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'IT Chapter Two' - An Honest Movie Review

Everyone's Favourite Child-Killing Clown!

By Greg FalconerPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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The Return of Pennywise!

Andy Muschietti returns to finish directing the IT saga two years after the first movie. Armed with a star-studded cast including James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain to name a few, and of course the return of Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The film seemed destined to be one of the movies of the year. After seeing the movie for the first time six days ago, I think that it is a sensational sequel with some minor problems that somewhat slow down the film.

During IT: Chapter One, the Losers Club encounter Pennywise and by the end of the movie, they eventually defeat it by beating the crap out of it in a sewer. 27 years later, Pennywise is back haunting the town of Derry once again. Thanks to a blood pact the kids created back in 1989, they all must now return to help defeat Pennywise once and for all.

The second film starts introducing Pennywise again, back after 27 years. Mike, who has spent almost three decades studying Pennywise and its history, contacts the Losers Club to return to Derry. After getting to know one another again, most members get too scared and decide to leave. Before they all go, Mike drugs Bill and shows him how to stop Pennywise once and for all. Bill convinces the group to stay, they then go on their solo adventures to find an artifact from their childhood to sacrifice in the ritual Mike is planning to do.

The group gets together again after all finding an artifact and surviving an attack from the Pennywise-controlled psychopath Henry Bowers. After seeing another child being murdered by Pennywise, Bill, filled with rage, races off to the house from the first film alone. Just before entering the house, the Losers Club joins him. They then go down the well and delve even deeper than they have before to the lair of Pennywise. The group tries the ritual, eventually failing once Pennywise shows up as a giant half-spider half-clown monster. After being terrorized for about 10 minutes and Eddie being mortally wounded, the group finds the way to kill Pennywise is if they imagine him as nothing but a clown, making him so small that Bill can simply rip the heart right out of the demon, killing it.

The Good

The opening scene of the movie shows Adrian Mellon being beaten up on a bridge by some thugs. Adrian is then thrown over the bridge into the river by the thugs, all while his boyfriend Don Hagarty is forced to watch it. At the river, Don witnesses a clown holding Adrian’s almost lifeless body out of the river. Not knowing that the clown is Pennywise, Don looks relieved to see that Adrian is alive until Pennywise eats a massive chunk of Adrian’s shoulder. This scene is a perfect start to the film as it makes the viewer uneasy right from the off.

Another fantastic part of the film is the Losers Club reunion. After the death of Adrian Mellon, Mike knows that Pennywise is back and informs all of the members of the Losers Club. They all arrive at a Chinese restaurant in Derry after 27 years of being apart, except for Stanley, who could not deal with facing Pennywise again and decides to take his own life. The restaurant scene is filled with comedy and laughter of the group getting to know one another again, and it is one of a couple of feel-good moments of the film. This scene also helps to renew the chemistry between the characters since it is a whole new cast from the first film.

Finally, the acting in this movie is an absolute master class. All of the actors who play the Losers Club are fantastic at replicating the performances from the children in the first movie. James McAvoy is sensational, adopting Bill's stutter from the first film and convincingly spending most of the time looking guilty that he let his young brother be eaten by the sewer-dwelling horror clown. Bill Hader is the most convincing performance; if you had somehow never heard of him, you would not be crazy to think he was Finn Wolfhard's much older brother. He plays Richie with the same comedy and crude language as the younger version, and he even handles coming out as gay superbly. Jessica Chastain plays Beverly very well. This is a tough role, as you need to play a character that has suffered all her life from physical and sexual abuse. Her eventual relationship with Ben is also very convincing.

Jay Ryan continues Ben’s story fantastically, playing the character smart, silly and completely in love with Beverly, just as the actor in the first film. Isaiah Mustafa has one of the biggest roles in the film acting as the Pennywise historian of the group; he plays Mike a bit crazy, which makes sense as he has been learning about Pennywise for such a long time. James Ransone is the perfect adult version of Eddie. Throughout the movie, he is a constant germaphobe and terrified of everything he encounters. He also has one of the most convincing death scenes I have seen in a while. Andy Bean is hardly even in the film, so I can’t say much about his performance, although he handles the suicide scene very well. Finally, Bill Skarsgard is yet again sensational as Pennywise; everything about him in this film is fantastic, his voice, movement, and facial expressions are all incredible. The scene with him drooling before devouring a little girl still haunts me.

The Bad

After digesting the film for a week, I can say that the only thing about this film that I didn’t like and that I think brings the film down is the part where the Losers go to find their artifacts. I think that this part of the film is so slow and I don’t think when all of the Losers face their fears is that scary. I think this could have been done a lot quicker and maybe even off-screen, which would have given the movie more time with all of the group and Pennywise. The only good thing about this sequence is seeing all of the child actors again reprising their roles for the second film.

Overall, IT: Chapter Two is a fantastic sequel to the first film. It tackles more serious subjects than the first film such as dealing with childhood trauma and accepting the past and being able to move on from it. The seamless shot to shot editing impressed me along with the acting and the links to the first movie. This film, in my opinion, is not as scary as the first one, but I don’t think they can be compared as they are two completely different films. I would 100% watch this movie again and this is coming from someone with an irrational fear of clowns and who had nightmares for 3 days after viewing this film!

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About the Creator

Greg Falconer

I enjoy Films, TV shows, Comic Books and Video Games. Everything I write is my own opinion and just a bit of fun!

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