'IT Chapter 2': A Different Type of Horror Film

When I first started to learn about the horror film genre, one of the first icons I encountered was Pennywise the Dancing Clown. At first, I was a little befuddled as to how a clown would be considered scary; the clips I had seen consisted of him laughing comically while holding a red balloon or simply smiling (somewhat creepily) at random kids. (Well, there was that one scene… but not much aside from that). The 1995 miniseries made him look more goofy than scary, despite everyone on the Internet saying the contrary. I began to dig a little deeper, reading up on the Stephen King novel from which the character was from, and I, being the naïve 11 year old I was, quickly lost interest in the complicated and somewhat nonsensical plot (A giant turtle? Really?). However, I’m happy that I discovered the character in the first place, as it paved the way for my love of the horror film genre, and also ensured that I would be over the moon when it was announced that a film remake of the miniseries was being done. I watched it with a group of friends, and found that the film didn’t disappoint one bit—what I had always imagined as a very complicated plot was just a simple, heartfelt story about a group of misfits fighting something much bigger than themselves. However, as the credits rolled, I knew that the story wasn’t over, and waited anxiously for the news of the next part to be revealed. Two years later, here we are, with IT: Chapter 2.

Was it worth the wait?

For the uninitiated, the story of the IT saga takes place in a town called Derry, located in Maine. Mysterious disappearances of children have plagued the town intermittently, and when a group of six children stumble across the source of the disappearances, a mysterious being that they call ‘It’, the children take it upon themselves to ensure that they save the town, and more importantly, themselves, from a terrible fate. They manage to drive ‘It’ back, but 27 years later, ‘It’ seemingly returns, and is dead set on revenge against those who stopped him. This is the point where IT: Chapter 2 picks up, and the movie wastes no time in letting you into the lives of the protagonists of the previous installment. They have all successfully moved on from the horrors of their childhood and are leading relatively happy lives, until a phone call from the only member of the Losers Club to stay back in Derry, Mike Hanlon, sends them spiraling back to the site of their greatest fears. Upon learning that It has returned once more, they realize that the time to fulfill the blood pact that they made all those years ago has arrived, and they set out on a perilous journey to rediscover their past, and end the source of the terror once and for all.

First off, I found the main cast to easily be the strongest point of this movie. They give you a little reminder of what happened at the very end of the last one to ensure that, even if you haven't rewatched it, you would still be in tune with who these characters are, and what they were like 27 years ago. The movie also does a good job in making the characters come to life, to the extent that you really believe that the kids in the first movie could have grown up to be the characters you see on the screen in front of you. A nod has to go to whoever made the casting decisions, because they couldn't have done a better job. There was one scene with both James McAvoy and Jaeden Martell, and I had to remind myself that this wasn't a CGI based shot—both of them were really there, filming alongside one another.

The movie also does a great job of showcasing each character's fears—a factor that does come off as slightly repetitive of the first movie at times, but is nevertheless enjoyable and welcome, mostly due to the excellent performance given by Bill Skarsgard's Pennywise. The killer clown exploits the demons in his victim's minds to varying degrees of creepiness, and it never failed to impress. His performance is just as strong as it was in the first movie, perhaps even better. I would have liked to see more of him rather than his different forms, but nevertheless, the 'creepy' factor never really went away.

Now, the one thing that a lot of people seem to be complaining about is the enormous runtime of the movie, which clocks in at a whopping two hours and 49 minutes. I’ve seen many negative reviews of the movie online which are FAR too critical of this, to the extent that it really drags the film down in their eyes. For me, granted I was a tad trepidatious of the runtime of the movie before watching it. Generally, a compact movie experience is essential to enjoyment of the film, and long runtimes tend to disrupt that. However, director Andy Muschietti somehow made it work, if only to the extent that the film was never ‘boring’. There was never a point where I was actively looking at the clock, wondering when the film would end; everything that was displayed on screen was entertaining and captured my attention wholeheartedly.

That being said, though, I can definitely pinpoint areas where the movie did drag along, with some scenes being WAY longer than they needed to be. Most of the gang’s encounters with It in their adulthood, for example, felt extended beyond what was necessary, but since the resulting scene wasn’t to the detriment of the narrative, I didn’t have too much of a problem with it. The flashback sequences felt like they could have been included in the first movie, but I suppose that in order to link the two in some definitive fashion, they included them in this one. Again, it wasn't a huge negative, but it did push the runtime a little past what would have been considered 'perfect'. This isn't the type of movie you can just plop in and watch at any given time—you need to be ready to invest time in the viewing, and if you're doing that, might as well watch the first one and this as a duology at once.

Overall, IT: Chapter 2 is not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. It's definitely a worthy sequel to the original that closes out the series in a satisfying way, and makes for an interesting movie experience, something that you'd be hard pressed to find in the sea of horror/thriller films that exist today. Its extended runtime may cause some problems, but it's by no means a dealbreaker, and I'm giving it a 7/10.

Do check out my other reviews on my homepage, and I'll catch you guys next time!