Taglines: You’ll Float Again.
After the survivors’ irrevocable blood oath in It (2017)–and nearly three incident-free decades after the blood-soaked encounter with the demonic shape-shifter, Pennywise the Dancing Clown–the estranged members of the Losers’ Club find themselves before a dreadful obligation: to return to Derry and honour their promise.
Once again, the brutal murder of an innocent awakens the grisly memories of the past, reuniting the old band of companions, as the nightmarish monster has come back from the shadows of oblivion to terrorise the small town, intent on revenge and slaughter. Now, whether they like it or not, the now-successful Losers must probe deep into the fundamental fears of their troubled childhood, and summon up the courage to bring the terrible creature’s reign of terror to a close. One last battle awaits Derry’s remaining fighters of the supernatural. Will this final confrontation mark the end of the Losers Club, or will it be the end of the dreadful thing they call IT?
It Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror film and the sequel to the 2017 film It, both based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King. The film is directed by Andy Muschietti, returning from the first film, with a screenplay by Gary Dauberman. Set in 2016, 27 years after the first film, it stars Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, and Bill Skarsgård, who returns as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. It is the second installment of the It film series.
Talks for an It sequel began in February 2016. By September 2017, New Line Cinema announced that it would be released in September 2019, with Dauberman writing the script and Muschietti to direct. Principal photography began on June 19, 2018, at Pinewood Toronto Studios and on locations in and around Port Hope, Oshawa and Toronto, Ontario and wrapped on October 31, 2018. The film is produced by New Line Cinema, Double Dream, Vertigo Entertainment and Rideback, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
It Chapter Two premiered in Los Angeles on August 26, 2019, and was theatrically released in the United States on September 6, 2019, in 2D, Dolby Cinema and IMAX. The film has grossed over $473 million worldwide. It received mixed reviews from critics, with praise for its acting and themes but criticism for its near-three hour runtime and weaker scares compared to its predecessor.
About the Story
In 2016, Derry, Maine, Don Hagarty witnesses his boyfriend Adrian Mellon being murdered by Pennywise after a gang of homophobic youths beat them up and throw Adrian off a bridge while leaving the annual Derry carnival. Overhearing a police scanner and investigating the scene, Mike Hanlon discovers It has returned, and calls his childhood friends, Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak, and Stanley Uris, back to Derry to honor the promise they made in 1989 to kill It if it came back. While the others travel to Derry with only hazy memories and a sense of dread, Stan slashes his wrists in the bathtub soon after getting the call. The Losers meet for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where Mike refreshes their memories while they are tormented by hallucinations and learn of Stan’s death.
Richie and Eddie decide to leave until Beverly reveals that ever since she was exposed to It’s Deadlights, she has been experiencing visions of their deaths should they fail or leave town without fulfilling their promise. Meanwhile, Henry Bowers, who survived being pushed into the well at the Neibolt house and was arrested for murdering his father in 1989, escapes from a mental institution with help from It. At a baseball game, a little girl named Victoria is killed after It, as Pennywise, deceives her by saying that he can remove a birthmark from her face. Mike takes Bill to his library abode and shows him, via a drug-induced vision, that the Shokopiwah Native American tribe’s Ritual of Chüd can stop It for good.
Going to their old clubhouse and acquiring Stan’s shower cap, Mike explains that the ritual requires seven personal items from their past to be sacrificed and advises the others to find their artifacts by retracing their steps following their falling out after first entering the Neibolt house. Beverly goes to her old home, now inhabited by an elderly woman named Mrs. Kersh, and finds Ben’s love letter, still believing Bill wrote it, fleeing when Mrs. Kersh reveals herself to be It.
Ben recalls another childhood encounter with Pennywise at high school before realizing his artifact is the yearbook page Beverly signed, which he kept in his wallet. Both Richie and Eddie recall their own personal encounters with It while retrieving their artifacts: a game token from an abandoned arcade, and an inhaler. Pennywise confronts Richie and taunts him about his sexuality, leading to him deciding to leave again and reconsidering again after recalling Stan’s bar mitzvah, before menacing Eddie in the guise of the Leper, but flees when Eddie standing up to It causes the being to shrink in size.
Bill finds his childhood bicycle “Silver” and recovers the paper boat from the storm drain where Georgie was killed while meeting a boy named Dean, whom they saw earlier at the restaurant and lives at his old house and hears voices from the shower drain. Bill regroups with the others before running off to the carnival and into a funhouse after learning It is going after Dean, only to end up watching helplessly as Pennywise kills the boy before his eyes. Henry unsuccessfully attempts to murder Eddie before attacking Mike, but Richie intervenes and kills him. The Losers join a traumatized Bill at the Neibolt house, talking him out of facing It alone out of guilt.
It Chapter Two (2019)
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Sophia Lillis, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Chosen Jacobs, Bill Skarsgård, Finn Wolfhard, Amanda Zhou
Screenplay by: Gary Dauberman
Production Design by: Paul D. Austerberry
Cinematography by: Checco Varese
Film Editing by: Jason Ballantine
Costume Design by: Luis Sequeira
Set Decoration by: Crystal North, Shane Vieau
Art Direction by: Nigel Churcher
Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: September 6, 2019
Visits: 33
