Editorials
With Casting Complete, We Preview the Adult Losers’ Club in ‘IT: Chapter 2’
The casting for the final member of the grown-up Losers’ Club is now locked in place. The adult iterations of the beloved band of misfits are all poised to return to Derry once more to stop IT from feeding on a new crop of unsuspecting children in IT: Chapter 2, 27 years after initially fighting off Pennywise deep in the bowels of the town.
Brought together during the summer of ’89 by bullying, and unified in their battle against Pennywise, the Losers’ Club celebrated their win with a blood vow to return if IT ever resurfaced. While director Andy Muschietti has promised the younger cast will return in flashback form, we break down what to expect from the grown up Losers’ Club.
Bill Denbrough
During the summer of ’89, Bill (Jaeden Liberher) became the leader of the Losers’ Club, driven by a much more personal crusade against the evil residing within Derry after his younger brother Georgie went missing. While the Losers’ Club succeeded in beating Pennywise, with Bill finding closure for Georgie, IT’s return will bring the gang back together to finish the evil once and for all. With the casting of James McAvoy as the adult version of Bill, he’ll resume his role of leader once again. In the novel, Bill’s second round with IT was also personal in nature, with Bill’s wife Audra used as bait by IT. Though Muschietti has already warned of major departures from Stephen King’s novel, we can likely expect that there will be at least some version of Audra that makes its way into Chapter Two as another layer to the love triangle of Bill, Beverly, and Ben.
Ben Hanscom
Played by Jeremy Ray Taylor in It: Chapter One, Ben was the bookish historian of the Losers’ Club and adorably smitten with Beverly. One of the highlights among the relationships between the Losers’ Club was the inside jokes between Beverly and Ben over their shared love of boy band New Kids on the Block. Chapter One might have concluded with Ben’s love of Beverly unrequited, but the casting of Jay Ryan means we can expect Beverly will forget all about Bill. Ben’s future role as an architect was hinted at in Chapter One, with the model of Derry’s standpipe water tower that he was seen carrying from school. We can expect that standpipe will play a key role in Chapter Two, as will Ben’s “January embers” postcard that he wrote for Beverly.
Beverly Marsh
The sole female member of the Losers’ Club was played by breakout star Sophia Lillis in Chapter One. No surprise that Muschietti friend and collaborator Jessica Chastain will be filling Beverly’s adult shoes. During the summer of ’89, Beverly was the most fearless member, but the one with the most troubling home life. When Pennywise kidnapped her and put her in a catatonic state, her visions of the Club fighting IT as adults prompted the blood oath at the end of the film. Despite the seeds sowed for the love triangle between Beverly, Ben, and Bill during the events of Chapter One, Beverly’s primary arc focused on her troubling abuse at the hands of her own father. While we can expect that Beverly’s love life will become more prominent in Chapter Two, we can also expect that the profound impact of being a child of abuse will have a formative effect on Beverly well into adulthood.
Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier
Of the young cast for Chapter One, Finn Wolfhard was the most recognizable thanks to Stranger Things. He nailed the foul-mouthed Losers’ Club member that couldn’t shut up but was also fiercely loyal. The casting of Bill Hader as the grown-up Richie is downright inspired. Always the attention seeker, Richie grew up to be a famous radio DJ in the novel. As an adult, we can expect Richie to continue to bring the levity as a respite from the terror, but we can also expect him to feel his relationships among the Losers’ Club a lot more keenly than the rest. As the sole person to attend Stanley’s Bar Mitzvah, Richie will likely be most devastated by Stanley’s life-ending decision in Chapter Two… if things indeed play out as they do in the novel.
Eddie Kaspbrak
Jack Dylan Grazer imbued the sheltered, germaphobe Eddie with perpetually endearing humor and heart, and the uncanny casting of James Ransone as the adult iteration will follow suit. The battle with Pennywise over the summer of ’89 helped Eddie get out from under the oppressive hold his overbearing mother had over him, and if Chapter Two follows Eddie’s journey from the novel, Eddie’s adulthood will mirror his childhood in that he’s married to a woman that bears too much in common with his domineering mom. Therefore, we can expect that Eddie’s second round with IT will represent his continued personal battle for independence. The novel also claims Eddie as the final Losers’ Club member to fall in their climatic fight, meaning Ransone’s casting solidifies that our hearts will very possibly be broken.
Mike Hanlon
Fans of the novel are already aware of the changes made to this character; his role as the town historian transferred to Ben Hanscom during the events of Chapter One. Despite this major change, Mike (Chosen Jacobs) remains the sole member of the Losers’ Club to stay behind in Derry, therefore retaining his memories of what they endured that summer. To be played by Isaiah Mustafa as an adult, Muschietti has already warned that the character will have a much darker turn than he did in the novels. We can expect that Mike will gather the Losers’ Club together, but the price of having stayed in close proximity to the evil for the last 27 years will have taken its toll in the form of a junkie lifestyle.
Stanley Uris
When Chapter One drew to a close, Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff) was easily the most traumatized member of the Losers’ Club. The most reluctant of the kids to go after IT, Stanley displays resentment after being trapped by Pennywise and nearly devoured. Played by actor Andy Bean as an adult, Stanley will be the sole member of the Losers’ Club too scared to follow through on their blood oath to return to Derry in the case that Pennywise ever returned. Though the grown-up Stanley won’t make his way back to Derry (at least not physically), his smaller role is still a vital one; in the book, his suicide becomes an inciting event for the rest of the Losers’ Club to fulfill their quest to destroy IT.
Pennywise
Of course, Bill Skarsgard is returning as Pennywise, and the dancing clown will forgo his usual prey of children to enact vengeance upon the now adult Losers’ Club for sending him below to lick his wounds 27 years ago. This means that Pennywise is likely about to get a whole lot meaner. With the origin and history of Pennywise only barely explored in Chapter One, there’s room for a lot more yet to be explored in Chapter Two. Most of all, we can expect to see the final form of IT in the climax.
From an acting perspective, Skarsgard now has a roster of seasoned actors to play against versus relative unknowns, setting up a richer character experience.
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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