Comic-Con preview a bloody good time

SAN DIEGO — Comic-Con 2019 kicked off with a stacked presentation from the director and cast of “It Chapter Two” on Wednesday, inspiring a curious amount of joy at San Diego’s Spreckels Theater in spite of the abject terror offered up by the film.

The closing chapter to 2017’s “It” — the highest grossing R-rated horror film of all time — brought out director Andy Muschietti and stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader and Isaiah Mustafa among others for a panel and footage presentation moderated by Conan O’Brien.

O’Brien said he was a good match to host the evening, as both he and Bill Skarsgard (who portrays the terrifying clown Pennywise) are “both pale and frighten children.”

Here’s the biggest takeaway from the conversation: It gets bloody.

Chastain and Muschietti said that the movie has broken a world record for the amount of fake blood it uses — “4,500 gallons,” said Chastain.

“I’m a glutton for punishment,” the actress admitted, revealing she spends a good portion of the third act completely drenched in blood. Muschietti tried to find a workaround where it would only be visible up to her collarbone, but she waned the full monty.

“Everyone else was comfortable between takes, while I sat in a baby pool of blood,” she said. McAvoy explained that the liquid substance was made with sugar, and couldn’t be heated up or else it would ferment and smell of “puke,” he said. So therefore Chastain applied it freezing cold. She was compelled by her love of the movie “Carrie.”

“Let’s make ‘Carrie’ on steroids,” she said.

The film opens Sept. 6.