Defeated by members of the Losers' Club, the evil clown Pennywise returns 27 years later to terrorize the town of
Director: Andrés Muschietti
Cast: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Andy Bean
Release Date:
Genre: Horror
Rated R for disturbing violent content and bloody images throughout, pervasive language, and some crude sexual material.
Runtime: 2 h 50 min
Review:
It Chapter Two has the unenviable task of trying to tie up the story started in the original film. Much like the original novel and mini series adaptation the latter half of the story doesn’t quite have the pop or elegance of the first half of the story. This sequel is bigger and has a more expansive mythology. It has an impressive collection of big name actors as the grown versions of the Losers Club who all play their roles fairly well. Still, as you sit through Andrés Muschietti’s nearly 3 hour opus you keep waiting for something amazing or truly terrifying to happen. It never does as we go through a variety of side stories and back stories. That’s not to say there aren’t any thrilling or mildly scary sequences because there are but the problem is that it all feels sort of routine leaving the film like a hodgepodge collection of horror tropes blended into a single film. It’s never a bad film per say but it’s not a great film either. The main issue is that the central villain is put on display much too often which makes each subsequent appearance less and less scary. By the conclusion some of the moments come off as funnier as opposed to spine tingling, making it feel closer to a late era Nightmare on Elm Street which is fitting since there’s a visual nod to the 5th film in that series.
B-
