had a sort of satisying ending. Anyone slightly knowing Stephen King's bibliography knows that 'It' is an extremely wide book, divided into two alternate timeframes and inserted within the complex mythology created by the author.
The new chapter, no longer fearing the need to be self-sufficient, is going to capitalize on the previous film, recasting its young actors in order to recreat the novel's time alternation, at least partially. Moreover, the whole story has been flashed forward in time compared to the original text, where the kids live in 1950 (here in 1989) and they are 40 by mid-80s (here in 2016).
Andrès Muschietti, who's once again director and screenwriter, has already said that he's going to be quite free in this adaptation, not being particularly interested in King's macrouniverse. In particular, he's vague regarding the entity opposed to Pennywise, Maturin turtle, that in the first film was more or less just an easter egg and will hardly have a bigger role, considering that the director keeps saying that he doesn't want to make a fantasy.
While the first chapter was interprted by young actors, mostly newcomers, this sequel relies instead on stars such as Jessica Chastain, playing Beverly Marsh, and James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough. Comic Bill Hader, who just won at the Emmy Awards for his comedy Barry, plays Richie Tozier, and all other Losers are played by known TV faces. Xavier Dolan, fun of the first hour of the first chapter, will play a small part. Lastly, Bill Skarsgard will be once again the immortal Pennywise.
