Howdy there, Scream Freaks, and goodbye summer! That skin roastin’ ball of radiation settin’ on the horizon may signify the temporary absence of scantily clad beach parties, homesick campin’ trips, and get out of school free cards, but it also means it’s time for haunted attractions to open their doors, stores to start packin’ their aisles with cheap scares, and small town invasions by overnight costume shops makin’ a quick buck off fire hazard goods. Yup, we’re talkin’ the pre-show kick-off to the Halloween season which many of y’all been antsy to start since July. Well, one way to start celebratin’ horror fan’s favorite time of year with summer’s exit is to do what we did last night and go to the movies to check out the next lukewarm chapter of the remade It flicks.
For those out of the loop, Stephen King, one of the most successful horror writers on Earth, wrote a backbreakin’ size book ’bout a gang of childhood friends called the Losers’ Club fightin’ a young’n eatin’ clown named Pennywise, this shapeshiftin’ creature who stalks their small town of Derry ’bout every 30 years or so for small fleshy meals. This mammoth work of fiction was made into a TV movie that took two nights to broadcast and has recently been re-imagined with a Hollywood budget almost 30 years later to fans’ satisfaction. With the big screen treatment and advancement in special effects technology, the remake of the first half of the TV movie ’bout the Losers’ Club’s initial run-in with Pennywise as young’ns went ‘bove and beyond what that original adaptation did with perfectly timed scares, unnervin’ imagery, and frightenin’ situations.
With the premier of the new version’s second half, however, the story turns to tellin’ the Losers’ Club’s fight with Pennywise as adults and more or less follow the same beats as its TV counterpart while fallin’ back on a lot of the same scare tactics we’re already desensitized to from the first part in 2017. It’s a well made flick for what it is, sportin’ a top notch production value with a solid cast of talented actors, but it simply pales in comparison to the power of the first film which has the advantage of initially introducin’ audiences to a Pennywise they hadn’t seen yet and scarin’ the piss outta a compellin’ cast of kids who we feel exhibit better chemistry than their adult doppelgangers in the second chapter. The filmmakers go to a lot of trouble to give the grown-up version of the characters more depth than the TV movie did and especially try to make up for the silly spider flood light creature that soured that version’s endin’, but it doesn’t push the envelope ‘nough to make it that new or interestin’, especially when it comes to the scares, some of which are carried over from the last one!
Bottom line, there’s two to three unnervin’ scenes that’s sure to get a “Whoa!” kinda reaction from ya, but this ain’t as good as the first part of the re-imagined It series. It’s still good and worth a watch, but just don’t expect it to be more than the second half of the TV movie with the exception of a long-winded CGI fantasy fight scene in a cave that feels more Harry Potter action than scary.
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV and Sluggo’s The Vortexx!
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