It Reviews: Our Verdicts on Every IT Movie

Our IT reviews cover two theatrical films, It (2017) and It Chapter Two (2019), both directed by Andy Muschietti and both set in the Maine town of Derry. My verdict, and it is an opinion, is that It (2017) is the one to watch first and the one to rewatch, while It Chapter Two is a worthwhile but looser finish. The full IT movies list and the IT movies in order guide cover the viewing sequence.

If you are choosing between a fright and a long haul, think of it like television: the first film is a tight season opener, and the second is a finale that runs long.

It (2017), directed by Andy Muschietti and released in the US on September 8, 2017, is a 135 minute horror film and the stronger of the two IT movies. It opens in October 1988 with young Georgie Denbrough chasing a paper boat made by his brother Bill, and being dragged into a storm drain by a sinister clown. As an opening set piece, it establishes the menace of the creature in a few minutes and gives the rest of the film something to build on.

The following summer, Bill refuses to accept that Georgie is gone, and he searches with his wisecracking friends Richie, Eddie and Stan. They meet Ben, Beverly and Mike, other outcasts who are bullied by Henry Bowers and his gang, and each kid starts to see visions tailored to their own fears. In my opinion, that is the smartest design choice in the series. Pennywise, played by Bill Skarsgård, does not need one monster shape, because the kids supply the nightmare themselves. The seven of them band together as the Losers Club, and the ensemble of Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff does most of the heavy lifting between scares.

That being said, it is not a film that rewards you for expecting nonstop dread. Some of its best stretches are the summer scenes of seven kids bickering, and the horror lands harder because you like them. The score by Benjamin Wallfisch backs this up, and you can read more about it on the IT soundtrack page. For the film itself, see the It (2017) page.

It Chapter Two, released in the US on September 6, 2019, is a 169 minute follow up that is worth watching if you finished the first film, though in my opinion it is the weaker of the pair. It is set 27 years after the Losers Club beat Pennywise as kids, with the clown back in Derry in 2016. The film opens with a hate crime against a gay man, which makes plain that the creature is feeding again, and Mike Hanlon, the one Loser who never left town, phones his old friends and calls them home to keep a childhood promise.

The adult cast is the big draw: Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, James McAvoy as Bill Denbrough, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike, Jay Ryan as Ben, James Ransone as Eddie and Andy Bean as Stanley Uris, with Bill Skarsgård back as Pennywise. Stanley, who is also called, takes his own life rather than come back, and the film treats that with weight rather than spectacle. Part of the fun, and I mean that as a compliment, is spotting how each adult carries the habits of their younger counterpart, who also appear in the film.

Where I think it loses ground is length. At 34 minutes longer than the first film, it asks you to sit through a lot of separate encounters before the group gets to the finish. The production was a big one, with the town of Port Hope standing in for Derry, according to Global News. Compared with It (2017), the scares feel more like a sequence of episodes than one story closing in. Still, if you want to know how the story ends, this is the film to read about on the It Chapter Two page. A third film has no announced date, and the next IT film page tracks its status.

Yes, in my opinion It (2017) is worth watching, and the numbers agree that audiences came out for it. Box Office Mojo lists a $35 million budget and about $720 million worldwide, with $328.9 million of that in the US and Canada. It Chapter Two cost $79 million and took about $473 million worldwide, a smaller multiple of its budget than the first film. The full table is on the IT box office page.

In my opinion both films are properly scary, and they are rated R in the US, 15 in the UK and MA15+ in Australia. That is why a 10 year old should wait. The ratings are the practical guide here, and the story centers on a sinister clown and a group of kids who see visions of their own fears. If you are weighing it for a younger teen, watch it yourself first.

In my opinion, the main point of It is that fear is easier to face with friends than alone. The Losers Club band together as kids in It (2017), and in It Chapter Two the grown up friends answer Mike Hanlon's call to keep a childhood promise. The two films keep that structure, with the kids first and the grown ups second. For the book comparison, see IT book vs movie.

The 1990 version is a television miniseries, so I can only judge the theatrical side, and in my opinion It (2017) is properly scary because the fear visions are tailored to each child. That is a matter of taste rather than a measurement. The same goes for IT: Welcome to Derry (2025), which is a TV series and sits outside these reviews. If you want a fuller look at how the films stack up, the IT movies ranked page puts them in order.

If you are new to the series, start with It (2017), then watch Chapter Two if you want the ending. Details on where to watch IT are kept up to date by country, and you can meet the characters on the IT characters page, including Pennywise, Bill Denbrough and Beverly Marsh, or see the IT cast for the full list of actors.