Dillon Neibel
dneibel@lc.edu

 

It is the season of spooky, and with that comes horror movies galore. On Sept. 6 “IT Chapter Two” was released as the concluding sequel to “IT Chapter One” from two years ago. Since I grew up watching “IT” the miniseries from 1990, naturally I had to rush out and see these films when they were released. 

Now  like many I was quite skeptical of anyone trying to play Pennywise since Tim Curry was such an iconic evil clown, and after chapter one (2017) I wasn’t thoroughly impressed by Bill Skarsgård’s performance, but wasn’t necessarily disappointed either. I was mostly indifferent. Yet, after seeing the concluding chapter two (2019) I was extremely pleased.

Since the two magnificent actors certainly had different takes on the character, I would say that Tim Curry was definitely the better killer clown, and Bill Skarsgård is certainly the better demonic world eater. Although I do wonder what Tim Curry could have done with the character had the technology of today been available to him. 

Let’s talk about the Losers now. While I think that the child actors of both new and old made solid believable stories, the adult actors of the new “IT” highly outshined the old crew, making them true losers in my book. This is easy to do with the likes of Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, and Bill Hader to help toe the line.

I also want to point out how good of a job the new crew did of finding both an adult and child actor that looked incredibly similar for the roles of Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, and most especially Eddie Kaspbrak. With that being said, young and old Ben Hanscom for the 1990s miniseries is outrageously hard to believe.

When I first saw chapter one in 2017, I was left unsure of Skarsgård as Pennywise as I stated earlier, but the fact that the new version seemed to dive more into the origins of the demon clown lingering in the sewers left me eager to see what was next. So let me inform you that chapter two does not disappoint on this. As a matter of fact the sheer epic proportions of this concluding film probably makes the new version even more enjoyable to me.

At the end of the day, the old “IT” was good for its time, with an everlasting performance by Tim Curry, and will always hold a nostalgic place in my heart. Now the new “IT” is something spectacular, both as a horror film and an adventure tale, and this remake has given fans what they deserve. If you have any doubts just know that Stephen King, author of the book, has given great praise to these films, and even has a cameo.