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Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
After nearly two years of waiting, the moment for horror fans is here. Andy Muschietti and the lovely cast of Losers presented audience members at San Diego Comic-Con with a trailer for the much anticipated supernatural film It: Chapter Two.
In this article, we deconstruct the trailer frame by frame. Spoilers might be ahead, so if you have not read the 1986 novel by Stephen King, or seen the 1990 miniseries or 2017 film, do that now or put yourself at risk by reading this breakdown.
The trailer opens with an overhead shot of the town Derry, Maine. A voiceover from adult Mike Hanlon (as young Bill Denbrough and Beverly “Bev” Marsh are shown riding on a bicycle) speaks about the effect one has when leaving home but for him, he remembers everything that happened to him during the summer of 1989.
The sewers fill up with water and we see a man drowning. Perhaps he is Adrian Mellon, a homosexual that gets killed in the book and triggers the return of the Losers. He sees a malevolent clown at the edge–Pennywise. The extraterrestrial being reaches for the man.
The next thing we see is a group of the six adult Losers walking by the train tracks. The last time we saw them, they were seven children making a blood oath to return to Derry if It ever came back.
Adult Bev makes a toast amongst the six remaining Losers at an oriental restaurant. The six remember their oath as we see several shots:
- Adult Bev walking under the rain;
- Adult Ben Hanscom in front of a parking lot;
- Adult Bill with graying hair staring intensely to something off-screen;
- Adult Eddie Kaspbrak under a canopy inside of a building;
- Adult Mike at the side of a crime scene with police lights faintly flashing at him, which could foreshadow the death of bully Henry Bowers, who escaped from his mental institution with the help of Pennywise;
- Adult Richie Tozier in broad daylight at a park.
Mike says they didn’t stop Pennywise at all.
We see an overhead shot of the Derry Fair. Adult Bill is in an attraction trying to save a boy from falling victim to Pennywise. The three are then in what looks to be a House of Mirrors. The boy is the only thing that stands between Bill and the clown.
A voiceover of Pennywise saying that he longed for and craved the Losers for the past 27 years while shots play out:
- Adult Henry Bowers carried through the inside of Juniper Hill Asylum as watches a red balloon float outside the building. It has haunted and manipulated him to carry out his evil deeds all those years ago.
- Bill outside the abandoned Neibolt House late at night.
- A shaking refrigerator in a house. Probably a reference to Patrick Hockstetter and the animals he trapped alive inside to die–an obsession of his that fans of the novel know too well.
- The Losers with flashlights navigating their way through the sewer for the final confrontation.
- The three doors inside the Neibolt home: Not Scary at All, Scary, and Very Scary.
- Bev in the Deadlights, which will be explored more in this upcoming movie.
A multitude of red balloons out from under a bridge, where Mellon will fall off and meet his demise. Derry Fair amusement park lights in the background. In the novel, Mellon and his homosexual lover are chased by three homophobes. Mellon is pushed off the bridge and killed by the clown. The three teenagers are framed for the murder.
The Losers walking down an empty road in town.
Bev and Bill close together for a kiss.
Bill during the day at the fair chasing after something off-screen.
Richie watching as Pennywise hops of a tall Paul Bunyan statue. In the novel, the statue comes alive and attacks the comedic character.
Beverly walking through the front door of her old childhood home, now owned by an old woman named Mrs. Kersh, who will turn out to be another form of It, or rather the evil dirty witch from the story Hansel and Gretel.
A drop of blood dripping down a bloodied hand, indicative of Stanley “Stan” Uris’s suicide, another vital element in the return of the Losers. After the call from Mike Hanlon, Stan instead slits his wrists and kills himself, haunted by the events he experienced when he was a kid.
Beverly tells her friends that It takes away their hopes from “the inside.”
Bill down in the basement of his childhood home remembering what he once lost: His younger brother George “Georgie” Denbrough as a form of Pennywise haunting a younger Bill.
Beverly standing in what seems to be a pool of blood in a bathroom stall at school. Perhaps, it’s the same stall where girls dumped trash on her on the first day of summer.
A silhouette figure running down a school hall as Georgie screams, “Bill lied and I died!”
Beverly smashing a mirror in the Neibolt House. A reflection on the glass shows Pennywise behind her and some of her friends.
The Losers as adults joining hands in a circle once again.
Richie Tozier in a saddened state hugging a fellow Loser, probably showing the death of Eddie Kaspbrak, who in the novel sprayed his aspirator/inhaler down the gullet of Pennywise in its true form: a large spider. Pennywise bites off Eddie’s arm and Eddie dies from a loss of blood.
Bev drowning in water attacked by a mutated figure. If she is at her old childhood home, this could be Mrs. Kersh. If this is the sewer, this could be an unidentified corpse.
Mike under the influence of acid to discover how to take down It. Reports back in 2017 stated that this will replace the Smokehole event from the novel in which the Losers took part in an Indian ritual; they dug a hole in the ground by their hangout spot in the river and made it their own underground clubhouse. This ritual gave the Losers hallucinogenic visions of Pennywise and showed them the truth about It and its origins.
Bill Skarsgard playing a character other than It, but this character is wearing peeling Pennywise facepaint.
The trailer doesn’t give away as much as you’d think. The upcoming horror film will exhibit events that stick true to source material such as the Black Spot massacre, the Paul Bunyan attack, the Witch encounter, and the murder of one Adrian Mellon.
What are your thoughts? Will this convince you to see the film? If so, are you excited? Will you see this movie more than once? Let us know! It: Chapter Two creeps into theaters on September 6, 2019. For more horror-related news and reviews, follow The Cinema Spot on Twitter (@TheCinemaSpot) and Instagram (@thecinemaspot_).
Source: Slash Film
Managing editor & film and television critic with a Bachelor's of Arts in English Literature with a Writing Minor from the University of Guam. Currently in graduate school completing a Master's in English Literature.
