IT Chapter Two: the clownery returns

If you like naked old ladies dancing, you’ll like IT Chapter Two. Unless you’re under the age of seventeen, then too bad. It’s rated R, so unless you have an adult, wait for it to come out on Redbox. It had a lot of the same elements as the first one, but it also had lots of unique parts that made it different from most of the horror movies that have come out this past decade. Having been a previous reader of the book, I’m mildly bias about some of the horror and storytelling elements of the movie. I’ve read multiple Stephen King novels, and I like that the slow-burn element of his books is kept within the movie. You don’t immediately jump into the action, and I like that. This isn’t like some of these people’s relationships where they immediately jump in. 

For someone who isn’t usually scared, I felt like if I turned the wrong way, Pennywise would snatch me up and eat me. Truly, it was the most terrifying experience I’ve had in theaters. I’d never watched a horror movie with actual horror. The jump scares were rightly earned; they didn’t feel cheap like the ones in some of those other Warner Bros. movies, it felt like something was genuinely going to jump out of the screen and grab me. It was like I was watching the movie in 3-D without having to pay extra.  

It was refreshing like a glass of lemonade: the humor thrown in was delivered perfectly by the cast and made the movie five times better than before. James McAvoy is an amazing actor with experience in horror – we know the man can act, and it just felt really nice seeing someone with – even small – background working in this movie. Plus, James McAvoy is just so cool. 

The story itself was simple: it was the same as the original, except they beat him for good. The story and plot was the same as the book’s – the adult Losers come back to Derry after getting a call from Mike the Librarian. They seem to have lost their memories of the little battle against Pennywise twenty-seven years ago; they become successful authors, fashion designers, Ubers(?), comedians, librarians, architects, and whatever Stan was doing. An interesting plot device is they need to get these “tokens” from their childhood, which was a really cool concept that felt like something almost out of a video game. 

The director was able to show a lot of the horror well, especially with some scenes being darker and others, while in bright daylight, are able to be even more frightening. In some scenes, I had to do a double-take because you see something so scary happening right in front of everyone during the day; it shows Pennywise has no visible fears about getting caught by the adults. He messes with the Losers’ minds in crazy ways. 

There were a few scenes in the movie that really reminded me of another horror/thriller movie that came out last year called Escape Room, which was kind of  trash – he took everyday boring places and changed them into something terrifying from their childhood. These scenes reminded me of my own childhood, when I would get scared of everything in the dark. It’s an element in horror that a lot of movies don’t touch on, because kids are off-limits – blah blah blah. 

Most horror sequels are just cash-grabs, but this one felt like they genuinely made the movie to show the audience the rest of Stephen King’s amazing story. It didn’t feel like a copy and paste storyline; the storyline was unique and it was one of my favorite movies of the year. If you enjoy actual horror – not that cheap stuff that Warner Bros. and other large production companies keep throwing at us – then I would definitely recommend IT Chapter Two (naked old ladies included).