Stephen Kg Calls ‘It Chapter Two’ Gay Character Surprise ‘Geni’ – IndieWire

Contents:

• IT CHAPTER TWO AND THE HORROR OF ANTI-GAY BIGOTRY
• IT: CHAPTER TWO’S GAY-BASHG SCENE EXPLOS A REAL-LIFE KILLG FOR A CHEAP SHOCK
• STEPHEN KG CHAMPNS ‘IT CHAPTER TWO’ GAY CHARACTER SURPRISE: ‘KD OF GENI’

IT CHAPTER TWO AND THE HORROR OF ANTI-GAY BIGOTRY

This should not e as a shock, yet for many, the level of baly the child-eatg space clown rerved for a gay character It Chapter Two’s openg was nothg short of horrifyg.

But there is a method to this tolerant madns throughout the film, sce the te terror of Pennywise is far realer when wh a sneer at Richie Tozier’s closeted gay liftyle, or beneath the Derry bridg, than ever n due to a puter generated Pl Bunyan monster. In the film’s bt moments, It Chapter Two fds tasteful ways to further accentuate the genial warmth and humany of the Losers’ Club, while also beg more clive and aware of a gay muny which is starkly victimized the movie’s first scene. In the movie’s most terrifyg sequence, dienc are briefly troduced to a lovg, openly gay uple prised of Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) and Don Hagarty (Taylor Frey).

Shown enjoyg a night out at the Derry summer rnival, their romance is cut tragilly short when they share a kiss (and an “I HEART DERRY” hat) ont of a group of homophobic teenagers. The first chapter the book is the ath of a child at the hands of a supernatural clown the past, and the send is the ath of a young gay man the prent—a murr at least stigated by real life monsters.

IT: CHAPTER TWO’S GAY-BASHG SCENE EXPLOS A REAL-LIFE KILLG FOR A CHEAP SHOCK

Even there, the film the shock and horror to suggt that It has grown more aggrsive the 27 years between Geie and Adrian’s aths, but the film don’t show the aftermath like the book: The three teens are arrted by the lol ps and prosecutors who have no problem sendg them away for a murro hate crime—but still nnot hi their own disda for Hagarty and Mellon’s gayns. An old-timer named Egbert Thoroughgood reunts to Mike Hanlon the tale of Cl Heroux, who 1904 exacted a terrible vengeance on the men rponsible for murrg his prumed gay lover.

It Chapter Two, however, mak one of the heroic Losers gay, and do so a way that feels subtle and primarily void of nscensn (although one do wonr why Richie do not e out and verbally state his feelgs the noumont).

Richie Tozier as portrayed by Bill Har is suggted to be gay, albe neher he or the film put an exact label on . In a flashback to 1989, we learn that one of Richie’s most paful memori is the time Henry Bowers and a ed a gay slur agast him for wantg to spend time wh another boy at the ar. And someone who grew up the era of homophobia beg hoehold language uld still mightily stggle wh what that means.

STEPHEN KG CHAMPNS ‘IT CHAPTER TWO’ GAY CHARACTER SURPRISE: ‘KD OF GENI’

(He’s played the movie by wunrkd Québéis filmmaker and actor Xavier Dolan, well known to gay cephil and crics. ) People om Mae, pecially Bangor, Kg’s hometown, may regnize him stead as Charlie Howard, a 23-year-old asthmatic gay man who was beaten by three teenage boys the town the summer of 1984, before he was thrown off a bridge to a stream 15 feet below and drowned. The explanatns—that was part of the origal source material, and that anti-gay hate crim still happen today, so was “important” to pict this particular one—suggt a half-baked unrstandg of what lls for different kds of vlence on screen.

Y, as Mchietti says, anti-gay vlence remas “of relevance, ” and was a major moment the origal novel. The murr the book tak place the summer of 1985, one year after the event that spired , and the novel clus an extend scriptn of the victims, the teens, their motiv, and the police vtigatn that follows (“The guy was a u, but he wasn’t hurtg anyone, ” says a sympathetic district attorney), along wh a brief but evotive read of the town’s gay i. In fact, some enterprisg fans of the novel have long surmised that Eddie is gay and love wh Richie (a dynamic played up the 1990 It miseri, which notably exclus the hate crime).