Come Home
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Written by: Gary Dauberman, Stephen King
Cast: Bill Hader, James McAvoy, Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Chastain
Swift shot: When I see a horror movie, there are three things I expect to happen for me to consider it “scary.”
First, whenever I am alone in the house, I want to feel anxious, uncomfortable and on edge. Second, I want to have to fight the urge to sleep with the lights on. Like, I am an adult, only pussies sleep with the lights on. And finally, I want to have rich, elaborate nightmares of the movie’s character somehow appearing in my dreams.
And when I wake up, I want to immediately run through a mental checklist: am I alone in the house; is this thing on the other side of the door about to get to me; how fast can I turn the lights on? With It Chapter Two, none of those things happened.
So, no, I guess by that measure, I didn’t find the second chapter scary. But it was satisfying in its conclusions. That’s to say, I appreciated the correction to the other endings I either read or watched before. In fact, King even pokes fun at himself for blowing the ending in previous Its.
It’s now twenty-seven years later, and a vicious hate crime serves as the catalyst that feeds Pennywise’s insatiable appetite for fear. As he murders his first victim, he leaves a message in blood enticing the Losers to come home. He misses them and wants his revenge. It is up to the only member of the club who stayed in Derry, Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) to make the rallying call. None of them handle it well.
Bill Denbrough (McAvoy) is now a successful author and screenwriter, and I guess he is in love with Beverly. So much for Audra. He was always the leader of the club, and when he gets the call, he is instantly overcome with guilt that he felt and buried for years, as he failed to protect his younger brother, Georgie. It is this guilt that brings him back to Derry.
Beverly Marsh (Chastain) is following a pattern of loving broken men, as she is with a powerful, yet abusive husband that overhears her taking the call from Mike. Predictably, he loses his shit and starts beating her. She basically flees from him and runs back home, to Derry.
Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan) is a highly sought-after architect who has never found love. Spoiler alert, he is majorly in love with Beverly and has never forgotten her. In fact, unlike all the other refugees of Derry, he seems to remember quite a bit about that time. Everyone else is under some kind of fear fog.
Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) is still a hypochondriac, but he puts that fear to good use, as a risk analyst. He’s one of the best in Manhattan, actually. And, ha ha ha, he married a fat woman. Hilarious.
Speaking of hilarious, Richie Tozier (Hader) is now a stand-up comedian who pukes his guts out when he gets Mike’s call to come home. We aren’t really sure why he goes home . . . until the very end of the movie. Which is why many people are saying this film is “Oscar worthy.”
Then there is Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) who opts out of the whole adventure, making sure that there’s no doubt as to how terrified he is to return to Maine.
Once they all gather back “home,” their happy reunion is short-lived, as Pennywise (Skarsgård) reminds them that he is watching them. This scene was horrifying, and probably one of the better effects you will see in the entire film. But, it won’t scare you, or at least it didn’t scare me. It more kind of just grossed me out and made me nearly shout out, “Well, fucking attack those things already!” Eventually they do.
The Losers’ Club is back together, and it takes some convincing by Mike to get them all on board for what must be done. I didn’t buy that these adults would really agree to battle this clown again. But, as kids start to get devoured by Pennywise, their courage comes back.
The rest of the story is a series of flashbacks and weird Native American ritual artifact hunting where each of them has to split up to gather up their own personal artifact to place in this wooden purse thing. It’s weird, but if I recall, there was way weirder shit in the book. Something about space spiders and cosmic turtles. So, yea, go with it.
My prediction from It Chapter One came true. The kids are way more interesting than the adult versions of themselves. Even casting Bill Hader couldn’t salvage that painful fact. Maybe because I read this as a kid, so I have always identified with the kids more, but now I am an adult, shouldn’t I identify with them more?
That’s the thing, the characters were too strewn about in the story for me to really appreciate any development. Again, like with the previous chapter, much was assumed by the audience. There was no depth. But to Director Muschietti’s credit, he did bring back the kids to try to make the adults more interesting people, by incorporating new flashbacks.
To be fair to the writer, Dauberman, the miniseries also fell into this trap, where the grown-up versions of the Losers’ Club was less well handled.
Pennywise is under-used too, because what makes him terrific and terrifying is his clown visage.
When he is the clown, he is his purest self.
At one point in the movie, you see just how horrible he is as he devours one kid by playing to her insecurities. I wanted more of that and less of the CGI creatures that were in some scenes so poorly done I actually laughed. And one practical effect was reminiscent of Spirit Halloween rubber masks. You’ll spot it too.
There was just not enough sincerity, and it was obvious that we were just going to get a slight glimpse into each adult’s personal fear.
And I kept laughing at scenes that others found horror in. It just wasn’t scary to me. And that sucks, because I still haven’t re-watched Chapter One for fear that those three items I ticked off in my Swift Shot will become a reality, again.
But with It Chapter Two, I was only horrified in the sense of seeing something horrifying on screen, that was clearly CGI. Nothing will make me less scared than an effect that fails to convince me it is real and actually has me laughing at how poorly it was done.
Still, I definitely liked Chapter Two, in some parts that were standout exceptions to the mediocrity in other scenes. Like, the opening scene where a guy is brutally savaged by a group of thugs and ends up feeding Pennywise.
That was almost a shot for shot recreation of how it happened in the book. And it was hard to watch. See, people are usually the worst monsters in any story. Because they exist.
If you are as in love with The Losers’ Club as I was growing up, you won’t be upset overall with how they are portrayed in this movie. And when the final battle happens, you will find yourself having sympathy for Pennywise – yes, really. And that is a testament to Skarsgård’s powerful, chilling performance.
I just wish the adults were more interesting. I guess that’s the trap we all fall into though, it was way more fun being a kid!
