The long awaited sequel to Stephen King’s 2017 “It” remake, “It Chapter Two,” made its way into theaters on Sept. 6. As a horror junkie, I was, of course, at the movies on opening night with the hope that I’d be scared senseless by everyone’s favorite (or least favorite) demon clown, Pennywise. 

To say the least, my expectations were met. This movie takes place 27 years after the first, and the kids that comprised the Losers Club are all grown up. With the exception of Mike, each of the characters have gone their separate ways, moved away from Derry and forgot all about the events that transpired the summer they defeated It. 

The gang comes together to fight It once more after Pennywise reappears in a horrifying way and begins to wreak havoc upon Derry again. Everyone is (unsurprisingly) reluctant to do so at first, but soon the characters begin to recall important memories and conquer the fears that have tormented them for years. These fears, however, tormented me, too. 

Without spoiling the movie, I’ll say this: “It Chapter Two” is pretty much just as scary as the first movie was. Although some of the novelty of Pennywise’s character has worn of, Bill Skarsgard is just as brilliant, and Pennywise is terrifying at with every glance. His childlike manner is effectively creepy, and he never stops being grossly unsettling throughout the movie.

In fact, the performance of each and every main character is brilliant, and the personalities established by the child actors in the first movie are seamlessly adopted by the adult actors in this one. It’s easy to imagine the adult characters as real life, grown up versions of their young counterparts, and that’s what makes the interactions between them just as satisfying and heartwarming as they were before. 

One actor in particular, though, stole the show for me. Bill Hader’s portrayal of Richie Tozier in “It Chapter Two” is both effortlessly funny and gut wrenchingly genuine at once. Richie, like each member of the Losers Club, grapples with certain, long unaddressed feelings and fears that It uses against him, and he does it while making you laugh. 

It’s actually very easy to relate to many of the deep seated fears that are on display in this movie. Some are more practical, like lepers, while others are a little more nuanced and complex, like secrets and practicing self acceptance. Either way, the impact each had upon me was equally profound, and I could better understand each character based on the fears that It used against them.

While the movie definitely was scary, there were certain aspects of it that I could have gone without. For example, there’s a whole side plot in which a villian from the first movie, Henry Bowers, escapes a facility for the criminally insane in order to hunt down the Losers. The only thing this side plot actually adds to the movie is the introduction of a few funny reactionary lines from the main characters. In other words, it’s totally unnecessary, and wastes time that should have been used to further explain the lore surrounding It’s origins. 

I was also a little annoyed by the CGI de-aging that was used to make the child actors look more like they did in the first movie in flashbacks. To me, it was a little too obvious, and it made many of the flashback scenes hard to watch without focusing on how off the characters looked.

The ending of the movies is, in some ways, a little anticlimactic. I was a little disappointed in the way that the Losers go about trying to defeat It, but the ending doesn’t ruin the movie altogether. There’s certainly a lesson to be learned from it, but if you’re expecting something that exceeds the ending of the first movie, though, prepare to be let down.

Overall, though, the movie does more things right than it does wrong. For a movie that’s nearly three hours long, the pacing feels just about right, and I never found myself feeling bored or becoming restless. The characters are genuine, the monsters are truly scary, and the premise of the movie is compelling. 

Whether you’re in it for the heartwarming interactions, the funny one liners, the gory, gross special effects, or simply because you liked the first movie, “It Chapter Two” is definitely worth the watch–unless you happen to own a Pomeranian.