Is It Chapter Two Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 6 out of 10. It's loud, long and full of jump scares, with a clown who likes to take his time.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
6 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
You will be wary of abandoned cinemas and pharmacies for a night or so.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: Watch it in daylight, because it is long and full of jump scares.
It Chapter Two runs two hours and forty-nine minutes. The Losers' Club grew up, left Derry and forgot most of what happened to them, and Pennywise has been using the time to think up new material.
The premise, briefly
Twenty-seven years after beating Pennywise, the grown-up Losers' Club gets a phone call from Derry. Pennywise is back and they promised to come home if that happened.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
The Losers shrink Pennywise by insulting him until he is a crying baby, then crush his heart. Eddie dies from his injuries in the cavern. Stanley had already taken his own life, and the rest go home with their scars gone.
The scene you're dreading
The opening, which is the first scene: teenagers brutally beat Adrian Mellon and his boyfriend, and Pennywise then kills Adrian. The beating is the hardest part to watch.
The dog
No dog dies in It Chapter Two.
It is a long, loud monster movie with many jump scares and two deaths that hurt, and knowing the plot takes out the surprises but not the sad parts.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A phone call from Derry, and a clown with a head start
In 2016, twenty-seven years after the Losers' Club beat Pennywise the first time, the clown returns to Derry, Maine. The movie opens on this: homophobic teenagers brutally beat up Adrian Mellon and his boyfriend, and Pennywise then kills Adrian. It is the first scene of the movie. Mike Hanlon is the one member of the group who never left town, and he phones the others to call them back. Bill Denbrough, Ben Hanscom, Beverly Marsh, Richie Tozier and Eddie Kaspbrak all come, but Stanley Uris takes his own life instead. Pennywise tells the group about Stanley himself. Richie and Eddie want to leave again, until Beverly says she has seen visions of how they will die if they break their oath to destroy It. Meanwhile Pennywise also targets a girl named Victoria at a ball game, and springs Henry Bowers out of a mental institution.
Mike takes Bill to the library and uses a drug to give him a vision. It shows that a Native American ceremony called the Ritual of Chüd can beat It, if the Losers gather objects from their pasts. Bill picks up a paper sailboat from his past and meets a boy named Dean, whom he tells to leave Derry. Beverly gets Ben's love poem from her childhood home, where It attacks her as a demonic Ingrid Kersh. Richie finds a game token in an abandoned cinema, where Pennywise taunts him about his hidden homosexuality. Ben goes back to the high school and chooses a yearbook page Beverly signed, and Eddie collects an inhaler from a pharmacy, where the Leper goes after him.
Dean should have listened to Bill
Richie leaves the group at the hotel, and Bill goes to the town carnival, where he tries to save Dean from Pennywise and fails. Henry Bowers attacks Eddie at the hotel and drives to the library, where he attacks Mike. Richie returns in time and impales Bowers, who dies. The Losers then meet at the Neibolt house and talk Bill out of facing It alone, since he is upset about Dean.
A very big spider, then a very small clown
With their memories back, the group goes down into a cavern under the sewers and performs the ritual with their objects, in what is left of the meteor that first brought It to Earth. Mike adds a rock from their old fight with the Bowers Gang. The ritual fails, and It appears as an enormous spider with Pennywise's face. It pressures Mike into admitting the ritual killed the original native performers, then attacks, trapping Bill, Ben and Beverly in separate hallucinations. They escape when Bill lets go of his guilt over the death that started everything and Beverly realizes again that Ben wrote the love letter. Richie is made catatonic. Eddie saves him but is fatally impaled, and before he goes he explains that he made It feel small earlier by nearly choking the Leper. The Losers then tell It how they got past their fears, and keep insulting It. Pennywise shrinks with every insult until he is a crying baby. Mike pulls out It's heart and the Losers crush it.
The ending, explained
Pennywise laughs at his defeat and dies. The Losers return to Eddie and find he has died of his injuries. The cavern collapses, destroying the Neibolt house, so they leave his body behind. At the quarry they comfort Richie, and Ben and Beverly kiss. The scars on their hands then disappear. Ben and Beverly later get married, Richie goes back to the kissing bridge where he once carved his and Eddie's initials, Mike leaves Derry, and Bill starts writing a new story. Mike tells Bill that Stanley wrote each of them a letter before he took his life. Stanley was too frightened to face It, and he meant his death to make his friends stronger against It. His letter closes by calling them Losers for good.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is It Chapter Two scary?
Yes, It Chapter Two is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. It has a lot of jump scares, plus monsters that attack the Losers one at a time.
How does It Chapter Two end?
The Losers insult Pennywise until he shrinks into a crying baby, then crush his heart. Eddie dies in the cavern, and the survivors go home with their scars gone.
Does the dog die in It Chapter Two?
No dog dies in It Chapter Two.
Is there a post-credits scene in It Chapter Two?
No. It Chapter Two has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is the Ritual of Chüd in It Chapter Two?
It is a Native American ritual that Mike says can defeat It, using objects from the Losers' pasts. In the cavern it fails at first, and Mike admits under pressure that the ritual killed the original performers.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of It Chapter Two is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
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