Director Andrés Muschietti and writer Gary Duberman return with a sequel to the first supernatural horror film, “IT”. 

Foreshadowed in the previous film, “It,” Beverly (Jessica Chastain), Richie (Bill Hader), Bill (James McAvoy), Eddie (James Ransone), Stanley (Andy Bean), and Ben (Jay Ryan) who have been able to escape the horrific hands of Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) during the summer of 1989 once again find themselves in Derry, Maine 27 years later reliving their worst nightmares of battling Pennywise, the dancing clown.

Now as adults in the newly released film, the Loser Club receives a fatal phone call from Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa), the only member that decided to stay in Derry, warning his fellow members about the resurfacing of Pennywise.

The casting for this movie was practically perfect, especially with James McAvoy as the stuttering hero, Bill Denborough. Throughout the movie, McAvoy gives many convincing and heartfelt performances as an adult version of Bill. Additionally, the comical chemistry between Richie and Eddie stole the spotlight.

The cinematography conveyed the raw emotions of the characters during scenes of hallucinations and flashbacks. The characters’ feelings of restriction, claustrophobia, and loneliness. 

The well-written humor and punchlines do not fail to make the audience at least let out a chuckle. It successfully includes light-hearted scenes with the help of Richie, played by Bill Hader, a previous stand-up comedian.

Unlike the first adaptation of “IT,” the sequel lacks the efforts of scaring a wide range of audiences. The heavy reliance on CGI in the film rather than the raw portrayal of Pennywise fails to scare the audience accurately. The jumpscares also lower in quality as the movie progresses.

The jump scares in the film followed a basic formula: a character returns to a place they remember, there’s a flashback, they collect a memento for a ritual and then they encounter Pennywise accompanied with a jumpscare before running away. The unoriginal and uncreative scenes ruin the horror aspect of the movie.

Many of the scenes try to connect to the audience on a sentimental level but are ruined by punchlines. While the jokes were funny, it destroyed the emotional sentimentality moments of the movie. This also makes the heartfelt scenes and the generic jumpscares disjointed, despite being in the same movie.

The three-hour movie lacks character development, especially for Beverly, Ben, and Mike. 

They touch on the abusive relationship Beverly had with her husband at the beginning where the latter had hit her, thinking that she was cheating on him. Ben’s character isn’t developed that much either. He only lost weight and grew enough confidence to confess to Beverly by the end of the movie. Mike also stays the same throughout most of the movie. The most he gets is when he is acting like a madman, having almost destroyed a table using a chair near the beginning and putting the losers in danger by lying to them about Pennywise. The only character that developed was Eddie. The movie progresses as Eddie takes his steps from the coward we knew him as to choking the leper that once terrorized him as a child and even giving the first stab to Pennywise that led to his downfall.

There’s just way too much crammed in this movie, and it’s reasonable if it’s not satisfying. It’s quite difficult to interpret Stephen King’s novels without changing the plot.

It did not live up to the hype set by the first movie, however, it makes a great lazy Sunday flick. It’s very entertaining and not very scary after the first handful of jumpscares. 

“IT: Chapter Two” features Jessica Chastain as Beverly Marsh, Bill Hader as Richie Tozier, James McAvoy as Bill Denborough, Jay Ryan as Ben Hanscom, James Ransome as Eddie Kaspbrak, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike Hanlon and Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise.