IT Chapter 2. Movie Review

I’m not a huge horror watcher but I really enjoyed the first IT (as someone who hasn’t read the novel.) Strong sense of place, good performances,effective threat and good banter between the kids made it one of the biggest surprises of 2017 for me. Thus I was excited for Chapter 2 even if the adult side of the story is notorious for not being as good. The very middling reviews and the 170 minutes time put me off until a couple of weeks after release. How did Chapter 2 turn out.
Honestly,Chapter 2 sucks and it’s a real shame. I have to give it points for some of the performances and one effective set piece (James McAvoy in the hall of mirrors) but aside from Bill Skarsgard everything that made the first film such a surprise has gone. In its place is a boring and bloated mess. It honestly feels like they released a directors/fan cut as the theatrical version. We know this isn’t the case because director Andy Muschietti is working on a supercut of both films together but whether this sees the light of day remains a question. This is not even touching the horror elements. The horror in the first film wasn’t great but the first film might as well be the scariest film of all time compared to this. The film has some of the most poorly executed jumpscares I’ve ever seen. Two of them are on the verge of so bad it’s hilarious. It’s everything wrong with jump scare horror in a 170 minute package.
The film is a borderline disaster on pretty much all levels outside of the performances. All the good will the first film built up in me as a viewer had gone about 40 minutes in. I’d be willing to see how the film plays as part of that previously mentioned supercat if it ever gets released and Skarsgard is so good as Pennywise that I’d be willing to watch a third film if it was just him terrorising people but this would be under significantly diminished expectations.
4/10