Prerelease film featurettes are more or less pointless, existing mainly as a means to whet the appetite of audiences with some vague behind-the-scenes footage and a few interviews. That said, there’s something special about this collection of It B-roll footage from We Got It Covered, if only because it doesn’t unfold like any other featurette we’ve seen.
There’s no host. No narration. No interviews. There’s very little language, really. Just some snippets of direction and scraps of dialogue. It opens with director Andy Muschietti informing us we’re at Henry Bowers’ house, which is enough to make anybody who has read the source material feel unnerved, especially if they remember what Henry does in that house.
From there, we’re treated to short, contextless bursts of imagery, each punctuated by a silent blip of blackness. Some bits have sound, others don’t. And though cameras and sound equipment can be seen in nearly every shot, it still feels as if our POV is that of an outsider. All in all, it feels like those early scenes of stage-setting at the beginning of most found-footage horror movies. We see the Losers’ Club off camera, smiling and goofing around, yet it still feels appropriate to fear for them, at least from this vantage point.
As for Pennywise, his presence is minimal here, the clown’s face obscured every time he appears. That’s a good thing. Most behind-the-scenes featurettes only serve to dispel mystery. This one, surprisingly, increases it.