IT: Chapter 2 Trailer Analysis

DID YOU KNOW that the very first post on this paragon of blogular virtue was none other than a deep-dive into the first part of the IT movie adaptation? It only makes sense, then, for the sake of consistency, that we get on every chance to write about the seminally brilliant Stephen King story at every chance we get. And, with the first trailer for part two dropping, uh, right about now, this looks definitively like that chance. To the review! I can’t wait to watch this trailer any longer!

0:10: Jessica Chastain is not only a great actress (she managed to elevate the trash script of Molly’s Game into near-watchability, after all), but her resemblance to Sophia Lillis (who played the younger version of her character in part one) is so uncanny I’m not sure that the studio didn’t just warp time to shoot with the younger version of Chastain herself.

0:38: Now, I don’t mean to rag on Stephen King’s female characters (I already spent a twenty-recap series doing just that, after all), but I do think that Beverly as a character could stand to be punched up a little from the book – she’s got more than a touch of the Smurfette about her – and I’m really hoping, given that this trailer is so focused on her, that that’s what we’re going to get.

1:06: I grew up in a really, really small community, and I know this scene is meant to be unsettling, but this seems pretty standard-issue for the aggressively morbid shit that kindly little old ladies would ply my ear with when they convinced me in with cake and biscuits in the tiny town I used to live in. Maybe scary to all you city-dwellin’ folks, but us country bumpkins are made of sterner-

1:15: Okay, so maybe the ten-second pause is a little out of my ballpark. I loved, by the way, how the first movie married wry humour with its horror, embracing the camp inherent in the genre (and especially such a genre classic as this), and this trailer seems to be pointing to more of that, which is just what I want.

1:36: As teaser trailers go, it’s really bold to just put a straight-up scene out there, but I think it works in this instance. The success of the first part of this story means that the studio doesn’t have to worry about actually selling us the tone or feel of this film, or even the story or characters it’s going to follow, but rather just tantalize with a little of what’s to come.

1:55: A first glimpse of Pennywise! I just want to say that Bill Skarsgard had NO right to be as brilliant as he was in the first movie, and he blows pretty much any other cinematic King characters out of the water in just a couple of hours and a lot of drooling.

2:00: The naked lady shuffle! Just the wrongness of that movement is enough to unsettle, ugh.

2:13: Like so many of King’s books, IT is really about the lines between adulthood and childhood, and specifically the way the trauma of the former informs the latter. We saw the trauma inflicted in the first film – not just by IT, but by the lives of the kids in general – and now we’re going to get to see it all come to fruition.

2:22: So most of this film is just going to be the Losers Club walking in formation to and from places, then? Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

2:26: James Macavoy is a fantastic choice for Bill – his sheer actorly depth has been consistently astonishing, and it might be the performance I’m most looking forward to in this story, given that Bill is arguably the emotional centrepoint of this piece.

2:31: Also, Bill Hader in a horror movie? Bill Hader, in fact, in any movie? Sign me the FUCK up.

2:44: Mmm, that shot of the gloves emerging from the darkness, that reveal of Pennywise – Andres Muschietti showed that he had some serious artistic chops with the first movie, and it’s clear that those are carrying over into this closing chapter.

Okay, so I for one can’t wait – I loved the first movie with a passion, and I’ve been waiting keenly for this ever since. What did you think of the trailer? Are you looking forward to the movie, or are you all burned out on Stephen King adaptations by now? Let us know in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this article and want to see more stuff like it,  please consider supporting us on Patreon. You can check out more of my work on my personal blog, The Cutprice Guignol!

By Louise MacGregor

(header image via Collider)