By Rachel Garvey
WARNING: Spoilers lie ahead…
On September 6th, IT Chapter 2 was released in cinemas across the country. It is supposedly the second and last chapter in Stephen King’s story about Pennywise the clown. The story continues 27 years later, with Pennywise returning to the town of Derry, to feast upon its residents, torturing them by using their own fears against them.
27 years previous, he was defeated by the losers’ club, who had made a blood pact to come back if Pennywise ever returned. The childhood friends have now gone their separate ways and are each living away from Derry, apart from Mike Hanlon, who has stayed. After a number of people go missing one by one and turning up dead, Mike calls the others for them to return to Derry as soon as possible to defeat Pennywise for good. All the members of the losers’ club return to Derry, except for Stanley, who dies by suicide after the phone call with Mike. They begin to experience a bit of amnesia because of how far they moved away from Derry, but their childhood memories and fears soon resurface once they reunite together in a restaurant and are later informed of Stanley’s suicide.
After Eddie, Richie and the others threaten to leave Derry, Mike informs Bill that he met with a Native American tribe, who showed him a vision of how “IT” arrived on earth, as well as the knowledge based on a ritual on how to destroy “IT” forever. As part of this ritual, each member of the losers’ club need to find an artefact from their past. Bill is reunited with the paper boat he made for his little brother Georgie, a previous victim of Pennywise 27 years ago, Beverly finds the love note written by Ben, Richie finds an old token from the arcade, Eddie comes into possession of an inhaler, Ben finds an old torn out page from his year book that Beverly had signed, Mike has a rock that started the rock fight with Henry Bowers all those years previous and then, together, they all encounter a shower hat in their old clubhouse that was an idea of Stanley, which is used as Stanley’s artefact.
With a running time of 2 hours and 45 minutes, the majority of viewers were well satisfied, and reviews were pouring on to social media, with many people sharing their thoughts on the movie:
“IT Chapter 2 is a terrific companion to IT Chapter 1. Similar vibes, great ensemble chemistry w/ a nice mix of humour and horror. Part 2 plays heavier in tone, dealing w/ defeating the burden of childhood trauma, & I definitely teared up at the very end. Bill Hader steals it”.
Despite the fact that IT Chapter 2 is classed as a horror, it contained some very touching scenes, as well as being humorous in some parts. The movie also dealt with a lot of controversial problems; domestic abuse, suicide, childhood trauma and homosexuality and how there are a lot of people still against it. Beverly manages to break free from her abusive husband, which ties in with her childhood trauma of having an abusive and manipulative father. Stanley’s suicide had the audience in disbelief and his reason for taking his life had viewers in tears. Richie’s unexpected revelation of being a homosexual had viewers smile in surprise at the unexpected twist in his life’s timeline and then tears were shed during the end scene where we lose Eddie during the end battle with Pennywise. Richie clings desperately to his deceased friend, begging the others to take Eddie with them so that he can be saved, but it’s too late and Eddie is left behind, while the members of the losers’ club drag an uncontrollably crying Richie from the cavern below Neibolt house, as it collapses in upon itself, Pennywise below in the cavern finally dead, his heart crushed as the losers’ club fired insult after insult at him, making him feel small, which took away his power to overcome them.
The movie teaches viewers that it’s okay to be afraid, but once you stand with friends, then you can get through even the toughest times. A promise was made 27 years ago, a promise that was kept by nearly every member. Even though people grow up and drift apart, once reunited, the lost memories start to resurface and we remember who our true friends really are. It is truly a movie worth watching, as it teaches us that the bond of friendship is the strongest force of all.
