Cody's movie minute

September is here and with it comes the beginning of spooky season. While Halloween is still a ways away, the frights have already begun with It Chapter 2. But does the movie live up to the horrifying heights set by the first It? Well, yes and no. It Chapter 2 follows 27 years after the original, where a group of teenage friends from Derry, Maine, come face-to-face with the crazy killer clown Pennywise. 27 years after ridding the town of this evil entity, they must return to their childhood home of Derry to stop Pennywise once and for all. The cast of this movie is the major standout. With acclaimed actors playing the grown-up versions of characters loved from the original, they do not disappoint. With James McAvoy as Bill, Jessica Chastain as Beverly, Jay Ryan as Ben, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike, James Ransone as Eddie, and Bill Hader as Richie. Hader is most definitely the one that stands above the rest in a performance that has great comedic chops and surprisingly dramatic turns. And while the cast of friends does a good job with their parts, the real star of this movie is Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the clown. Skarsgård brings such an appealing nature to this horrifying figure. I was scared out of my mind with whatever he was doing on the screen, and yet I never found myself wanting to look away from him. While the cast does an excellent job with what they are given, the movie itself takes a long time to get where it needs to. It Chapter 2 is nearly three hours long. Most horror movies are around half of that in runtime. At hearing this I was very excited, hoping to get an even richer and in-depth look at the characters and a chance for the movie to tell the story it wanted to tell. However, there are many long-periods in this movie where it feels as though nothing is happening, or the scene itself isn’t very important but there is a quick jump scare to try and keep you distracted from the fact that you have stopped caring about what’s going on. I am not a huge horror fan. I love great movies. If that movie happens to be a horror movie, I will most likely love it as well. But with a horror movie like It Chapter 2, I need a lot more than just scares to keep my interest. I felt myself not caring for most of the characters or for what they were doing. I enjoyed It Chapter 2 for what it had to offer, but I have a feeling the standout clown movie of the fall is going to be Joker at the beginning of October. Three stars