The Thrilling Conclusion to ‘IT

Screen Grab via Warner Bros. Pictures The reign of terror Pennywise had over Derry has ended in the second chapter of the movie "IT," wrapping things up with thrilling action.

Kelsey Walter

Copy Editor

Andrés “Andy” Muschietti raised the bar high for the horror movie franchise when he directed “IT” back in 2017, striking fear in the many people that watched the movie.

With “IT: Chapter 2,” he met the bar he raised, making a compelling and terrifying sequel to what already was a scary movie.

This was probably the weirdest yet most intriguing movie I have personally watched in a really long time, and I was surprised by the amount of science fiction elements that were spread throughout the movie.

With plot points and pace being based on the book “IT” by Stephen King, “IT: Chapter 2” had a clear and straight to the point direction.

Shockingly, Stephen himself made an appearance in the movie, playing the part of a shopkeeper in one of the flashbacks on the main characters.

The movie starts off aggressive and starts right up with horror and gore elements, and those elements held steady throughout the entire movie.

For those who haven’t seen the first movie may find themselves confused for some parts, but the way the movie was directed and the way the story was told, it helped with explaining things that some may not have known or forgotten from the first movie.

The color scheme of the movie was also extremely helpful to the storytelling, with bright colors symbolizing danger and caution, for example, Pennywise’s red balloon.

The cinematography in this movie was stunning, and every camera movement, change of scene, and even lighting played a big part in not only the storytelling but the atmosphere of the horror element.

With this being a horror movie, it was surprising to see how much discussion of morality and inequality took place alongside the plot.

There were scenes and a strong presence of homophobia, child neglect, domestic abuse, and racism, and some of the scenes within the movies were heartbreaking to watch.

They didn’t sugarcoat these issues, this movie faced all of those issues head-on, but sadly they weren’t specifically addressed.

Although most people would love if movie reviews were all 100 percent good, this movie was not perfect.

It was far too long, but being based off a book that is completely far too long, sometimes it’s hard to find that balance, but there was so much going on within the movie that at times with was hard to keep up.

Every character had their backstory of finding their most important possession, every character had to battle the demons that came with that, and nearly every time, they all ended the same.

The first half of the movie, each jump-scare was terrifying and chilling, but after about the 40th jump-scare, you just became immune to it.

The ending of the movie itself was a bit of a letdown, but being that it’s based on the book, never have had reading the book may have hindered the opinion on that.

It felt anti-climatic, and for the entirety of the movie, they were making it seem as though Pennywise was this unstoppable force, and then they easily stopped him once they figured out how easy it was to do.

“IT: Chapter 2” was terrifying, chilling, and captured everyone’s attention, and if definitely worth the scare, even if it is a three-hour horror movie.

Email Kelsey at:

kwalter7@live.esu.edu