Madison Meeks – Media Director

mvm7037@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Warner Bros.

“IT” the movie based on the popular horror novel by Stephen King of the same name was remade and released on September 8, 2017. The film “IT” is the first of the two films. The film tells the first half of the story of the characters from when they were kids. Two years later a sequel to the first film called “IT: Chapter 2” was released on September 6, 2019. “IT: Chapter 2,” tells the later part of the story as the characters are now adults but also features a few flashbacks to when they were kids. The fact that the book was split into two films brings the question of which movie is better: “IT” or “IT: Chapter 2.”

The 2017 “IT” is better than “IT: Chapter 2.” The casting for “IT” has a perfect cast with actors such as Finn Wolfhard from Netflix’s “Stranger Things,” Wyatt Oleff and Sophia Lillis from Netflix’s “I Am Not Okay With This”, and Jack Dylan Grazer from Disney’s “Luca” playing the main characters. Even though, the younger cast who play the characters as kids do make an appearance in “IT: Chapter 2,” the first movie is better because the film focuses on the first fight against the evil clown Pennywise. One of the good parts of “IT: Chapter 2” is the adult cast is perfectly matched with the child cast. 

“IT: Chapter 2” is interesting because it is the final defeat of Pennywise the dancing clown and it does show the characters as adults so the audience can see how the kids ended up after the events of the first movie. But, “It” appeals more to audiences because it’s about a bunch of outcasts who end up facing their demons while facing an actual demon. All of the main characters are shown in the first film throughout the entire movie and the second film on shows one of the main characters for about 3 minutes at the beginning of the film before a tragedy. The first film “IT” focuses more on the character of Bill finding out what happened to his little brother Georgie. “IT: Chapter 2” does not talk much about Bill’s guilt over Georgie’s death but it does mention it. The first film does not feel as rushed to get to the defeat of Pennywise as the second film does.

The film “IT” that was released in 2017 was a better movie in general than the sequel movie “IT: Chapter 2.” The first film is better because of the storyline, the perfect cast, and the story of facing your demons, and the first film was as rushed as the second film. Hopefully, more people also think that “IT” was better than “IT: Chapter 2.”