It Chapter Two: Solid but not particularly terrifying sequel

The first movie terrified audiences and made a bucketload of money, but the follow-up is more goofy than properly horrifying.

It Chapter Two is a solid albeit overlong thriller that mostly satisfies, but the demystification of It/Pennywise/Deadlights means that there’s nothing lurking in the shadows, stoking the fears in your imagination.

If you’re looking to be truly terrified or reinforce your belief that all clowns are homicidal maniacs, It Chapter Two may leave you wanting more.

The impressive effects and Pennywise's sharp teeth and evil glint are enough to be mildly stressful at times, but there will be no sh*tting of any pants, even if it happens to Richie Tozer after a grim run-in with Pennywise.

Stephen King’s book is such a weighty tome that no screen adaptation could do it justice in one sitting, hence the necessary split of the first 1989-set movie with the Losers Club as kids and this 2016-set sequel of the grown-up Losers.

Pennywise is back and he's hungry.

After beating Pennywise into hibernation as teens, the Losers Club — Bill (James McAvoy/Jaeden Martell), Beverly (Jessica Chastain/Sophia Lillis), Ben (Jay Ryan/Jeremy Ray Taylor), Richie (Bill Hader/Finn Wolfhard), Mike (Isaiah Mustafa/Chosen Jacobs), Eddie (James Ransome/Jack Dylan Grazer) and Stanley (Andy Bean/Wyatt Oleff) — all make a blood oath to return if the monster strikes again.

Well, lo and behold, 27 years pass, and the bodies start turning up again, along with the red balloons.

Mike never left town, working as Derry’s librarian and a one-man obsession machine, collecting newspaper clippings and historical reports of Pennywise’s (Bill Skarsgard) terror spree, which spaces out every 27 years.

All the other Losers moved away, building successful careers as architects, writers and businesspeeps, if not necessarily personal relationships. When Mike calls them, telling them to return, they’re all viscerally struck by fear even if they don’t quite know why.

As it turns out, the further you get from Derry, the hazier your memory of Pennywise.

The Losers Club has to confront Pennywise again.

Back home in Maine (sans two spouses that follow in King’s book but not in this adaptation), the returnees quickly remember and, after quelling their instinct to flee, try to fulfil their childhood oath.

In doing so, they have to confront their own fears, working through their hang-ups before confronting Pennywise in the bowels beneath Derry.

Pennywise feeds off the fear of his targets and each of the Losers Club’s traumas must be a three-hatted degustation meal. It Chapter Two may as well be subtitled “Extreme Therapy”.

Bill never got over his guilt over his brother Georgie’s death while Beverly continues to be trapped in a cycle of abuse that started with her father, and so on.

Individual and collective trauma is a rich narrative vein running throughout It Chapter Two, but one suspects most cinemagoers are there for the thrills and chills — and the spectacle and effects a reported $US70 million budget buys you.

Jessica Chastain undergoing some extreme therapy.

It Chapter Two certainly has its share of that — the effects of a giant spidery Pennywise are generally impressive (though CGI rain hitting a tiled rooftop looks weirdly fake) and there are some action sequences that will hold your attention.

But, it’s not very scary, save for a few jump scares. The most properly terrifying moment comes in the opening sequence, and it's a very non-supernatural explosion of homophobic violence.

It Chapter Two is more funny and goofy than it is frightening, the sight of zany zombies with their loose limbs designed to provoke laughter and sniggers, though its bouts of levity aren’t convincingly balanced.

The first It was much more effective at being eerie, and perhaps that’s genuinely the uncomfortable nature of seeing so many children in peril. But knowing what Pennywise is, and having already faced the full horror of his sharp teeth and bloodthirst, it takes the air out of the balloon.

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Bill Hader and James McAvoy play the adult Richie and Bill.

Having said that, what It Chapter Two does well is its casting, the likes of Chastain, McAvoy, Hader and co all matching really well with their younger counterparts. You genuinely want to see them make it, no one feels disposable.

Edging three hours, the movie is far too long, though you’d struggle to name any particular sequence to exorcise, apart from its many false endings. Each scene or set-piece works well as they are and is visually striking, but put together, it’s really stretching your patience.

There’s a grandness to its scale and production values that still makes It Chapter Two an enjoyable romp, but it’s not the ghoulish scarefest it could be.

Rating: 3/5

It Chapter Two is in cinemas now

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