The Losers’ Club from the 2017 horror film “IT” is back and all grown up 27 years after defeating the sinister clown Pennywise.
Pennywise is the horrifying clown centered around the “IT” film series.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The kid-based members of The Losers’ Club made a promise at the end of the first movie that if Pennywise ever came back, they would take it down no matter what. “IT Chapter Two” fulfills that promise as The Losers’ Club is reunited again, but this time as adults facing their childhood fear of a clown that changed their lives forever.
“IT Chapter Two” is a horrifying, but somewhat hilarious experience that goes deeper than its predecessor due to the film running for nearly three hours. While this movie was enjoyable, it still had flaws that did not satisfy me.
“IT Chapter Two” features the grown up version of characters from the first movie. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The cast of this movie is amazing at portraying both the childhood and adult versions of these characters. The casting of each adult resembled the original child actors physically and emotionally.
One of my favorite characters was Richie, whose adult character is played by Bill Hader and child character is played by Finn Wolfhard. Hader was the perfect actor for this role because of how hilarious the character is in both films. In most scenes Hader or Wolfhard were in, the audience and I would laugh at their snarky jokes.
Even though the adult cast was great, I still prefer the younger cast. The younger cast gives the movie a different, more nostalgic feel to it. The child actors are more lovable and that is why I love the first movie. Nevertheless, it was refreshing to see them grown-up and how much they’ve changed, yet stayed the same.
Pennywise would sleep for 27 years then awaken to bring chaos into the world. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The best part of “IT Chapter Two” is seeing Pennywise back and scarier than ever. Throughout the movie, there were a lot of jump scares that made me fly out of my seat and spill my popcorn everywhere. This is exactly what the director, Andres Muschietti, wanted.
In every scene with Pennywise, I would anticipate a jump scare. Just when I thought I was ready for the scare to arrive, the movie would fool me, catching me off guard when I was least expecting it. Not only did this movie have chilling, startling scenes, it also had tremendous computer-generated imagery (CGI). Scenes with Pennywise eating children or clowning around delivered a terrifying presence.
Something I wished to see in the second installment of this franchise was more backstory on Pennywise. The film did mention some lore, like how Pennywise is an alien who came to Earth very long ago. However, the way the director tried to deliver the message was a bit confusing and it left me with more questions.
Pennywise from “IT Chapter Two” likes to target children in order to feed off of their fears.
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
When I first saw the trailers for the movie, I was expecting it to spend a bit more time on the lore of the world, especially since it was almost 3-hours long. I should not have to look at YouTube videos and different articles to explain the basis of the movie. If the director would have dedicated more time to Pennywise’s backstory, such as how the Native Americans came to contact Pennywise and how they learned to trap him, this film would been perfect.
The young cast from “IT” is seen numerous times throughout flashbacks in “IT Chapter Two.”
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Overall, “IT Chapter Two” is a great sequel and as much as I missed the younger cast, it was fun to see them grown-up and trying to battle their fears once more. With a menacing soundtrack that gave me anxiety, hilarious writing, a great cast and a spooky killer clown, I would recommend this movie to others who felt the first movie left them wanting more. Even though the movie had some flaws, “IT Chapter Two” was a thrilling film that I would rate a 3.5 out of five stars and would watch again.
