IT Chapter Two Blu-ray Review - Many Fun Extras

Warning! IT Chapter Two is rated R for disturbing violent content and bloody images throughout, pervasive language, and some crude sexual material.

The grownup "Losers"Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Twenty-seven years after the Losers Club defeated supernatural clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard), the “losers” have not kept in touch and are leading very different lives. Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), now the town librarian who never left Derry, phones them all. Seems that Pennywise is back and young people are disappearing and turning up grisly dead again!  The losers must fulfill their childhood blood promise to return should this happen. All are warped by their past experiences. Can they overcome fears to come back and put down the monster once and forever?

Tragedy and a Promise

Back in 1989, the Losers’ Club kids Beverly (Sophia Lillis), Bill (Jaeden Lieberher), Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Mike (Chosen Jacobs) and Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) cut hands and swore a blood promise to return to Derry if “It” ever does.

In present day, a young gay couple attend the Derry Fair where thugs beat them up and nearly kill one when they throw him into the river. He’s still alive until Pennywise fishes him out. Adult Mike listens to the crime reported on police radio, goes to the scene where he finds a burst red balloon and “Come Home” written all over the river bridge.

Mike (center) finds message on the bridgeCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Assembly of Losers

Phone calls to all the adult losers go out from Mike telling them it is time to make good on their old promise. Nobody remembers much of what happened that summer in the ‘80’s but Stanley (Andy Bean) knows he will be too frightened to help the old gang kill Pennywise so he kills himself.  The others assemble in a Derry hotel. Old bully Bowers (Teach Grant) is in a mental institution and Pennywise visits in a horrible form to give him back his old knife. Once chubby Ben is how a buff hunk (Jay Ryan), Beverly (Jessica Chastain) is running away from an abusive husband, Bill is a troubled but successful screenwriter, Eddie (James Ransone) is an uptight risk analyst for an insurance company, Richie (Bill Hader) is a nervous but successful stand-up comic.

The Losers must beat Pennywise!Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Diabolic Dinner

At a Derry Chinese restaurant, the old gang starts to remember a few things. They have a great time until the fortune cookies “hatch” into small but creepy monsters and the fortunes work into a message that Stanley couldn’t take it so he isn’t coming.  Beverly reveals that she has seen all of their deaths and Stan died just as she foresaw. Freaked, everyone but Bill and Mike decides to leave. Meanwhile Pennywise murders a young girl and Bowers escapes the mental institution. Mike has done research and tells Bill that an ancient Native American ritual can kill “It”. It came from the stars originally. It is alien. They must all first go and find totems; something that represents them. Sacrificing these items will be part of the ritual they will perform to kill “It”.

Can Pennywise ever be truly defeated? Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Personal Searches

Reasoning that since Beverly was nearly blinded by “Its” lights when she was young and that is why she can foresee the group’s deaths, they all go to their old underground clubhouse where they find something representative of Stan. Then they go their separate ways and each is tortured by different, awful childhood memories and face different scary versions of Pennywise but they do get tokens that represent them. Bill meets a cute little boy who now lives in his old house and warns the kid to leave Derry and never go near drains to the sewer system. Reunited at the hotel, Bev shows Ben the poem he wrote years ago about loving her and her red hair. She thinks Bill wrote it. Ben is crushed. Bev and Bill later kiss.

Bill tries to save a little boy from PennywiseCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Spooky Old House

Bowers attacks Eddie in a bathroom but Eddie stabs him before he gets away. Bill finds the little boy at the local carnival and fights for him against Pennywise. Bully Bowers tries to kill Mike but Richie kills him with a hatchet. Finally the group reunites at the old, spooky house where they all went as kids. They go inside, are separated by Pennywise and face terrors that include a spider-like Stanley head before they climb back into the sewer system. Richie reminds terrified Eddie that he stabbed bully Bowers and can fight back when he needs to. They all climb into a strange cave where they perform the ritual led by Mike. They burn their tokens and chant as they hold hands but….it doesn’t work!

On the way to the caveCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

If We Believe…

The ritual didn’t work for the Indians either admits Mike. “It” killed them but he was sure that if all the “losers” believed it would work, it would. “It” chases them all and again puts the group through separate tortures meant to turn all their fears and regrets against them. Finally they figure out, as the ancient Indians said, “All living things must abide by the shape they inhabit”. Pennywise is a clown. How can they use that to destroy him? Will they? Will Beverly ever figure out that it is Ben who wrote that love poem? Will the members of the Losers’ Club ever have a happy ending?

Can the Losers survive personal tortures?Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Special Extra Features

This take-home version of IT Chapter Two has loads of extras. The “making of” featurette has two parts:

• The Summer of It: Chapter One, You’ll Float Too and The Summer of It: Chapter Two, It Ends – the story and childhood fears are discussed. We see the young actors’ audition tapes and casting is featured. The kids learn to live without their cellphones to play late 1980’s kids. They learn to ride bikes and bond. Part two concentrates on the adult actors chosen to match the younger ones. Kid actors and adults become pals. Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise is featured.  Very nice!

The kid Losers on their bikesCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

• In Pennywise Lives Again we hear from Bill Skarsgard on developing and playing weird Pennywise and on making him scarier and more threatening in this second film. His amazing facial and body movements are shown and praised. We see the various weird creature versions of the character and see that Bill befriends the kid actors with hugs and high 5’s off camera.  Fun!

Pennywise even more frighteningCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

• The Meeting of the Losers Club Has Officially Begun focuses on casting the kids then painstakingly matching them to adult actors for “Chapter Two”. Both young and older actors comment on their relationships. We learn that the younger cast wrote advice letters to their older selves…. Useful for the older actors playing the characters. Nice.
• Finding the Deadlights features author of the original novel Stephen King who reveals the source and inspiration for the story. We see him on set and playing an antique store owner in the movie. Great especially for King fans!
• Commentary by Director Andy Muschietti (on movie disc) is entertaining but since the movie is so long, there is some “dead air”. We do get info on the adaptation from novel, story, the adult actors etc. Worth a listen.

Can we overcome our personal fears? Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Wrapping Up

Some of the extras on this Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set repeat information found in other extras.  There is no blooper reel and, for an intense horror film like this, it would lighten things up to have had one on this set. We do get a great sense of the bonding of the young actors and, in this film especially, their bonding with actors playing their adult characters. We also see more of how the excellent Bill Skarsgard created Pennywise and developed him.  Nice!

The adult Losers warn a local kidCourtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Overall, as we said when we reviewed the film in theaters, “IT Chapter Two has a great adult cast and Bill Skarsgard is again excellent in his portrayal of Pennywise but, at almost three hours long, the film’s scares get repetitious. Bill Hader provides great comic relief as Richie although the character has some effective emotional scenes as well. James Ransone as Eddie creates laughs just by nature of the character’s paranoid personality. Almost all of the characters achieve a full circle “healing” of their personal life scars and relationships are resolved but it is obvious that many scenes or “scares” could be easily cut from the film to speed up the pace”.

If you loved the novel or the first film, you’ve gotta collect and/or gift this wrap up movie for the holidays. We can award four stars for this home edition.

IT Chapter Two Blu-ray Rating: 

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

IT Chapter Two is available in stores Tuesday December 10^th.

Are You a “Loser”?  

Do you relate to the kids and even their adult counterparts in IT Chapter Two? Are clowns just scary to you or fun in real life? Are you happy with the ending of this second film? Will you collect or gift it for the holidays or just feel all things “It” are just too scary? Leave a comment!!

 By: Lynn Barker