IT: Chapter Two (2019)

“27 years later, Pennywise returns, and the Losers come back older, sadder, and… sometimes funnier than they should be.”


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🎥 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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🧾 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

This picks up 27 years after the Losers’ Club first fought Pennywise. They’re all grown up now — Bill’s a writer, Beverly’s in a toxic marriage, Richie’s a stand-up comic, Mike stayed in Derry as the only one who remembers, Ben’s an architect, Eddie’s still neurotic, and Stan… well, Stan doesn’t make it past the opening. Mike calls them back because Pennywise is back, and once again kids are dying. Cue three hours of trauma, blood, some comedy that doesn’t quite land, and a finale where Pennywise turns into a giant spider-clown.


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👥 Character Rundown

Bill (James McAvoy) – Still haunted by Georgie, still can’t let go. His arc is all about guilt.

Beverly (Jessica Chastain) – Escaped her abusive dad only to end up with an abusive husband. Strongest emotional core of the adults.

Richie (Bill Hader) – Steals the show. Sarcastic, funny, secretly carrying trauma of his own.

Eddie (James Ransone) – Still paranoid, still a hypochondriac, still tied to Richie in ways the movie actually leans into.

Ben (Jay Ryan) – Grew up hot, still in love with Beverly. Has the most heart.

Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) – The anchor who stayed in Derry, and the one who knows how to kill Pennywise (or thinks he does).

Stan (Andy Bean) – Dies before the reunion, but his presence still lingers.

Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) – Back nastier, bloodier, and more CGI. Still terrifying in moments, but not as sharp as 2017.

📖 Bill or Stephen King’s Avatar?

Here’s the thing: Bill (James McAvoy) is supposed to be the heart of the Losers Club — the guilty older brother, the reluctant leader, the guy who still carries Georgie’s death like a brick around his neck. But in Chapter Two, he’s not really Bill anymore. He’s basically Stephen King’s self-insert with a stutter.

Everywhere you look, the movie is hammering one joke: “Bill’s a writer. Bill’s endings suck.” Characters constantly bring it up. The climax doubles down on it. And then, just in case you somehow missed the point, Stephen King himself wanders into a cameo just to roast Bill about his “bad endings.” At that point, it’s less Bill Denbrough and more like King is standing there in a James McAvoy skinsuit.

The problem? This gag completely undercuts Bill’s arc. Instead of focusing on his guilt, his leadership, or his bond with the Losers, the film keeps reminding us, “Hey, look! It’s Stephen King making fun of himself!” The immersion is gone. The tragedy of Georgie is gone. You stop rooting for Bill because you’re no longer watching a character — you’re watching King poke fun at his own reputation.

It’s meta humor that eats the story alive.


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⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

This movie is long. Like too long. It starts with that extremely distasteful hate-crime scene at the carnival (sets a brutal tone), then slows down for the reunion, then gets episodic as each Loser has to wander off alone to find their “token” for the Ritual of Chüd. It’s rinse and repeat: flashback to childhood, personal fear scene, token acquired. Some scares are effective, some fall into goofy territory (looking at you, leper vomit in slow-mo to “Angel of the Morning”). The finale is all spectacle — giant spider clown fight — and then the emotional gut punch of losing Eddie.


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✅ Pros

The cast. Seriously, the adult casting is perfect. Bill Hader is MVP.

Pennywise still delivers some nightmare fuel (the bleacher scene with Vicky is horrifying).

The fortune cookie sequence, the funhouse mirror scene, and the old-lady attack all stick in your head.

Emotional payoff — the bond between the Losers still feels real, even as adults.

The ending gives actual closure with the blood oath.



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❌ Cons

Overly long, with pacing that drags in the middle.

Too much goofy CGI (spider legs, baby clown head, etc.).

Some scares land as comedy instead — the leper vomit scene is laughable.

The Ritual of Chüd is explained badly and feels like filler.

Pennywise feels less scary, more like a video-game boss fight.



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💭 Final Thoughts

This one’s messy. It’s got heart, it’s got scares, it’s got way too many weird tonal shifts. The opening is nasty in a way that almost feels exploitative, and the finale reduces Pennywise to a big CGI punching bag. But the performances carry it, especially Hader and Ransone, and the Losers’ bond makes the three-hour runtime almost worth it. It’s not as good as Chapter One, but it’s way better than the adult storyline in the 90s miniseries.


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⭐ Rating

3/10. Too long, too goofy in spots, but still has enough bite (literally)


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Alright, let’s talk about the gore, the vomit, and the spider clown.


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🩸 Spoilers

The film opens at a carnival with a hate crime. Two gay men are attacked by bullies, one (Adrian) is thrown off a bridge, and Pennywise tears into him while his partner watches in horror. Brutal start. Mike sees the blood message “COME HOME” and calls the Losers back. Stan kills himself in the bathtub rather than face IT again.

The Chinese restaurant reunion devolves into fortune cookies birthing freak monsters (baby heads, tentacles, a bug with a crying baby face). They panic, scatter, and almost leave, but Beverly tells them she’s had visions of all their deaths if they don’t fight.

Meanwhile Pennywise keeps killing. Vicky, the girl with the birthmark, is lured under the bleachers by his fake sob story — and he chomps her head off. Bill tries and fails to save a kid at the funhouse mirror maze, watching Pennywise bash through glass and splatter blood everywhere.

Each Loser finds their “token”: Bill grabs Georgie’s paper boat, Richie remembers being mocked for being gay and nearly gets eaten by the Paul Bunyan statue, Eddie gets vomited on by the leper (complete with a cheesy music gag), Bev revisits her abusive home and finds the love poem Ben wrote, Ben reclaims his childhood classroom, and Mike reveals the Native ritual that supposedly kills IT.

Henry Bowers, alive and insane, escapes the asylum with the help of zombie Patrick. He stabs Eddie in the face (awkwardly funny), but later gets axed in the head by Richie.

The final battle takes place in the sewers. They attempt the Ritual of Chüd — it fails. Pennywise transforms into a giant spider-clown hybrid. Eddie dies a hero, stabbed through the chest, leaving Richie devastated. The Losers finally defeat Pennywise not by weapons but by bullying him into shrinking. They rip out his heart, crush it together, and end IT once and for all.

Afterwards, Beverly and Ben get together, Bill goes home to his wife, Mike finally leaves Derry, and Richie mourns Eddie quietly. The Losers’ bond is the real ending — scarred, but still standing.