It Chapter 2 director explains why sequel opens with disturbing hate crime scene

Dstressing sequence was inspired by real events

The sequel to horror film It is almost here and warnings are being issued ahead of the release due to its depiction of a hate crime.

In a new interview, director Andy Muschetti explained the reason behind his decision to include the terrifyingly brutal scene that adapts the moment from Stephen King’s novel, in which a gay couple is attacked by a group of teenagers in Derry, Maine.

It’s a standalone sequence that ends distressingly and doesn’t get referred to again in the film. But, Muschetti was adamant he had to include the moment in the follow-up.

“It was very important to me because it is of relevance,” he told Variety. “I probably wouldn’t have included it if it wasn’t in the book, but it was very important for Stephen King. When he wrote it, he was talking about the evil in the human community. He was talking about how dark humans can get in a small American town.

“For me, it was important to include it because it’s something that we’re still suffering. Hate crimes are still happening. No matter how evolved we think society is going, there seems to be a winding back, especially in this day and age where these old values seem to be emerging from the darkness.”

The inclusion of the moment in the novel was inspired by real events that saw a gay man named Charlie Howard killed by a group of teenagers in the author's hometown of Bangor in 1984.

Jessica Chastain, who plays the grown up version of Beverly in the sequel, also supported the inclusion of such a scene.

“I think you need that scene because [King] writes about the darkness that’s under the surface,” she said. ”I think it was important to see Adrian’s scene and not to change it from what it is in the novel because we’re living in a time right now where it is very much a part of our culture and part of our conversation and we haven’t moved past it.

“We can’t pretend that it doesn’t still exist because it’s part of our every day.”

It Chapter Two is released in cinemas on 6 September.