Director Andy Muschietti and screenwriter Gary Dauberman return to the It franchise to invite us back to Derry, Maine. That damned clown is at it again. Only, this time, like a car ride to a new place, it (no pun intended) isn’t as scary or interesting on the second go around.
With movie studios scrambling to produce (and re-produce) recognizable intellectual property, famed author Stephen King and his work are in high demand. Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer were brought on to adapt Pet Sematary, a 1983 King novel of the same name. The novel’s second adaptation in 30 years, the studio should’ve followed the book’s choice wisdom: sometimes dead is better.
If aliens came to Earth demanding to see the art that best represents us as a species, I would advocate for The Shawshank Redemption as the single film that embodies everything it is to be human. 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption is a tale of hope and despair, purity and corruption, and, perhaps most of all, victory and defeat.
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