Another CinemaCon is here, which means movie studios are trotting out their upcoming slates for exhibitors and theater chains all over the world in order to entice them with their lineup. Warner Bros. was the first major studio to have a presentation at the con, and they pulled out all the stops, but almost no segment was more anticipated than a sneak peek at their upcoming It Chapter Two.
While there’s no word on when the footage will be released for the public (or the first teaser will drop), let’s hope it’s soon, because the footage looks – and I can not stress this enough – freakin’ great. I can’t magically procure the footage for you (and Warner Bros. would probably hunt me down and drag me away to some black ops studio prison site), but I can at least describe it for you. I know, I know. Not nearly as fun, but whatcha gonna do?
The footage opened with part of a whole scene: a now-adult Beverly Marsh returning to the apartment where her dad lived and finding he’s since passed away and it’s now the home of one Mrs. Kersh. Fans of the book will know exactly what this scene is, but for those of you who prefer to fly blind…
WARNING: Semi-spoilers abound.
It opens with an adult Bev ringing a doorbell at a door named “KERSH.” Mrs. Kersh, a sweet little old lady, opens the door and regretfully informs Bev that her father passed away year ago. But she invites Bev in for tea to talk to her about it and Bev accepts.
As Mrs. Kersh is bustling away off-screen making tea, Bev finds an old hidey-hole of hers and pulls out the “Your heart is January fire” poem written for her back in the day by Ben Hanscom. There’s a quick flashback shot of young Beverly reading the poem as adult Bev reads it in our current time…
And in the background, something is happening to Mrs. Kersh, who appears to be…warping.
But she comes back out and offers Bev her tea and puts on a tinny record of that old classic turn-of-the-century band music that will never not sound creepy. Then she looks straight at Bev as she sips her tea and says overly-sweetly: “You know what they say about Derry. No one who dies here ever really dies.” – and then goes back to sipping her tea while Bev is understandably unnerved and in a heightened state of WTF.
Mrs. Kersh fans herself with her shirt collar and that’s when Beverly notices what appears to be rot on Mrs. Kersh’s chest which is definitely not, you know, normal. Things get creepier when Bev asks Mrs. Kersh about her background and the disturbing old woman explains to Bev that her father used to work in a circus…as a clown. And that’s when Bev spies an old black-and-white photo on the wall of what suspiciously appears to be Pennywise.
Cut back to Mrs. Kersh in the background again, in a darkened doorway, this time completely naked and skittering back and forth. Quick cut to Bev’s point of view as she turns around and sees the grotesque monstrosity formerly known as Mrs. Kerch barreling toward her in a tangle of mangled limbs.
The rest of the footage shows the adult Loser’s Club getting the gang reluctantly back together to deal with the evil that has resurfaced in Derry interspersed with shots of the young Loser’s Club, including one interesting shot of the adults lined up and looking into a mirror to see their younger reflections. Past and present scenes intertwine, with one shot of Pennywise peeling off his face, a literal blood bath (likely that previously reported bloodiest scene ever), and – don’t worry – plenty of red balloons.
Was it scary? Hell yes. Can I wait for the trailer? Hell no. Am I counting down the days until it hits theaters on September 6th? Absolutely hell yes.
