Director Andy Muschietti's horror remake of Stephen King's clown movie “It” was a box-office smash in 2017. It even surpassed "The Exorcist" at the top spot to become the highest-grossing horror movie in box-office history, nabbing more than $327M domestically.
I was part of the crowd that thought “It” was incredibly well-made and built up a lot of tension, most of which didn’t rely on usual cheap jump scares. Muschietti has a decent amount of subtlety, he knows you need atmosphere-building to truly make a horror movie click. The Argentine-born director purposely sidesteps cliches in his movies by, quite meticulously, focusing on ingenious lighting, framing and timing.
‘It: Chapter Two’ was greenlit only a few weeks after the film's September 2017 release. The main characters are all back, but all grown up some thirty years later, with Pennywise the clown still looming around the creaky darkness.
"It Chapter 2" will be adapted from King‘s horror novel, which was about a group of childhood friends, that once battled a supernatural clown, returning to their hometown as adults only to learn that same evil still exists. If fans were praying for casting to be well thought-out for this much-anticipated sequel, then their wishes have surely been granted. Chastain was strongly pushed as a fan favorite to play Bev and both Bill Hader and James McAvoy are talented actors that will no doubt bring a ton of charisma to their respective roles. Also, Muschietti and Chastain previously worked together on the horror film “Mama,” an underseen gem released earlier in the decade. Bill Skarsgård will, of course, be back as the shape-shifting clown from hell, Pennywise.
“It: Chapter 2” opens on September 6, 2019.