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Welcome, Popversians, to another edition of The Coldest Open, the column where I, your humble horror host, examine the history of scary cinema through the first moments of its standout entries. With a brand new series just around the corner, we've been talking a lot around these parts about Stephen King's Derry; you may even recall a few weeks ago when this column explored the opening beats of IT: Chapter One. Therefore, you probably won't be surprised to learn that tonight we're tackling its direct follow-up, Andy Muschietti's IT: Chapter Two.

The way Coldest Open works is this: I'm going to be breaking down five different hallmarks of every great cold open in horror, then judging whether the movie in question pulls them off. If so, that hallmark will get ranked with a "Cold" verdict; if not, it'll get ranked with a "warm." At the end, we'll tally up those verdicts and determine a temperature, ranging all the way from Lukewarm to Absolute Zero.

A quick note before we get started: the first two minutes of IT: Chapter Two are really a slightly expanded version of the final few moments of IT: Chapter One. They feel like a bit more of a 'Last time on Derry' than they do an actual part of the film's opening, so for our purposes, I'm skipping them. Make sense? Great, let's get floatin'.

IT: Chapter Two's Cold-Blooded Killer

27 years after the events of IT: Chapter One, Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise is back in the shadows of Derry, Maine, but here's the weirdest part: in the brutal opening moments of IT: Chapter Two, he's objectively not even the worst thing the town has to offer. No, that would be the homophobic thugs that harass and assault the couple we meet as the film begins, who beat and toss the film's first victim (more on him in a sec) off of a bridge.

Pennywise's appearance beneath that bridge is just the clown-shaped tip on this all-too-real knife. In this moment, director Muschietti not only reminds returning viewers of just how terrifying Pennywise is, he reminds them of something that's often forgotten underneath the caked-on makeup and dancing shoes: Pennywise is an extension of the evil that can fester in small towns. Whether that's literal or not in the case of demon-haunted Derry, it kinda doesn't matter.

Verdict: Cold

IT: Chapter Two's First Person to Get Iced

You'll recall from the previous Pennywise-centric Coldest Open that Andy Muschietti isn't afraid to make you really feel awful for the first victim in his Stephen King universe. Well, the same holds true of the first person to die in IT: Chapter 2 - poor Adrian Mellon, played by Xavier Dolan. Before Adrian is attacked, we see that not only is he a thoroughly decent guy (he gives a kid a fair prize he won), but that he has dreams of getting out of Derry, which he tells to boyfriend Don Hagarty (played by Taylor Frey).

But here's what really hurts: the vile killing of Adrian Mellon is based directly off of a real-life homophobic murder that took place in 1984. Similar to Adrian's story, Charlie Howard of Bangor, Maine was out with his boyfriend when the pair were attacked by three teenagers, culminating in Howard being thrown off of a bridge and drowning. Stephen King chose to work this real-life horror into his 1986 novel, and over three decades later, it made the already awful Derry seem that much worse.

Verdict: Cold

IT: Chapter Two's Polar Plot Intro

I spent more time than I should have trying to figure out whether the plot intro of IT: Chapter Two was 'good' or not. As I mentioned above, there was a two-minute recap of IT's general premise even before this beginning, so how good of a job can you say an opening did when most of its job was done for it?

Here's where I landed: If you're telling audiences what they already know in a horror movie, at least make that information exchange scary. And Muschieti does! Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) appearing at the scene of Adrian's murder and discovering a red balloon already gets goosebumps crawling up my back, but then  the discovery of Pennywise's taunt, written in blood, under the bridge is absolute nightmare fuel.

Especially considering the fact that cops are absolutely swarming the area. The implication here is that Mike is the only one who can literally see the writing on the wall.

Verdict: Cold

IT: Chapter Two's Frozen Snapshots

Last time we talked about an IT movie, I pointed out that director Muschietti knows how to make an evocative image on screen. Unfortunately, that talent isn't on display as much in the sequel. Don't get me wrong, there are one or two shots that stuck with me, like the example above, in which one of the homophobic bullies wears an 'I <3 Derry' hat before committing a vile act, while circus-like lights glimmer in the background. I just wish there were more storytelling screengrabs like this one  - in fact, I would've preferred that to the Chapter One recap that we got.

Verdict: Warm

IT: Chapter Two's Bone-Chilling Music

One thing the IT sequel opener improves upon from its predecessor, however, is its use of music. Where the piano oeuvre of the first film didn't do much to build dread, the subtly warping Pennywise theme that we hear as Don Hagarty makes his way under the Derry bridge is an absolute lesson in terror. It builds to overwhelming, perfectly accompanying the thousands of red balloons that have the same effect on the viewer.

Verdict: Cold

IT: Chapter Two's Coldest Open Temperature: Frozen Solid

Between the two IT films produced by Warner Bros., I definitely prefer two, but I always recommend that people watch them both. Yes, there are some flaws that will come later in Chapter Two (the humor is a little mixed, and it's way too goddamn long), but this is the film that makes Derry the villain even moreso (or perhaps alongside?) Pennywise. The evil that is Derry itself, I think, is one of the most crucial things to understand the story of IT, and from the lack of actual clowns in the trailers, it seems to be what Andy Muschietti & Co. will be continuing in IT: Welcome to Derry.

Of course, we won't know how well that goes until the series premiere October 26, but in the meantime, this opener at least proves that the team know how to tell that aspect of the story correctly.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." Join Popverse's weekly explorations of the best opening moments of horror cinema in The Coldest Open, and then check out:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.