Let’s face it: three hours is so much time to dedicate to watching a movie. Personally, I usually only make an exception for The Sound of Music (what can I say, I just love Captain Von Trapp) and other than that, sitting for three hours is just not a commitment I am willing to make. However, I took a leap of faith and decided to see It 2 despite its horrifying running time. Am I glad I did? Yes, because a) it was pretty good and b) I had nothing else going on. 

The movie has so many twists and turns in its plot that it is difficult to summarize. In short, twenty-seven years after the “Losers’ Club” defeats Pennywise the evil clown, he returns to reign terror over the town of Derry, Maine. Now successful adults living across the country, the group returns to defeat Pennywise once and for all. However, the clown has a few more tricks up his sleeve than their last encounter, including shapeshifting. The friends must each conquer their deepest fears to destroy him for good.

The movie starts out with a homosexual couple being beaten up by a group of men for, you guessed it, being homosexual. It does not end well for the couple as Pennywise ends up devouring one of them. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on all things It, but I thought his victims were all children. I guess the movie is making it clear from the start that there will be no sense of consistency whatsoever. 

However, I must say that the casting of the children grown up was well done for the most part. The filmmakers seemed to agree with this opinion, as there were several scene changes in which the camera faded from a close up of an adult character to a closeup of them as a child. I like to think that this is the casting directors’ way of patting themselves on the back. My one qualm is the decision to cast a thin adult as the grown up version of a previously overweight kid. Perhaps this has more significance in the novel, but in the movie it seemed like they did not find it believable that Beverly, the female of the friend group, would go for Ben if he was not attractive conventionally, which I think is unfitting in today’s world.

Another aspect of the film that I enjoyed was the inclusion of many different fears. Although it is centered around clowns, the movie manages to cram a plethora of common fears in its duration; even if clowns just do not do it for you there is plenty of other material to do the trick. Spiders? It has it. Drowning? Yep, that too. Needles? You bet. Public speaking? Oh, yes. 

I found the climax to be very interesting as well. After their first attempt to kill the clown via a Native American ritual is unsuccessful, they ultimately defeat the clown by bullying him, more or less. “You’re just a stupid clown!” they shouted (which I felt a little personally attacked by), and slowly Pennywise shrunk and withered away. I have begun to adopt this method in solving my own problems: “You smell bad, homework!” “Your face is fat, college applications!”. There has been little success so far, but I will keep trying. 

Personally, I did not find the movie very scary, but then again I have been told on several occasions that I am “emotionless” so perhaps no one should take my word for it. The people around me seemed very scared, and I probably would have been too if I could stop laughing at how abnormally large Pennywise’s head was.