The first chapter of IT became one of the most successful horror movies ever made, so hopes are high for the sequel from both a critical and box office perspective. To be successful, it's going to have to take everything that made the first movie great and pump it up to another level. Luckily, Bill Skargard, who plays Pennywise the Clown, says that won't be a problem, as his character is going to be even more terrifying in the sequel.
The first IT followed a group of young kids, nicknamed the Loser's Club, as they navigated their home town which was enveloped by the evil force personified by Pennywise. In the sequel, the kids will have grown to adults and they return home to battle the clown once again. Having been defeated by them once, Pennywise, as you might expect, is pissed. According to Bill Skarsgard...
He’s scarier and he’s angrier. There’s a couple of very brutal things in the film.
Skarsgard doesn't go into any more detail regarding exactly what brutal things Pennywise will do in IT Chapter 2, but considering the first movie opened with the clown ripping the arm off of a child, the bar is set rather high.
Fans might have an idea exactly what's in store for the adults in Chapter 2, the movie is based on a Stephen King novel, after all. However, in the same place where Bill Skarsgard tells EW about how much scarier Pennywise will be, it's also mentioned that some key changes have been made to the book, again without going into detail.
IT Chapter 2 hits theaters September 6.
This means that the movie might not be entirely predictable. Of course, the fact that the story is being moved more than 30 years into the future is the single biggest change. King's novel was published in 1986 and that was the setting for the adult time period of the story. The film used that era for the first movie which focused on the kids, moving everything in the sequel into the modern day.
Even if the brutal stuff that we're in for in IT Chapter 2 is exactly what fans of the book are expecting, there's a potential difference between reading about them in the book and actually seeing them on the screen. Often a movie recreation is never quite as impressive as the picture you've created in your head, but sometimes it can be so, so much more.
I was a massive fan of the first IT and so I'm certainly excited for IT Chapter 2. Even if it wasn't going to try to be scarier and angrier than the first, I'd likely be ok with that. Now, I'll need to prepare myself for this next level of horror.
