Thursday night I went to a clowns only pre-screening of IT 2 at Alamo Drafthouse. People in New England may not be familiar with Alamo Drafthouse, but it’s basically what AMC modeled their Dine In theaters after. They held clowns only showings of the new IT movie all across the country, and what a hilarious idea. I’m not going to lie, my first thought was it would be a great event for a mass shooting because it would take a much longer time to identify the shooter. I guess that’s just the time we live in. Anyway, my wife was able to convince to go for the people watching, and it did not disappoint. We sat in a room full of 50 or so clowns watching Pennywise wreak havoc on Derry while eating a Royale with cheese and drinking a milkshake like god damn Vincent Vega.

Now I’ve never claimed to be the biggest horror movie buff, but I’ve been coming around the last few years. I thought this movie was awesome. It had a bunch of funny banter courtesy of Bill Hader and James Ransone, but also a ton of jump scares and an incredibly creepy soundtrack. Even the scene with the old lady from the preview below had me nearly jump out of my seat. And I knew it was coming! The special effects were really well done too, making the mind-fuckery of Pennywise as realistic as I could have hoped for. Lastly, Easter eggs are everywhere, so I can’t wait to see it again.

One thing I will say is that you need to see this movie either in theaters. The sound design was incredible; there are scenes where you really feel like a part of the action. If you watch on your own tv and have the volume down or are distracted by other stuff around the house, the best parts of the movie just won’t have the same effect.

Otherwise I have very few negative things to say about the movie. For those who read the book, they may want a little more out of the ending, but will find it enjoyable all the same. I didn’t read it, so I thought the ending was fine. I found IT 2 infinitely more satisfying than Midsommar, which to me was a garbage can in a prom dress. That is to say, although it looked beautiful and was well made, everything else about it sucked. Literally the first thing I said when it finished was, “What the fuck did I just watch?” I left the theater after IT 2 with a smile on my face. I was dressed as a clown though, so take that however you like.