“IT: Chapter 2” is expected to have the second-highest opening weekend for a horror movie in the US with 91 million dollars. (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)
Troy Lafond
Connector Editor
“IT Chapter 2,” starring an ensemble class including Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon, Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom and James Ransone as Eddie Kaspbrak, is in many ways superior to the original. The movie picks up right where the original implied it would, 27 years later with the return of Pennywise. The original “IT,” while creepy, did not really have much in the way of truly horrifying moments, which are much more prominent in the second installment. Scenes such as the trailer scene where the old woman chases Beverly through her old house play out beautifully terrifying on the big screen. However, in what should be a resounding success of a send-off, slowly becomes an overlong mess.
The characters are, with very few exceptions, wonderfully well developed from the first one, with every adult feeling extremely true to their child counterpart, with the exception of the confusing decision to make Mike the nerd who stays back in the library in Derry, despite Ben being obviously the one to be set up to be this person. Besides that, small wrinkle though, the characters play off wonderfully from the original. This consistency in not just the characters, but also the overarching plotline, the tone, and everything makes “IT Chapter 2” feel like it truly is just a direct continuation from “IT.” These could be watched back to back with nearly no wrinkle. The sound design is also truly phenomenal. Horror movies live and die on the quality of its sound, and it truly thrives here. The sound does an amazing job of building tension from thin air, both at times building up to a truly scary moment and building up to a small funny moment.
However, there is one big, fatal, central flaw in this movie, and that is the length. No part of the movie necessarily drags, and there has no part of the movie that really feels like it needed to be cut, but just under three hours is simply too long for a horror movie. The scares, no matter how terrifying, start to grow stale. There is little to be revealed left in Pennywise’s powers to get to an even “bigger” moment. While it does an extremely good job at building and releasing tension throughout, it starts to just get to a sickening point as it goes longer and longer, it was almost stomachache-inducing by the end. Worst of all, after two movies and nearly five and a half hours of buildup, the ending just feels underwhelming. The ending sequence is overly drawn out, everyone feels like they are doing the same thing over and over, and the conclusion to the sequence just feels like a cop out.
The first scene also feels unnecessarily insensitive. Completely unrelated to any characters or events of the movie, Pennywise up and slaughters a gay couple. While it is a decent enough scene, it did absolutely nothing to build anything in the movie at all: the audience already knows Pennywise’s powers, the characters are not tied to the movie in any way, it just feels like an excuse to kill off a gay couple.
By the conclusion of the movie, the only relief that is felt is that the movie is finally over. It may not drag, and it is technically extremely good throughout, and it may have some extremely good scares throughout, but nothing changes the obnoxious length. It is nearly unforgiveable, it nearly ruins the movie, and it nearly overshadows all the movie’s other successes. While it has still worth a watch, especially for franchise fans and horror movie buffs, it is just deal breaking.
Overall score: B-
