I get what your saying but King wrote that back in 84 when casual homophobia was not only accepted but expected and encouraged. If you want to bash the movie for it (and why not after they fucked up Stanley's suicide) that's fine, but at the the time book was written things were a lot different and the way that particular murder was reacted to including by my own family is one of the reason that at 42 my family has no clue and never will about my gender stuff.
I don't know how it was handled in this move, but I went back and got the book out, and it's pretty clear what Pennywise is meant to represent.
That's what Pennywise is though. I don't understand the type of context you're looking for that's missing. The scene is horrible and brutal and the assholes get away with it. I think you need these truly horrible scenes to sell the point that it's a "trash town inhabited by a trash monster". It doesn't just kill kids, It influences any evil in people the worst way possible to lead to violence. The scene is important enough in the book, an act of violence big enough, that it starts the cycle again. And to your point on racism, in the book a KKK group burns down a black night club in the 30s, and that's "big" enough to satiate Pennywise for another 27 years.
That was all set up in the first film though. The Losers Club are subjected to vicious, dangerous, even bigoted bullying. The one girl's father is abusive. Other town members are just small-time assholes. Pennywise's first victim that we see is a toddler. Also to people somewhat media-savvy, it's a small northeastern town in a Stephen King property; they're always filled with nothing but trash folks. Practically anyone going into Chapter 2 was given that context already to the point where the hate crime scene feels patronizing and self-indulgent.
You think the kid getting his stomach cut into, and the same perpetrator stabbing his father to death are just normal displays of grumpiness?
I mean the influence It has on the town of Derry in general, which is seen in the first movie as adults turning the other way while bad things happen. I am kind of making a distinction between that and It controlling Henry Bowers, which has this whole subplot attached to it as he's used by IT to try to kill the losers. But, I could agree with you that the Henry scenes in the first movie are probably enough to tell you that IT is fucked up. I can't agree that the Adrian Mellon scene is self indulgent. I don't see it as patronizing. It's obvious sure (It = bad!, It is Derry) but I kind of see that as the point, that's the horror. But I do understand your perspective, and I acknowledge that mine is biased from loving the book and being, well maybe happy isn't the right word, satisfied that this important scene was adapted.
Honestly all that stuff was toned way down from the book, to the detriment of the overall work.
But like if you remove that scene from the movie absolutely nothing changes. That scene could have taken place in any city in the world, it does nothing to mythologize Derry or Pennywise in any sort of way.
It did happen in Bangor which Derry is based on, of course it could happen anywhere
Yeah they probably should have included this.
Not in my opinion. As many have said here the 2nd film in particular is a popcorn flick or like a marvel movie. It doesn't feel like a horror movie at all.
I wouldn't say that... IT are monster movies first and foremost.
It's an adventure story with some minor scares. Not horror at all.
At least the first one, yes. Coming of age adventure with a good amount of horror stuff.
Yeah it was goofy but the jokes landed. In the first film the jokes where all "ha ha aren't potty mouth 80s kids funny".
Yeah that gay bashing part really got me too. Is ruining gay people's lives the trendy new shorthand for evil? Kind of a downer to run into that nastily specific form of misery in a movie that has absolutely nothing interesting or important to say about homophobia.
It helps put emphasis on how horrible Pennywise is. He doesn't just kill random people, he preys upon the weak ones. Loners, victims of bullying, oppressed minorities.. that girl for example with the birth mark on her face, he used her "weakness" to lure her in. It's true you could replace the gay-bashing with a different murder and the same movie would have happened, but then Pennywise is just another supernatural killer when he's actually something even more evil than that.
Lol spot on.
He is, but he did come to earth on a meteor, that's accurate.
