FEEL FEAR GET REAL
PENNYWISE’S RETURN OPENS MORE THAN JUST THEIR OLD WOUNDS
Four men and a woman, covered in a thick mixture of grime and blood, sit in a lake silently. Their breathing is laboured but the moment is peaceful until one of the men breaks into sobs. The others crowd around him as he cries, fully grasping the emotional repercussions of what happened moments before. It’s a moment we don’t often see in horror films.
Often, the action will occur, the death toll rises and those who remain simply forge on ahead, not stopping to dwell on the inevitable trauma of whatever situation they’re in. Of course, in these instances the people are trying to survive against whatever evil has befallen them, but once they’ve defeated it, the movie ends with a neat resolution, not dwelling in the emotional consequences.
What we don’t see is the post-traumatic stress they’d no doubt experience.
But we see this moment of emotional catharsis in It Chapter Two, a film that
answers the question with its premise: the Losers Club – Bill (James McAvoy), Beverly (Jessica Chastain, pictured), Richie (Bill Hader), Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), Ben (Jay Ryan), Eddie (James Ransone), and Stanley (Andy Bean) – are reunited 27 years after first defeating demented clown Pennywise – and with a lot of emotional baggage, too.
It takes collective trauma as a concept and fleshes out how each was uniquely affected by their experience with Pennywise and their demons and insecurities he exploited.
That lake moment is raw vulnerability and emotion for Richie, who breaks down crying after their climactic battle with Pennywise that resulted in Eddie’s death.
We sat down with Bill Hader and James McAvoy in West Hollywood to discuss emotional vulnerability in horror, a genre that usually only skims the surface.
Hader reflects on the common trend of emotional superficiality in horror, “A lot of horror movies sell out the characters. In a way you make it just shock and shallow – it’s just a body count.
“How many times in a movie like that would you see the Eddie thing happen and you wouldn’t have that moment? Instead, they’re all like, ‘We gotta go.’ I go, ‘Wait, aren’t they like ... destroyed’?”
He notes It Chapter Two wrestles with the realities of the situation and how it would affect them. Richie’s moment is a result of the film taking seriously the emotional consequences. “It’s nice that this is about people and about the collective trauma they all go through,” Hader says. “They understand each other better than anybody could understand them because of this collective trauma.”
McAvoy sees that to heal, the Losers must acknowledge their trauma then find peace through their irreplaceable bond. “They all go on to become great successes in life but they have to come back and realise that they’re losers,” he says. It Chapter Two is in cinemas now.