![]() ![]() Rather than being cowed, film-Adrian (played by Xavier Dolan) delivers his beautifully-pitched Meg quip in a manner of which RuPaul would approve, but is punished for his spark when the assault begins. A gang verbally abuses them for talking about their planned future together and demands Adrian remove his novelty fairground hat. The changes from the book also reinforce this: while in the book, Adrian wears a hat with a flower in it and Don wears skin-tight trousers and lipstick, in the film Adrian’s pink sweater is the only queer-coding. The happy couple are framed against the bright lights of a fairground sky, having given their winnings to a young girl with a facial birth mark. Accordingly, It Chapter Two’s homophobic murder scene discourages discrimination by presenting Adrian and his partner, Don, as heroes. One of the ratings body’s main concerns is preventing copycat behaviour: the BBFC notes that, to get a 15 rating, “the work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour, although there may be racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language”. But, in truth, this is lopsided: the story contains hate speech aimed at (legally-protected) disability through to (as-yet unprotected) fatphobia, but the BBFC’s guidance focuses only on homophobia: “A young man is subjected to homophobic abuse (‘faggot’) before being seriously beaten” and “a young boy being verbally abused in a similar manner.” ![]() In the UK, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) has rated it as 15, citing its “strong gory violence, horror, language, discrimination”, and places the onus on 15-year-olds to govern themselves. The film’s classification rating reveals how audiences are expected to respond to the material, especially with regard to the notional immature, impressionable viewer who may directly imitate the action or identify with the characters. The question is personal for me: on the night in 2017 that I signed a contract to write a book about Stephen King’s It, I was assaulted and left for dead for wearing a flamboyant hat – a trilby with feathers in it. The murder was completely excised from the home-friendly television miniseries adaptation in 1990. As the film’s star Jessica Chastain told Variety: “We can’t pretend that it doesn’t still exist because it’s part of our every day”. In the book it happens straight after the murder of a six-year-old, which starts the story’s avenging narrative. The sequence in the film has proved controversial because some critics, such as Slate’s Jeffrey Bloomer, consider it exploitative of Howard’s murder. By weaving the representation of an actual murder into his story, King suggests It’s horror results from the license some think they have to perpetuate violence. King has confirmed that the character is based on Charlie Howard, an out gay man murdered in King’s home town of Bangor, Maine, in 1984 – who was targeted, in part, because he was wearing a flamboyant hat. The Meg Ryan quip comes from Adrian Mellon, the gay man who is beaten by homophobes before being murdered by Pennywise. ![]() Even though It Chapter Two ended up not being as well-received as the first film, Bill Skarsgård's performance as Pennywise remains the film's undisputed shining light.‘Meg Ryan called – she wants her wig back!” is the retort that precedes a brutal physical attack on a gay couple near the start of It Chapter Two.The film continues the adventures of Stephen King’s “Loser” outcasts, who battle the killer alien clown, Pennywise, and deal with the hate-filled attitudes of their townsfolk in Derry. Bill Skarsgård put everything into his performance as Pennywise and is deserving of the praise given by Stephen King for his work in the role. Receiving the role of Pennywise was the breakthrough in the career of Bill Skarsgård, who, until that point, was primarily known for the short-lived Netflix series Hemlock Grove. However, that's not to take away from Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise, as he is the best element of the It miniseries. ![]() With the tone of his voice and the physicality of his performance, Skarsgård accentuates that Pennywise is a supernatural entity that simply chooses to take the form of a clown. While Tim Curry's performance is fondly remembered, Bill Skarsgård takes the character of Pennywise to an all-new level. Nearly three decades before Bill Skarsgård played Pennywise on the big screen, the role was first played by Tim Curry in the 1990 TV miniseries adaptation of It. ![]()
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