IT Chapter Two (2019)

The long-awaited sequel to the 2017 horror hit “IT” has finally arrived and it did so with reckless abandon. Nothing is left to the imagination as Pennywise devours children and adults alike, brutally carving a trail of death and destruction around the poor, unsuspecting town of Derry. The subtleties of building quiet suspense that made the first film scary are instead replaced with scenes of violent, chaotic terror. At one point, Pennywise chomps down so hard on a child that his entire body explodes in a bloody mess, leaving James McAvoy with nothing to do but cry in horror. This movie is ridiculously gross, gory, random, and even funny – and I absolutely loved it.

I’m a HUGE fan of movie monsters. Films like “The Conjuring” and “Annabelle” always include new monsters in their sequels and I eat that kind of thing up. If any of you are like me, then you will love the crazy amount of monsters we get in IT Chapter Two. I don’t want to spoil anything but I will say, the Chinese restaurant scene is incredible. Everyone in the theater was either cringing or gasping or laughing nervously during that scene – and that’s just our first taste of what’s in store for the rest of the movie.

The acting was brilliant, and what would you expect from such an amazing cast of actors? James McAvoy does a terrific job with his character “Bill” and Jessica Chastain portrayed “Beverly” wonderfully, but I’m going to give my somewhat controversial opinion that Bill Hader’s “Richie” stole the movie. I’ve read some complaints that he was too funny for the movie, but I don’t agree with that. Richie as an adult became a stand-up comedian, whom are known for cracking jokes at inappropriate times or when they become uncomfortable. If anything, I would say witnessing him become dramatic and show his true emotion at the end of the film was made that much more powerful because of the fact that he constantly made jokes during the early scenes of the movie.

With all of ITs positive aspects (get it?), I will admit that the 2-hour and 49-minute run time was possibly too long. While I understand the film had a tremendous amount of source material in Stephen King’s novel to draw from, I didn’t think it was absolutely necessary to draw out some of the scenes as long as they did. I won’t get into specifics, but it felt like we were shown about four endings before the movie finally ended. Hardcore fans of the novel might appreciate the lengthy run time but I think they could have cut some scenes or saved them for an extended Blu-Ray edition or director’s cut.

This movie is…

Just as good, if not better than the first movie.

Cheers and goodnight.