(spoiler free)
After delivering the highest grossing horror film of all time, ‘It’ director Andy Muschietti returns to finish the story he started in 2017 with sequel ‘It Chapter Two’. The young cast that made the first film so enjoyable are back reprising their roles alongside a brand new collection of performers portraying them twenty seven years later. This is the amount of time Pennywise the dancing clown, played by the brilliant Bill Skarsgård, has been waiting for The Losers Club to come home, thankfully audiences haven’t had to wait just as long for their own return to Derry.
The beating heart of the first film was its young and spirited cast, their performances accompanied by the thoughtful writing elevated ‘It’ to be more than just a horror film. So as expected it’s great to see this cast return, excelling where they did before. Naturally with the story taking place twenty seven years on from the events of the first film they receive a smaller amount of screen time compared to their older cast members but Gary Dauberman’s screenplay consistently weaves a way for the young cast to remain a constant throughout the film. The casting here for the older versions of these characters is superb. The likeness achieved by the cast as a whole is excellent and the performances across the board are great. It’s a strong ensemble with no weak link but James McAvoy (Bill), Bill Hader (Richie) and James Ransone (Eddie) continually standout with fantastic performances as the grown up versions of these much loved characters. Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Isaiah Mustafa & Andy Bean make up the rest of the Losers Club and they too contribute so much to this talented ensemble making it one of the best ever seen in any horror film.
Thanks to the combination of this ensemble and the screenplay the narrative here is full of emotion. The story is good at giving each character their time in the spotlight, showing their development over the time passed and delving into the trauma they’ve experienced. Just like the first film ‘It Chapter Two’ doesn’t fear difficult themes and tackles some challenging storylines, doing an admirable job of it too considering the amount of characters there are to juggle. Muschietti is able to do this thanks to the hefty runtime of almost three hours. This should be considered before viewing as casual cinema fans or those who weren’t completely sold on the first film will struggle with this. However, accompanying the often emotional tone of the film is a lot of very effective comedy which helps to combat this. It’s not quite as funny as the first film but the humour is most definitely still present. Ultimately the strength of the screenplay is found when the group are all together, rather than separate as their chemistry, whether this be dramatic, emotional or comedic always engages and entertains.
What about the horror though? Well ‘It Chapter Two’ is of a similar vein to the first film in that there’s nothing truly terrifying here, but it still remains enjoyably jumpy and gross out gruesome at points. There’s more to this film and its predecessor than simply being scary though and if that’s the only reason viewers buy a ticket they may be disappointed. There are some issues with the use of VFX too. This was a problem in the first film also, in that at times the use of these effects takes away from some of the terrific tension previously achieved by the film in numerous sequences. It’s a small criticism but the use of more practical effects, whilst maybe limiting the scale of the production, could have benefited the picture overall. Nonetheless, Skarsgård is a superbly sinister presence throughout the proceedings and many of the films most chilling moments come from his performance alone, not requiring any of the movie magic that is added afterwards. His performance is one of the genres best in terms of horror antagonists and he’s successfully left his mark on this twisted corner of cinema history.
This is also true for Muschietti who has delivered one of the strongest two part horror stories the big screen has ever seen. Remaking an already classic adaptation of Stephen King’s famous novel, ‘It Chapter Two’ successfully crafts a narrative showcasing a dual portrayal of captivating characters whilst unleashing its fun-house of frights to keep audiences palms sweating and nerves shredded. There’s no clowning around here as this concluding chapter secures this two part film its rightful place in the horror hall of fame.
Written by Hamish Calvert
STAR RATING –★★★★
Question: What is your favourite horror sequel?
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Thanks to Movie House Cinemas for screening access
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