Alamo Drafthouse Sets ‘Clowns-Only’ Screenings of ‘It: Chapter Two’ Across the U.S.

Ryan Lattanzio

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Send in the clowns. In celebration of the nationwide release of “It: Chapter Two” on September 5, the-genre film junkies at Alamo Drafthouse have planned a series of “clowns-only” screenings of the film at 17 theater locations. Alamo Drafthouse hosted these screenings for the first film in director Andy Muschietti’s horror film series to sold-out success in just two locations.

Alamo Drafthouse says Moviegoers are “encouraged to come dressed as a clown – the wig, the makeup, the oversized pants and suspenders, the blood-curdling makeup — and sit through this coulrophobia-inducing fright fest with a theater full of fellow clowns.” Full details on screenings across the country are available via Alamo Drafthouse, with clowns-only presentations everywhere from Charlottesville to Los Angeles.

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Who doesn’t love the grotesque pageantry of watching clowns come out in droves to the support their local movie theater? Austin-based theater chain Alamo Drafthouse has hosted special screenings for other hit films in the past, including all-female presentations of director Patty Jenkins’ DC smash “Wonder Woman” back in summer 2017 — much to the chagrin of fanboys and even an attorney. This summer, Alamo Drafthouse opened its first Southern California location in downtown Los Angeles.

Clocking in at a whopping two hours and 45 minutes, this second part of the epic Stephen King adaptation catches us up with the Losers’ Club as adults — here played by the likes of Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and James Ransone, among other top-flight cast members. With the specter of the sadistic Pennywise the Clown (played by Bill Skarsgård) still looming over the town of Derry, the gang must re-team to banish the demon they first faced 27 years earlier.

A new featurette for the film, below, teases some of the fresh hell that awaits us — everything from creepy geriatrics to a Jessica Chastain blood bath and beyond. The Warner Bros. sequel looks like an even more ambitious film than its predecessor, which told an almost Spielbergian tale of small-town terror wrought upon a pack of childhood best friends. With the first installment scaring up more than $700 million at the global box office, “It: Chapter Two” is about to be another horror-film phenomenon.

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