Starring Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Jay Ryan, Isaiah Mustafa, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Bill Skarsgård

Directed by Andrés Muschietti

Warner Bros., out September 6

[Some mild spoilers]

IT Chapter Two feels like the difficult second album. You go in with high expectations, get them knocked down and it’s only on closer review you see flashes of the brilliance that you loved from your first encounter.

There is good stuff here, but the whole thing hangs together way too loosely, which is infuriating given the promise of Chapter One.

There are various reasons for this. Writer Gary Dauberman has painted himself into something of a corner with his approach both to Chapter One and what he sets out to do in Chapter Two. A lot of basic exposition about the monster’s history in Derry that Mike tells the adult losers in the book, has already been given to Ben Hanscom in Chapter One, leaving Mike the lousy task of being exposition central in a hamfisted 5 minutes in the first act of the movie. It’s super frustrating to see his agency be replaced by mania, and his story shunted to the side again.

Dauberman wisely trims a lot of the fat from King’s novel, so all of the supporting characters are given extremely short shrift and we learn remarkably little from the Losers’ adult lives. This affects Mike and Bev the worst. Jessica Chastain is reduced to the role of a sexy lamp that cries prettily. Beverley Marsh deserves better, hell Chastain deserves better – she’s wasted in a role that was a fan caster’s dream.

Jay Ryan is fine as Hanscom, Isaiah Mustafa as Mike does the best he can with the scraps he has, whilst James McAvoy is almost narcoleptic through the whole movie. What lifts the film beyond character tedium are the exceptional, believable and enjoyable performances from Bill Hader as Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier, and James Ransone as Eddie. Not only do both characters feel way more rounded than the others, but their relationship feels the most real, the most obviously transposed from their childhood. Bill Skarsgård is great again as Pennywise, but this time around feels very much a shadow of Tim Curry’s way more quotable and entertaining monster.

What the film lacks in character driven development, it makes up for in the set pieces. All of the creatures are excellent, as is the production design. Full of kinetic energy, the horrifying attack on Adrian Mellon, the Chinese restaurant, Paul Bunyan, Mrs Hersh, and the final battle with the monster are all wonderfully done.

But ultimately, this is a rollercoaster, not a haunted house, lots of flailing and screaming, but very little terror, disquiet or grit. The film never reaches the heights of the 80s horror films that it nods to from time to time.

Verdict: Neither as scary nor as disquieting as the first film, but there is a lot for old school horror nerds to appreciate. 7/10

Sarah Carter