10 Smartest Decisions In Recent Horror Movies

4. Stanley's Sacrifice - IT Chapter Two

It Chapter Two Stanley Uris
Warner Bros.

While his Losers' Club friends would've clearly loved to have Stanley Uris with them for their later-life battle with Pennywise in IT Chapter Two, the narrative of this Stephen King adaptation is that the Losers were only able to truly stop the Dancing Clown once and for all because of Stanley's passing.

It's extremely hard to justify someone taking their own life as being a "smart decision", but the closing moments of Chapter Two frame it as though the Losers wouldn't have had the full motivation to topple Pennywise were it not for Stan's death being a tool to fully bring them together for this battle.

Once Bill Skarsgard's heinous harlequin had been dispatched of at the end of this second picture, there's a slight jump forward in time where we see Mike receive a letter from the deceased Uris; a letter which details how Stanley was too scared to fight It, and that him sacrificing his life was essentially for the greater good.

Stanley's intentions certainly worked, but it obviously remains to be seen whether Stan really needed to be so extreme in his actions in order to motivate his old school pals.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.