LAS VEGAS – Warner Bros. is coming off a record-breaking year at the box office and if there is any film that can help them return to that lofty status it’s Andy Muschietti’s “It Chapter 2,” the sequel to the 2017 hit “It.” The first chapter earned a stunning $700 million worldwide and proved that you could date a tentpole the Friday after Labor Day (a date which was usually a dumping ground for weak product) and still launch a blockbuster. The second chapter takes place in 2016, 27 years after the events in the original film and that means the kids are all grown up and played by some famous faces.
Muschietti walked onto the stage with a bunch of balloons covering his face similar to the memorable image the monster created in the original film. Like many participants during Warner Bros.’ presentation he then had some issues with his microphone, but soon was joined by the original cast’s “Loser’s Club” (Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs) and their now adult counterparts (James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa). Hader and Wolfhard were the most entertaining pair as the latter recalled how he told Muschietti Hader that had to play the adult version of Richie (and somehow managed to give Hader a funny backhanded compliment in the process). Lillis felt Chastain was the perfect actress to play Beverly, especially since she’d worked with Muschietti before. McAvoy noted that Chastain told her that Muschietti was interested in him on the set of “Dark Phoenix” and he was immediately in.
Warner Bros. began the footage presentation with a completed scene featuring Chastain and, boy, was it freaky.
Note: spoilers from here on out.
From what we know this was a somewhat modified scene from the novel. It begins with Beverly (Chastain) returning to her apartment where her she and her father once lived. When she knocks on the door an old woman answers. She tells Beverly the man who lived at that address died a long time ago. Beverly tells her she lived there as a child and tries to leave, but the woman insists she comes in.
Beverly uses the visit to check out her old room where she finds a note she’d hidden in the wall decades earlier. When she sits down to have tea with the older woman things get…strange. The older woman twitches a bit and she notices that something’s wrong with her skin underneath her shirt (that perhaps it’s, um, dead skin). While the older woman goes back to the kitchen, Beverly begins to look at the photos along the wall. The older woman comically pokes her head to see what Beverly is doing. Beverly notices the photos are very, very old. One looks like it was take at a circus where a young boy is standing next to an older man. Strangely, the adult looks a lot like Hader (at least it appeared to be him), but whoever it was in the photo ends up startling Beverly. Behind her, the old woman, now naked, creepily dances across the doorway in the dark (which generated an uneasy laugh from the audience). When Beverly turns around the old woman has transformed into a monster and lunges for her.
At this point, the footage cut to a montage of footage from the film including the gang getting back together at a local bar, the adult “Loser’s Club” walking through what seems like the deserted town of Derry and a few flashbacks to the younger cast.
Overall, “Chapter 2” looked creepy and scary as hell. It may not be groundbreaking in terms of its plotline (reunite and kill the monster you should have killed as kids), but considering how many non-horror fans bought tickets for the first part that may not really matter that much to its now ravenous fanbase.
For those curious, the panel ended without anyone noting when an official teaser or trailer would arrive in theaters.
“It Chapter 2” opens nationwide on Sept. 6.