Our verdict on the blockbuster It sequel

CERT 15, 169 MINUTES, IN CINEMAS 6 SEPTEMBER

Starring: James Mcavoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone Director: Andy Muschietti

THE PLOT Twenty-seven years after the 1989 events of It, fear has returned to the town of Derry, Maine. All but one of the original “Losers’ Club” of young teens have moved away, but now Mike (Mustafa) summons them back to fight the returning evil – which takes shape-shifting and hallucinatory forms including nightmarish clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). Mike believes that It can be defeated through a Native American ritual, which requires the Losers to retrieve artefacts from their teenage past – an activity that brings back individual haunting memories. WHAT’S RIGHT WITH IT? With $700m global box office for the first film, there’s evidently plenty of cash in the kitty to throw memorably scary set pieces at us, and the visual imagination of director Andy Muschietti has been given free rein. Some of the sequences are pretty epic. WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT? Despite a very talented adult cast (see above), it’s hard to escape the feeling that the drama was somehow more engaging and affecting when these characters were kids. And a story involving the rounding up of objects? That feels less fresh after the Horcruxes of Harry Potter and Infinity Stones of Avengers. VERDICT There’s more of everything – including running time – in this eventful sequel to the highest-grossing horror film of all time. HHH