I'M A LOSER BABY (SO WHY DON'T YOU KILL ME)
THE FACADE OF 29 NEIBOLT Street is even less inviting in 2016 than it was in 1989, but the seven members of the Losers’ Club made a promise. If It – an ancient cosmic evil that takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown – returned to the town of Derry, they would come back to finish what they started.
Now the kids are all grown up, with new fears, which means director Andrés Muschietti – or Andy to the cast and crew – is ready to take It Chapter Two to a whole new level of horror.
Based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel, 2017’s It – later renamed It Chapter One – broke records, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated horror film of all-time, the highest-grossing horror movie internationally, and the highest-grossing horror film of all time.
The director says it’s “hard to fathom” the success of the original movie, but didn’t consider how he would best that. “The vision was to make a movie that’s compelling and as good as that,” he says. “It wasn’t to make it better. The point that I wanted to attack was to make a scarier movie, that’s for sure. And I think we achieved it.”
Little surprise that Muschietti learned from the master, then.
“I grew up reading Stephen King, and I learned storytelling probably from him more than anyone else. Having comedy, drama, emotion, terror and horror in the same story is something that is his style. And I executed it on the first one while not sure how the result would come out. But it worked. So now we’re doing a movie that has all those elements, and I’m happy that it’s working.”
“Stephen King said that ‘being a child is learning how to live, and being an adult is learning how to die’”
Muschietti laughs when asked to define Chapter Two – which takes place 27 years later – if the first instalment had been a coming-ofage movie. “I think it was a Stephen King quote – he said that ‘being a child is learning how to live, and being an adult is learning how to die’. So it’s about learning how to die.” He laughs again, adding this isn’t a negative message. “It’s more about a story of fear – adult fears – which is more relatable to adults as a story.”
Fans of the original adaptation, the 1990 mini-series directed by Tommy Lee Wallace and starring Tim Curry as Pennywise, should keep their eyes peeled once more, after a subtle nod to the production in the 2017 film. “There’s a lot of Easter eggs on this one,” Mushcietti teases. “It’s not something that was planned. Things arise. Little ideas, here and there, in the process of making the movie. You’re in the middle of production, and you come up with: ‘Yeah, let’s make that license plate…’ But I’m not going to tell you where it is,” he says, catching himself.
ADULT SCARES
Tonally, Muschietti promises the film doesn’t shy away from scares – with the movie being confirmed as R-rated. “You can’t hold back,” he explains. “My mandate of making this movie scarier requires at least an R-rating. So yeah, we’re not holding back on this one.”
Speaking of holding back, the editor of both films, Jason Ballantine, has previously said the original cut of Chapter One was three hours and 40 minutes long.
“It’s the same thing with ,” Muschietti grins. “The first editor’s cut was four hours long, because we shot
