My friends and I caught IT CHAPTER 2 and while I thought it was scary in places and thoroughly entertaining, I found the most terrifying part of the movie came in the first ten minutes. There is a gay bashing that is presented realistically and is quite jarring. The most scary thing about it is, it is based on a real life incident. You can read about it HERE.
As a Gay of A Certain Age, I've read about and seen depicted, gay bashing scenes in the news, books, movies, and TV shows, but this one shook me a bit more than the others, because it feels like it's been a while since I've had a gay bashing story intrude upon my everyday life. This one then took me to different place. The scene ends with the inevitable arrival of Pennywise, The Clown, and his red balloons. Pennywise appears to help the gay-bashed victim, then kills him and disappears in a cloud of red balloons. I started thinking about how this showed the people who claim they are our allies and are there to support and help, but follow up by voting for politicians who are out to take away our rights, patronize businesses that support anti-gay organizations and then disappear behind their red ribbons. I know it's weird to have that thought right in the middle of a horror movie, but aren't the scariest things the true things?
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