Twenty-seven years ago, the Losers Club made an oath that they would return to Derry if Pennywise ever surfaced again. Now as grown adults, Mike Hanlon convinces the rest of the Losers Club to come back and kill Pennywise once and for all. 

“IT Chapter 2” cranks the scares and gore up to 10 from Chapter 1. Right away in the opening scene, the sheer grotesqueness of the film is shown. 

Adrian Mellon and his boyfriend Don Hagarty get beat up, and Mellon gets thrown off a bridge in a bloody mess simply because of their sexuality. Within a few minutes Pennywise claims Mellon as his first victim in a gruesome manner by eating him. 

This movie leaves no loose ends or questions left unanswered from the previous installment. Hanlon explains the whole backstory of Pennywise and his origin. We also get plenty of detail about each character’s current situation and story. This movie does an excellent job of giving the background information needed and details to fully understand the storyline running between the two films. 

What really makes this movie for me are all the scares. There are plenty of jump scares to keep audiences on the edge of their seats, but the real scares come from the forms and shapes Pennywise takes on. 

At the ending of the movie, Pennywise takes on a larger-than-life spider form, ready to eat and kill the Loser Club. Before that scene, the dancing clown takes on the forms of the Losers biggest childhood fears, shape shifting into dead Georgie, Beverly’s father and plenty of other decaying, zombie-like bodies.  

At one point, Stanley’s decapitated head grows spider arms and tries to eat Richie. The horrors of this movie play off the characters’ childhood traumas that clearly still have an impact on each of them twenty-seven years later. 

The movie balances elements of horror and comedy very well. Sprinkling humorous lines here and there almost made me calm down and be less tense, but then it would be right back to being scared. This played well throughout the movie by continuously changing the pace. Most of the movie I wasn’t sure if I should be letting my guard down or bracing myself for another scare. 

Even though this movie is a lengthy two hours and fifty minutes, it doesn’t feel dragged out. We are given a plethora of information in Chapter 2 that we didn’t get in first chapter. Each scene and line is crucial to the storyline and paying close attention pays off for the viewer by fully understanding the story. 

“IT Chapter 2” does a great job of tying together loose ends and giving audiences the background information necessary to the story. A satisfying watch for anyone who’s seen the first installment, “IT Chapter 2” is a truly terrifying movie that comes together full circle and leaves viewers with all their questions answered.