The highly anticipated ending to one of the greatest horror stories ever made came out in theaters this past weekend: “It: Chapter Two” directed by Andres Muschietti. The story, by Stephen King, takes place 27 years after members of the Losers Club think they defeat It, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. In the first film the seven members (Bill, Richie, Eddie, Beverly, Ben, Stanley and Mike) make a promise that if It isn’t dead they will all come back and fight him again and this time kill him.

However, unlike the original film made in 1990 starring Tim Curry, a TV miniseries, their younger selves are shown in flashbacks that give much more context to each of the characters’ lives after the defeat of Pennywise 27 years earlier. Many of the same moments in the 2017 film surface back into this year’s film, but use different and artfully better visuals to scare just about anyone who watches it.

The film uses intense graphics resembling each of the characters worst fears. If you are waiting to see the creepy ugly lady come out of the picture to scare Stanley again, you will be disappointed in that regard, but happy that you won’t expect what’s coming!

This film is a whopping 2 hours and 49 minutes, so if you are wanting a quick scare so you can rest easy, you might want to go watch something else. However, the film seemed to go by fast because there were next to no dull moments. I pretty much had my hand at the ready to shield my eyes for most of the movie.

“It: Chapter Two” delivers an all-star cast that includes Bill Hader as older Richie and James McAvoy as older Bill that look surprisingly similar to their younger actors Finn Wolfhard and Jaeden Martell.

This film definitely grew each individual character, and even though it is not a good idea to have characters separate in a horror film, it allowed each individual fear and secret to be known to the audience as it might not appear if they were constantly together. This also allowed for more frightening scenes as you are more scared alone than with someone else. The film also reiterated many times that there was a reason they couldn’t remember anything. Their brains were fogged over and that they didn’t stay friends because of the curse of the town, not necessarily because they all moved away.

Remembering is a huge obstacle for most of characters, removing Mike (he stayed in Derry), the film uses that to its advantage by including flashbacks that weren’t in the first chapter.

This film exceeded my expectations! I give it a 4.5 out of 5 as it was a little too long to be scared for that period of time.