You don’t necessarily need buckets of blood and excessive gore to make a truly great horror movie as all-time classics such as Psycho, The Exorcist and Rosemary’s Baby have shown. Clearly, It: Chapter Two director Andy Muschietti didn’t get the memo.
The team behind the hugely-anticipated horror sequel took to the stage recently as part of San Diego Comic Con’s ScareDiego event, where three full scenes from the movie were screened to wildly enthusiastic reactions from the audience. As well as revealing the new footage, Muschietti and star Jessica Chastain also proudly declared that one particular scene in Chapter Two is the bloodiest ever made. The director said that over 4500 gallons of fake blood were used in the scene, which the filmmaker claims to be a world record.
As a self-confessed fan of the genre, it was Chastain herself that pushed her Muschietti into increasing the intensity of the scene, with the two-time Academy Award nominee determined to up the ante when it came time to shoot, saying:
“I was like, ‘No, if we’re going to do it, let’s do it.’ I love horror films, I love Carrie, and I said, ‘Let’s make Carrie on steroids.’ And that’s what we did and it literally tortured me because I didn’t realize that it would be that way the whole movie.”
This chimes with what Chastain said in an interview several months ago, where she spoke about the scene in question:
“I’m going to say something, and I think I’m going to be in trouble, but I’m going to do it. It might be a spoiler. But in the movie, there’s a scene that someone said on set that it’s the most blood that’s ever been in a horror film in a scene. And I’ll tell you, the next day I was like pulling blood out of my eyeballs.”
That’s certainly dedication to your craft. Between the reaction to both the Comic Con panel and the recently-released new trailer, the buzz surrounding It: Chapter Two is starting to gain some serious momentum as the movie edges closer to release and we simply can’t wait to see it.