I’ve never been a big fan of Horror films yet I have no hate for them; I think they do have a substantial place in cinema. I just never rush to watch them. I try and watch the ‘good’ ones. I’ve seen the Nightmare on Elm Street and Evil Dead’s. The Exorcist and The Omen’s. The Cabin Fever’s and Cabin in the Woods’s. However, for the most part I tend to steer clear of them. Some people like to go see a horror film because it gives them a good scare, takes them on a ride. Me personally I don’t want to be pay $15-$20 to be scared or terrified or made to jump. Is it worth the ride?
There are two things that I watched growing up that terrified me that I would watch over and over again. Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the miniseries of Stephen King’s It. I can’t explain why I’ve seen It more times than any other horror film. I think it has something to do with my older brother. He loved horror and he loved Stephen King. He’s five years older and I thought he was the coolest, funniest, smartest person in the world and I wanted him to think I was worthy of the air he breathed. This included pretending to like music I didn’t like and watching movies I didn’t want to watch. I liked watching It. I’ve watched the mini-series now as an adult and I still find things to enjoy about it.
It’s not some masterpiece, by any means, but Tim Curry as Pennywise the Clown will go down as one of the most iconic performances of all time. He frightened me. I had nightmares. But, sure enough, if my brother sat down to watch it I was begging my mom to watch it with him—promising I won’t have any more nightmares. I was an emotional cutter, even back then.
When I heard they were remaking IT I was VERY skeptical. The first time re-watched the original as an adult I had felt gipped, I’m not gonna lie. Wasn’t this longer? This was TWO VHS’s at Blockbuster (RIP). It was like 4 hours long; they must’ve edited out all the scary stuff. I remember this was more terrifying. Like most things from childhood you misremember it. Certain things are scarier than you remember or there are moments you had purposely forgotten or hadn’t noticed. I forgot all about the Henry Bowers portion of the movie. I only remembered the scary clown. I completely blocked out the bully, the mean, racist, piece of shit Henry Bowers, who was 10x more frightening than the clown because he embodied a type of person that existed in real life. Funny enough, that’s one of the themes of IT and what Chapter 2 explores. Growing up and forgetting.
There are many, many layers to the 1138 page book about child innocence, innocence lost, becoming an adult, fear, violence, believing vs not believing. Blah blah. I could drone on for pages about those complexities. But, I’m only on Part 1 Chapter 4 of the 5 Part book, so I don’t really know have all that insight yet. So, let’s get to the movie.
I haven’t been more excited for a movie since Avengers: Endgame–which was earlier this year–but before that it was…Avengers: Infinity War. Ok, the point is, I don’t get this excited about new movies. Especially a silly horror film. I had enjoyed It: Chapter One far more than I thought I would. Chapter One provided the perfect combination of fear and comedy. Those kids were hilarious and Bill Skarsgaard had won my heart as Pennywise. THAT’S how you do a horror film, I thought. Strike fear in me then have the kid from Stranger Thingsmake an “I fucked your mother” joke. I had almost forgotten the miniseries entirely except for I wish there were a couple more “Beep Beep Richie”s and I was missing the charisma of Jonathan Brandis (RIP). Luckily my crush went from 15-year-old Jonathan Brandis’s Stuttering Bill to 40 year old Bill Hader’s Richie. Which is an appropriate transition.
I bought a ticket for It: Chapter 2 for Thursday at 6pm. I bought a DBOX-seat ticket. Meaning the chair reclines and it moves and shakes with the rumblings of the movie. I had surprised myself that I forked out the extra $5 for the DBOX. I bought a popcorn and a diet coke. I haven’t bought movie theatre popcorn in years. That is how excited I was for this movie. The lights went down and I squirmed and laughed for two-plus hours. Mostly squirmed. I found my legs twisted with anxiety and I had pulled my shirt over my eyes continuously throughout. I watched how quickly the Losers Club was assembled and teamed up to fight this clown again. I watched Bill Hader charm the screen with his sarcasm and marveled over how they made Pennywise even more frightening and mean.
I remember as a kid watching Part 2 and thinking how silly it was that these adults were so scared of a clown. They had defeated him in Part 1 why are they scared? Don’t they know they just have to go back down in a scary sewer and just repeat what they had done as kids? Now sitting in the dark theater covering my eyes more than I ever did as a child I understand why they are more afraid than ever. You know more and you know that when you take a chance you could die. As a kid you still think everything is going to work out. At least I did. Even watching the movie as a kid. I knew it was all going to work out. It’s a movie—there’s always a happy ending. Now watching scary movies I know they don’t always have a happy ending.
Although the pacing of the movie was a little fast for me—I wanted to see each of the Losers in their environment and see what/who they’ve become but I understand, we have a lot of cover in over 2 hours—and there were a couple of moments that I gave a bit of an eyeroll or thought I’m going to assume this is from the book because it’s kind of weird way to go. I honestly can’t say how I really really feel about the movie. The more I’m thinking about it the more I think I enjoyed it. But I don’t know if that’s the movie itself or just thinking about how I felt as a kid watching this vs how I feel as an adult. Woah, should we acknowledge that I’m kind of living the theme of the book with these thoughts? I don’t know what I wanted out of this movie. Answers. Nostalgia. Bill Hader in glasses? I was both satisfied but also felt a little empty. I guess I was sad because it’s done. There’s no other reason for the Losers to reunite and conquer their fears together. Which is good. But I kind of want to know there’s going to be another reason they have to reunite in Derry.
During this movie and the last I was constantly thinking what I was afraid of? What form It would take if he approached me? I don’t know what form “dying alone with cats” would take?
