October Horror Challenge 2023 #60: "It: Chapter II"

I saw "It: Chapter I" last year, so onto the sequel this year. Part 1 is about the group of misfit kids who fight and defeat an ancient evil known as "it." It takes the form of a creepy clown named Pennywise, and haunts the small town named Derry in Maine. Then 30 years later, the evil comes back, and they must fight it again as adults. I didn't feel very strongly about the first chapter, didn't love it, didn't hate it, just thought it was kind of "meh." I wanted to see what the filmmakers would do with the portion of the novel that features the kids all grown up having to fight the monster. There are some scenes from the book that still haunt me today, and i wanted to see if the movie would tackle any of those scenes and maybe make for a spooky good time. Let's see what happens.

So some 27 years ago in 1989, 7 friends who were all outcasts and losers were forced to come together and fight an ancient evil they simply called "It." it takes many forms, but most noticeably dresses like a clown named Pennywise who likes to torment his victims before he slaughters them. Once he is defeated by the kids, he lay dormant for almost 30 years, but now he's back to his old tricks, torturing and killing victims. Mike, the only one of the group who stayed in Derry, aces some phone calls and summons his friends to return to the town to fight the evil and kill it once and for all. Will they succeed in defeating the horror or will they simply become It's latest victims?

I thought i didn't like the original adaptation of "It" until I saw this one. That sounds really snotty even to me, but this movie was over two hours long and im cranky now. I wanted to like this movie, but even though there's nothing horribly wrong with it, it just falls flat for me. The original "It" was a TV miniseries back in the 90s, when the first movie of this duo is set. The filmmakers moved all the action from the 70s to tje 90s to suit their new narrative, and they got Bill Skarsgård to play Pennywise instead of Tim Curry. Now Tim Curry was the only thing i liked about the original adaptation of "It," so knowwing he wasn't in this version definitely put a damper on my enthusiasm for this movie. Again, there's nothing wrong with it, but it just drags on and on and doesn't capture my interest like the original movie adaptation did. I don't know. There's literally a river of blood flowing through this movie, so it's gory enough. I don't really know why i don't like it, but i don't. Read the book instead.