Subject: doctorlit reviews It: Chapter Two
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Posted on: 2019-09-16 14:29:00 UTC

So It: Chapter One did a good enough job of getting my mom emotionally invested in the main characters that she was willing to come see Chapter Two, despite the fact that she isn’t exactly a consumer of horror media. Most impressive! But I can’t believe it’s already been twenty-seven years . . .

Warnings
Spoilers: It the novel, It the 1990 miniseries, It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two
Content: Not Safe for FourMoonsWatching to read. Warning for general warning for violence and maybe gore, I don’t think I really need to go too in depth about specifics, but mileage may very about how in depth “too in depth” is, so. A warning just in case. Also, a warning for discussion of bullying and its inevitable development into abusive behaviors, as well as discussion of suicide and the reasons behind it. Finally, warning for mentions of homophobic violence.

So I’m inevitably drawn to nitpick over all the details, but listing every difference between the new pair of films and their predecessors wouldn’t be very fun to read, and also start muscling in on YouTube’s territory. There are a couple of changes I do want to talk about in more detail, though. First, the Ritual of Chüd, which I very much thought was not going to be referenced in the film at all. In the novel, the ritual is a very abstract thing, where a human gets launched out into the Macroverse to fight It in a battle of wits. This film instead portrayed the ritual as gathering physical objects and burning them to seal It away inside of an . . . ancient Native American lampshade, basically. While I normally hate Hollywood’s tendency to dumb down plots to simplify things for the audience (Prince Caspian film, anyone?), in this case I actually agree with the change. It would be really difficult to adapt the novel’s Ritual into a visual medium. I also liked the subversion of how Native American culture and practices are often portrayed as “magical” in a lot of U.S. media. In this case, the Ritual of Chüd failed hard with deadly consequences for those ancient Native Americans; they weren’t any more equipped to handle a being like Pennywise than anyone else. (And total side note, I was hoping to see Its giant bird transformation, as that was my favorite form in the novel. We didn’t get it full CGI, but at least the bird appears in the weird sketch-animated fever dream. Makes sense that the ancient Native Americans would see It as more natural-looking forms as well, since clowns are from Europe-based cultures.)

Another change I liked was making Richie gay. The theme of homophobia that got introduced here in Ch. 2 was present in the novel, but not among the main protagonists. There’s a metaphorical element of Its nature where Its cycles of violence are only representational of the systemic injustice societies inflict against their minorities, and the blind eye the town turns on all the weird violence represents how biases allow such injustice to continue without being addressed. Pennywise’s massacres are self-inflicted by Derry on itself; the clown is only a face put on the town’s problems, and the apathy to solve those problems. Since a lot of this information was delivered through narration in the novel, it again would have been difficult to get it across in the movie. Making Richie a part of the same minority group that sees the film’s first on-screen victim (of both a traditional hate crime and It) ties the audience closer to those suffering in the town. It also adds a further element of tragedy to Eddie’s death. It felt a little arbitrary in the novel that the Loser’s Club sees one suicide, one hospitalization, and one direct death at Pennywise’s jaws. Having a closer emotional tie to one of the other Losers makes the loss of Eddie more meaningful and painful.

One change I was not on-board for was the idea that the Losers had been “infected” by . . . something . . . when encountering It in the 80s, and that it would eventually end up killing them all if they didn’t put the clown down for good this time. Aside from contradicting the novel, where Pennywise pulled cosmic strings to give the Losers who left Derry prosperous, comfortable lives to entice them not to return, this rather diminishes the bravery of the characters. With this revelation, they’re all obligated to stay, rather than choosing to stay to prevent further murders. The movie also contradicts itself a bit here regarding Stanley’s suicide. The suicide scene itself actually faked me out for a moment, with Stan reaffirming his promise to Bill to return and help fight It. I would have been completely down with all seven Losers returning! But the next shot is of the slit wrists. This at least could have been explained by the supposed infection making Stan’s body work against him unconsciously. However, at the end of the movie, the other Losers receive a suicide note where Stan admits that he chose to kill himself in order to break the power their unity gave them over It, hoping that would discourage his friends from risking their lives. These three plot threads just don’t fit together well at all, and it seems clear that everything would have been a lot smoother if at least one had been removed. It feels like multiple explanations for the suicide got drafted, and for some reason all of them were left in the final product.

Aside from being invested in the characters, the other facet of these films that Mom has latched onto is the theme of bullying. Stephen king is no fan of bullies, and a lot of his novels find a way to fit them in, even if no young “school-age” characters are present to do it in a traditional way. It is among his stories that employ the theme most strongly, and the people behind this film really put it to use. Pennywise heavily relies on bullying and teasing to torment his victims, to the point where a lot of his lines could be swapped with Henry’s without feeling out of character. This helps to strongly get across the earlier mentioned metaphor where Pennywise is only an imitation of what Derry’s residents do to each other. What Mom particularly appreciated, though, was the difference between the finales of Ch. 1 and Ch. 2. In the first film, the Losers’ Club tried to fight off their bully with physical violence, which failed to get rid of It; It returned right on schedule, business as usual. But in the second film, after more physical confrontation only serves to get Eddie killed, the remaining Losers turn to teasing the bully right back, insulting Its appearance and abilities, and as Mom was delighted to point out, literally belittling It until It shrunk down to baby size. The key to stopping Pennywise was to make It feel the same hurt It was making Its victims feel all those centuries.

—doctorlit, by contrast, goats down here

“For twenty-seven years, I’ve dreamt of spoilers. I craaaaved spoilers. I’ve missed spoilers!” “For twenty-seven years, I’ve dreamt of spoilers. I craaaaved spoilers. I’ve missed spoilers!”
“For twenty-seven years, I’ve dreamt of spoilers. I craaaaved spoilers. I’ve missed spoilers!”

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