It: Chapter Two Parent Guide

Twenty-seven years after they fended off Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), the Loser’s Club is called back to their hometown of Derry. Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) has stayed around to keep an eye on the clown, and when it re-emerges to devour Derry’s children, Mike reminds his friends of the oath they took to stop It. But before they can confront Pennywise, they will have to face some of the darkest moments of their own pasts and find out exactly what their friendship means to them.

Stephen King novels, while some of my favorite books to read, are wickedly hard to adapt into films. King’s writing style lends itself extremely well to a reader’s overactive imagination and less well to the concrete imagery forced on to it by celluloid. In addition, King’s novels are strongly character-focused and are developed through the character’s thoughts – which can be challenging to bring to the screen. The horror comes from watching King push a character you’ve come to like into a terrifying situation, not from the monster itself. But, out of all these issues, the biggest problem with the adaptations remains….length. My old trade paperback copy of “It” runs 1090 pages. Trying to whittle that down to a respectable run time (even spread over two films) without sacrificing the complexity of character which underpins the story is nearly impossible.

So, I hear you asking, “Is the adaptation successful?” Surprisingly, the three hour run-time is well paced, but the lack of in-depth character development hurts some of the plot. The film tries to compensate by explicitly confronting the characters’ fears and self image, but, as always, the book does it better. It also alters Mike Hanlon’s back story in ways I found annoying, but your opinion might differ.

Fortunately, director Andy Muschietti made some good choices in cutting material from the novel. The screenplay trims down some dangling subplots and removes almost entirely the metaphysical space turtle. It also cuts some of the more explicit content. Although this is absolutely not suitable for children (its Restricted rating is fully deserved), the movie foregoes some of the more…problematic parts of the novel. That means no child orgy in the sewer, no space-spider eggs, and less explicit child abuse. That said, there’s still a bunch of dead kids floating around (quite literally), a solid head nod to The Thing likely to unsettle most viewers, and enough profanity to turn your ears blue (200 swear words in 169 minute film). I think adult fans of the first film will enjoy It: Chapter Two, although it is a little less frightening this time around. Fans of the book will have to decide how much they’re comfortable with an adaptation changing. Fans of evil clowns are sure to have a lovely time, but frankly, if that describes you, then you creep me out too.