I appear to have an odd relationship with these It movies, at least in relation to how they seem to resonate with others. I’m largely indifferent to the first film, enjoying it almost exclusively due to the charm of its young cast. As a horror film, I found the scares repetitive, and its exploration of trauma and childhood anxieties to be a bit underwhelming. And yet weirdly enough, I came out of the follow up, It Chapter Two, having enjoyed it immensely; far more than the first one, despite the flaws that it both shares with the first and the ones that only apply to this.
I don’t have any history with the Stephen King book, I’m only taking these films on its own terms, through the vision brought to the screen by returning writer, Gary Dauberman, and director, Andy Muschietti. While the two films are most definitely distinct, they are very much meant to be experienced as a pair, as opposed to a standalone.
The film takes place 27 years after the events of the first film, where we find Derry, Maine being terrorized by Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) once again. The Losers Club – consisting of Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), Bill (James McAvoy), Bev (Jessica Chastain), Ben (Jay Ryan), and Richie (Bill Hader) – reunite to take him down once and for all. During this, we occasionally flashback to their childhoods back in 1989 to offer further context.
I didn’t find the first film particularly scary, and a lot of my issues with that still applies here. The scares can get repetitive in the sense that a sequence will begin, and it starts to build up, which is typically great, but the final payoff is almost always Pennywise running towards the camera and screaming, followed by a loud musical sting. Chapter Two suffers from this as well, but I can at least say that the filmmakers did try to do more interesting things in suspense building, and with some of the scary monster designs, to where it didn’t feel quite as monotonous. In fact, the horror on this takes on a far more whimsical note compared to the first, which I thought was a nice touch.
The humor is also an element that returns here. At times, it does border on ruining a well done dramatic beat, but it is still rooted in character, and most of the jokes did end up landing for me. And it’s not just from Hader, who is wonderful here, but many members of the cast get to have a moment of levity that keeps you on your toes.
But aside from being funny, the two things that caught me off guard about this movie was how weird it was, and how earnestly sentimental it was. Having not read the book, I don’t know to expect, aside from whatever I picked up through cultural osmosis rooted in the 1990 miniseries. This film takes some mighty big swings compared to the first, in story elements and stylistic flourishes. The filmmaking just feels more adventurous, more confident, more willing to experiment with look, tone, and emotion. At a point, it no longer feels like just a horror film, but some mythic fantasy epic, and it made for a very compelling watch. It even plays its emotional beats just as big as the scares. On paper, much of the dialogue would read like an old-fashioned melodrama, but there is a charm to it, and it helps having a uniformly excellent cast of actors like this who can take these nakedly sentimental gestures, and give them a feeling of truth and resonance, which I found moving.
However, as much as I enjoyed this, especially compared to the first, it is a more flawed film. While the first felt generic at times, it was still very efficient and focused at what it was doing. Chapter Two, on the other hand, didn’t necessarily need to be nearly three hours long. It doesn’t have the best flow from scene to scene, and some of the flashbacks didn’t feel remotely necessary. I would even go as far as to say that those scenes with the young cast were sometimes awkward and didn’t capture the spark they had in their own film. And it is a little disappointing to see the older cast be kept separated for large chunks of the movie, since the group dynamic was such a big part of why the first film worked so well.
It Chapter Two is by all accounts a flawed film, even more so than the much beloved predecessor. However, it worked for me far more than I anticipated. It’s a bonkers film than takes all the odd and hokey impulses of the first film, and heightens them to glorious extremes. Does it all work? Probably not, but is it consistently fascinating to watch unfold? Absolutely! Andy Muschietti’s prowess as a horror filmmaker continues to be rock solid (I recently saw his debut, Mama, and was very impressed), especially in the way he constructs spooky setpieces. It’s just so rare to see a hard R studio horror film with a big budget these days, and it’s even rarer to see one that takes as many bold, ambitious swings as this. Whether this remains true to the spirit of Stephen King’s book, I don’t know, but it sure made for one hell of a ride.