'It: Chapter 2' Spoilers: Why the Most WTF Moment Is Also the Cutest
It's also a direct callback to the first movie.
It: Chapter Two is full of wild and twisted creatures that terrify and delight, and the sequel to 2017’s It demonstrates that Pennywise has a wicked sense of humor. Perhaps the craziest moment in the entire movie comes during the final confrontation, and it somehow involves a Pomeranian.
Warning! Spoilers follow for one of It: Chapter Two’s best scares.
Rather early in the film, the surviving members of the Losers’ Club discuss how It shapeshifts into all sorts of different creatures, usually terrifying monstrosities that are difficult to kill. Bill Hader’s Richie Tozier, a comedian by trade, makes an offhanded joke wishing that It would become something less threatening, you know, like maybe a Pomeranian.
If you’re not familiar, a Pomeranian is a Spitz type of canine classified as a “toy dog” because they’re tiny, fluffy, and super cute with light brown hair. Queen Victoria owned a particularly tiny Pomeranian dog, which led to a huge increase in the breed’s popularity worldwide. If you had to imagine the least-threatening dog in the world, it just might be the Pomeranian. When Richie makes a casual joke about the breed, it’s easy to assume it won’t matter at all, but there’s a hilarious callback later in the film.
A Pomeranian dog plays a surprising role in 'It: Chapter Two'.
The Losers descend into It’s layer via the sewers to confront the creature one last time, and the battle is total chaos. It assumes the form of a giant spider-like creature and separates almost everyone to subject them to specific torments. Richie and Eddie wind up in an area of the cave with three white doors that say “Not Scary At All,” “Scary,” and “Very Scary” each written in blood.
Which would you choose?
Pennywise played a similar twisted game in the first It and again in the IT: Escape From Pennywise VR experience. Obviously you want something that won’t be scary … but isn’t that false sense of security a total trick? In 2017’s It, Richie and Bill open the “not scary” door and find a girl with the bottom half of her body missing. In the second movie, they go for the “very scary” door first — and they find the bottom half.
These three doors were also featured in an 'It'-themed VR game.
So they move on to the “not scary” door and find a totally adorable Pomeranian!
Richie and Eddie chuckle a bit, comment how cute it is, and they even tell it to sit. The scene is totally weird and delightful. In an interview with Screen Crush, Bill Hader confirmed that their reactions to the Pomeranian were improvised, making it that much more genuine and fun.
Obviously It is in control of this entire illusion, which means he was listening in on Richie’s Pomeranian comments from earlier in the movie. You can’t help but appreciate the nasty clown’s sense of humor here, especially when after an uncomfortable, tense amount of time being silly with the cute dog, the creature turns inside out and expands into a huge, doglike monstrosity that roars at Richie and Eddie.
Yeah, you totally see it coming, but that’s half the fun. Except now, we’ll never be able to look at a Pomeranian the same ever again.
It: Chapter Two is now in theaters.
