Why ‘It: Chapter 2’ Is a Bad Sequel
It: Chapter 2, the grand continuation of one of the best mainstream horror films of recent years, is out this weekend. The feature has been getting loads of positive reviews and many praise it as a very successful screen adaptation of a Stephen King novel.
We’re going to explore the other perspective. It: Chapter 2 lacks a lot and is, all and all, not a very successful adaptation; honestly, an even less successful sequel. Why? Three reasons.
#1 (And the big one): It is the same film as It.
It: Chapter 2 highlights and promotes itself as part two, or, ugh, chapter two, of one story told within two different movies. Ala Tarantino’s Kill Bill, which he classifies as one film told in two parts.
The producers of It: Chapter 2 have made it predominantly clear, both through the story and the marketing, that this film is not really a sequel; rather, it’s just part two of one whole plot-line.
Unfortunately, that’s a lie. It: Chapter 2 is not a second chapter; it’s the same chapter with the characters aged a bit more. Not only does the film not surprise or really expand on any of the characters, it follows literally the same beat-to-beat story structure as its prequel. Watching them back to back especially makes this predominantly clear.
Thus, It: Chapter 2 unfortunately becomes a bad sequel. It pretends to be something necessary, something essential for the story to be complete, but it’s really a cheap copy of the first film. Tweak the details and make everything bigger (literally): and you get any bad sequel ever.
#2: The sudden exposition.
Mild book & film spoilers follow ahead.
It is a horror film; and It treats its horror origin with respect and admiration. Pennywise is scary and, most of all, mysterious.
Mystery is very important for horror. The unknown has been a source of fright and adrenaline since the beginning of times; naturally, that too has creeped its way into Hollywood.
Now, it’s fine if a horror film doesn’t count on mystery. It’s fine if it explains everything. It’s fine if the villain/being/any other source of horror is really out there and with plenty of exposition around it.
It doesn’t do that. The first film gives us nothing about Pennywise and that’s pretty damn amazing. That makes the clown scarier, mysterious, and more raw.
It: Chapter 2 definitely does that. The sudden pool of exposition that comes with the sequel is extremely out of place. The sudden backstory and huge amount of details around Pennywise are unnecessary. (The are there because they push the story forward, yes, but that just makes the story weak.) The film makes the unknown known and thus – less scary. But mainly: this is a a huge change of tone and feels very random. Not only that; it’s untruthful and disrespectful to its prequel.
#3: It’s an adventure flick, not a horror film.
Which connects well to #2. It: Chapter 2 is not a horror film, it’s an adventure film.
And again, that’s usually fine. A lot of movies nowadays pose as horrors, but end up being more exciting than scary. It’s not fine in this case, however, because the first movie was actually relatively scary. Not even so much scary; just carrying a horror film tone.
It: Chapter 2 doesn’t carry a horror film tone. It carries a Journey to the Center of the Earth tone.
Finally —
It: Chapter 2 is not a horrible horror. It has a lot of heart and a lot of good intentions behind it. This article was not exploring its quality as a picture on its own. Rather, as a sequel.
And as a sequel it just doesn’t work. Not only that, it’s disrespectful to the first one, which was actually a very high-quality movie. So, when turning up to the cinema this weekend to watch the continuation of Pennywise’s havoc, don’t expect a continuation. Expect a repetition – and not a very good one.
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Check out our It review here.
Or get the books here. They are even better.
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