IT: Chapter 2 is the funniest film I have seen all year. Just let this sink in.
You heard me right Respawners: whilst certainly IT Chapter 2 is scary in moments, the film takes a huge leaf out of Sam Raimi’s book of horror films and finds itself so tongue in cheek at moments the whole cinema was erupting in laughter.
I have seen a lot of reviews that are saying that Chapter 2 of Stephen King’s adventures of Pennywise and the losers club is simply “not as scary” as the first of the two films and have reviewed the film at a lower score because of it. Surely the argument can be made however that when you cast stars like Bill Hader in a horror movie – people are going in expecting something funny alongside general clown scares and fucked up visuals.
It is easy to say then that Bill Hader is easily the show-stealer of the entire film, easily filling the vulgar, expletive filled boots of the role that was before taken by the incredible Finn Wolfhard. The delivery of many of his lines had me roaring in laughter and every time he shouted the words “fucking clown” I found myself having a little chuckle to myself from my cinema seats.
James Mcavoy then, brings in the stark contrast and seriousness that the film does need for itself to be taken seriously as a horror movie. He plays a writer who cannot “write endings” and is trying to save everyone he can. Even this moment itself gets tongue in cheek when Billy (Mcavoy) enters a pawn shop and is discussing his writing with the pawn shop owner who states outright that he doesn’t like the endings of Billy’s books… and the pawn shop owner is none other than Stephen King himself! A move that I thought so fantastically meta that it filled me with so much joy.
This brings me over to Pennywise. The clown himself who terrified me so much in the first of the two films. Bill Skarsgard in Chapter 2 brings the same demented clown/monster that we grew to hate in Chapter 1 but with a new found weirdness that makes him funnier than he was before – whilst still scary, I will never not find it funny when a few members of the losers club open the classic “Not scary at all” door and a Pomeranian puppy is just sat there… BEFORE IT TURNS INTO A MONSTER. So. Fucking. Funny.
The rest of the movies cast, whilst fantastic actors, are kind of just there. They work as plot devices and exist within the movie when they need to but ultimately work mostly as horror extras for the film. With the exception of Jessica Chastain’s Beverly who makes her way around giving a couple members of the losers club a big old snog at random intervals in the film. Something which just feels disjointed and weird.
So there you have it, It’s not a review of IT but more a commentary on why it’s so funny and how that is just absolutely fine.