It Chapter 2 review

27 years after defeating Pennywise the clown (Bill Skarsgard) the Losers Club reunites back in the town of Derry, mostly having forgotten their past, to finally stop him from returning.

27 years on from the events of director Andy Muschietti’s first adaptation of Stephen King’s classic horror novel, It, the faces of the Losers Club return to the town of Derry to defeat the figure of Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgard) once and for all. Having gone their separate ways and moved on with their lives the majority of the group have moved away, most to city lives. In fact only Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) – who provides the opening voiceovers for the film – remains in the small town; and appears to be the only person to remember Pennywise and the actions of the group of friends back in 1989. However, when sightings of familiar red balloons arise, and children begin to go missing, Mike calls back his old friends to fulfil the promise that they made almost three decades prior, to defeat Pennywise once and for all.

Throughout the film the tone of the first feature is kept relatively consistently throughout, likely due to Muschietti returning to direct, while Gary Dauberman singularly writes the screenplay – having previously worked with Cary Fukunaga and Chase Palmer on the script for the first film. The case for this is furthered by the fact that the original child faces of the Losers Club return for a number of flashbacks throughout the 169 minute run-time of the film. While tackling the titular returning demon of the film the group also tackle their own individual demons, that only come back to them as they return to the town in which they grew up – having forgotten much of their childhood experiences until re-encountering them, plagued by the warped horrors that Pennywise has in store for them.

However, with all the flashbacks and various scenes focusing on individual characters the film begins to suffer from similar issues to it’s predecessor. The fact that it works best when the central figures are together. The dynamic that the characters have together, whether young or old, is enjoyable and does have a certain coming-of-age feel to it. And there’s no denying that the bickering and comments between the characters of Richie (Finn Wolfhard and Bill Hader) and Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer and James Ransome) almost always manage to raise a laugh. The relationship between the group as a whole works and in many ways is what invests the viewer in the piece in the first place, wanting to support and get behind likeable characters. When separated this feeling isn’t quite there. And due to the focus on one character at a time the film begins to feel drawn out, losing steam as the final act – despite it’s spectacle, even if it does seem to have some slightly unneeded Hollywood flare – comes into play and the Losers Club bands together again.

When it comes to the horror elements, while there are one or two slight jump scares dotted throughout there’s not as much of a sense of threat or tension as there was with the first film. Pennywise doesn’t seem to be as much of a threat, or rather as much of a tense and scary figure as he was in the first film. While he does have some good moments the fear factor isn’t quite always there, seeming more like a carnival performance sometimes than one for a horror character of this kind – and while you can see where Skarsgard’s good quality performance is going the fear factor as a whole isn’t quite there. Meaning that the film does somewhat suffer and sometimes the viewer does almost become slightly disengaged with the film as a whole.

While it does have one or two successful jump scares, and the well-strung humour of the first film, It Chapter 2’s biggest threat seems to be its run-time. Spending too much time with individual characters rather than with the Losers Club as a whole, when the piece plays to its strengths.

It might have its moments and some decent ideas throughout, but It Chapter 2 seems to run out of steam just as its main power comes through. Likely due to a long run-time you wish you could spend more time with the humour of the Losers Club than with the sometimes grey feel of the individual set-pieces.
*** <– Three Stars