It Chapter Two
Horror sequel isn’t clowning around
Though a satisfying coulrophobic coming-of-age horror in its own right, 2017’s It was never meant to stand alone. Taking its cues from Stephen King’s 1986 novel, Chapter Two tells its terrifying tale across two distinct time periods, with the now grown-up Losers Club returning to Derry 27 years after their first run-in with Pennywise to put an end to the shapeshifting clown’s reign of terror.
As in the first film, Pennywise isn’t a simple bogeyman – It preys on the Losers’ insecurities, which have only become more complex and painful as they’ve grown older and their lives more complicated. This leads to some unremittingly raw scenes, tapping into such things as homophobia, abuse, and childhood trauma.
But as a modern Hollywood horror, Chapter Two still has to be a ghost train, which means a barrage of uninspired jump scares and an over-dependence on CG – a particularly baffling choice when Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise is more than capable of sending the popcorn flying without a lick of digital trickery.
Clocking in at just under three hours, Chapter Two turns into something of an endurance test, with the film’s laborious middle section structured like a series of annoying fetch quests, as each Loser embarks on a solo mission to face their fear and recover a plot-pertinent totem.
The casting, once again, is flawless – Bill Hader a standout as the adult Richie Tozier – but Chapter Two falls short of the first film’s promise. Jordan Farley