“IT Chapter Two,” the sequel to the terrifying killer clown horror movie “IT,” premiered on Friday, September 6 and proved to be disappointing for some fans but worthy of praise from others. Woodside students disagree in their opinions on most aspects of the new film, but they can all agree on one factor: it was too long.
At a whopping two hours and 50 minutes, “IT Chapter Two,” stretches for one hour and 25 minutes longer than the first movie in the series. Many Woodside students decided that this was too lengthy for a movie.
“It was so long. Honestly, around the end, I was so impatient,” Woodside senior Cindy Isias said. “I was like, are they gonna kill this clown or not? It took so long.”
Another student mentioned that they left the movie theater after midnight and could hardly stay awake for the ending.
“I thought it was good, but it was way too long. It just kept going,” Woodside senior Rebecca Dikun said.
Although the length of the movie negatively affected some students’ opinions of the film, others had ideas as to why the director, Andrés Muschietti, chose to prolong the ending.
“The ending was way too long, but I felt like they were kind of hinting something because in the beginning, they were like, ‘I’m bad at making endings,’” Woodside freshman Jack Ryan Seagraves pondered.
Seagraves alludes to the part in the movie regarding the adult life of character Billy Denbrough. Denbrough is a writer working on the movie adaptation of his book with a demanding director. The director asks him to write a new ending because the one he has is “simply not good.” Denbrough’s career in the film also alludes to how the “IT” series is an adaptation of Steven King’s two-part novel, “IT.”
Compared to the first film in the series, Woodside students had mixed emotions about the sequel. “IT Chapter Two” features the adult versions of the kids from the first movie.
“I felt like ‘IT Two’ was less than the original,” Seagraves explained. “It didn’t feel the same way as when I first went to the movies because the actors weren’t as emotional. They weren’t acting as great, but it was funnier.”
Some of the well known actors in “IT Chapter Two” are Old Spice commercial staple Isaiah Mustafa, who plays adult Mike, and “Saturday Night Live”’s Bill Hader. Some students enjoyed the pairings of the adult actors to the child actors from “IT.”
“I think they did a good job with that. They were good actors, but they did a good job of making them look really alike. I liked that,” Dikun said.
Several students thought that the sequel was less scary than the first “IT” because it included more comic relief.
“Honestly, it was a funny movie. It was mostly comedy,” Isias proclaimed.
“IT Chapter Two” added some new dimensions to its fantastical world. New additions included insect-like, bloodthirsty creatures that hatched from fortune cookies and a Native American folk tale explaining the origins and possible end of IT.
“I feel like they were experimenting in the beginning because they didn’t know what they were really trying to do,” reflects Seagraves. “But then they hit a good spot in the middle, but I didn’t like it that much.”
The creatures appear in the middle of “IT Chapter Two,” scaring the adults at a Chinese restaurant, and they appear again towards the climax of the movie while the group move to defeat IT. Other students were scared by the part-human imaginary creatures.
“It freaked me out. I was traumatized. I was like ‘What is that?'” recalls Isias. “I don’t think it was necessary, but it definitely made the movie more creepy.”
One notable part of “IT Chapter Two” was its mentions of several serious real-life issues. For example, the film starts with a scene in which a gay couple gets beaten up by local teenage thugs. Also, in the first half of the movie, one of the main characters from the first film in the series commits suicide, and another character struggles in an abusive relationship. Few students felt comfortable talking about some of the more serious aspects of the film, but one commented.
“I like how the movie brought attention to those serious topics,” said Isias.
Overall, students seemed to agree that “IT Chapter Two” was generally good, but most students said that they liked the first film better.
“’IT’ one was better because it had more build up; it didn’t have jump scares everywhere, unlike the second one where it was mostly jump-scare-related,” recollects Seagraves. “The first one had build up towards what was coming. You’d see something, and you’d realize that IT’s coming, but you don’t know when, so it built suspense.”
