I’m going to start this review with congratulations to Cineworld for winning the cinema game! With tickets starting from £2.90 and it only costing £3.50 for my student ticket to see IT chapter two in super-screen which is the cheapest ticket price in Cardiff.
IT was a fifteen rated film and so I didn’t expect it to be the scariest film ever created with the majority of ‘mature content’ being bad language, Corey scenes and jump scares which I personally enjoyed as I don’t partially enjoy traditional horror films. This is one of the horror films that have a very important storyline and it follows the development of each character from their younger to their older self. They did this excellently by perfectly portraying flashbacks and visuals to see younger experiences and things they used to be scared. Then they showed what the adults were scared of which helped make the concept of fear one of the most important motif of the play. In fact, Pennywise the clown became the ‘puppeteer of fear’ when created imaginary scenes of the loser club’s biggest fears.
This is a type of film really helps if you have seen the first film, not because of plot etc, but you can understand where the characters have come from and how they got to where they are. They did this with the incredibly clever uses of transitions, visions etc but also with the impeccable casting of the older loser gang who was the spitting image of the younger gang.
One of my favourite casting choices was James Mcavow as Bill enough. Obviously, James, delivered an incredible performance as the character who delivered even the more deranged scenes involving Bill, James is an incredibly talented actor who seems to revel in even the more crazier characters and this one was no different. However, Bill within the film has a stammer who the original actor (Jaeden Lieberher) performed excellently but James’ attempt to play a character who suffers from a speech disorder was not in par with Jaeden’s. Eddie Kaspbrak, played by James Ransone, helped deliver many of the comedic lines in the audience that had the entire audience rolling in laughter but also this character showed the biggest development in braveness. James was a perfect casting choice who reflected this character perfectly. One of the most disturbing characters in this film was Henry Bowers, played by Teach Grant, who was also insane and had the audience on edge the whole way through. He looked like an actual insane criminal that is capable of crazy things and this character was shown just like this which means it was a great choice.
What was very nice in this film was the inclusion of same-sex relationships in this new film. The beginning of the film sees a same-sex couple being attacked by a group of thugs and sent down the river to a ravenous pennywise. This idea is continued through the film and is, in fact, a major part of the ending of the film which is an amazing example of book-ending and shows the attentions the producers spent on focus on ideas Stephen King outlined in his book. One thing I did not enjoy was the fact that a lot of the characters knew where the camera was. A lot of more scarier scenes started with someone staring right into the camera and while I understand this is used to scare the audience and make it personal. However, this did become comical towards the latter part of the film.
In general, IT chapter 2 was a very interesting horror film that didn’t focus on ‘horror’ but instead on the storyline which is very unusual for the horror genre. I would rate this film 4 out of 5 stars but would recommend that you want the first film before watching the new instalment.
Rhysreviews 