Stephen King is one of the most well-known authors of our generation. We know him for his strange creatures, cosmic ideas, and his twisted stories that keep us from sleeping at night. Simply put: his books can be weird. However, weirdness can only go so far if not executed properly, and that’s why It: Chapter One was a delightful surprise. Instead of allowing the extraordinariness of a King story dominate the film, It: Chapter One is surprisingly grounded, allowing the horror to come out of its themes to help us better understand and relate to the ideas of fear, isolation, and growing up. However, instead of continuing the trend that It: Chapter One created, It: Chapter Two runs in the opposite direction, and significantly deters you because of it.
Twenty-seven years after the events of It: Chapter One, Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) has come back to terrorize the citizens of Derry. However, the original Loser’s Club has long left, with the exception of Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), who continues to find ways to defeat Pennywise once and for all. When Pennywise decides to come back, Mike tries to get the gang back together, but because everyone has left, no one remembers the existence of Pennywise. To defeat Pennywise one last time, the Loser’s Club goes on a journey to rediscover their memories of the past and confront their fears one final time.
What is clear about It: Chapter Two is that it fully embraces the weirdness that is often seen in King’s novels. However, what is also clear is that It: Chapter Two does not know what to do with that weirdness and what results is a film that lacks any direction and just feels like a boring rehash of its predecessor but with a cosmic twist. In fact, It: Chapter Two is beat for beat the same as It: Chapter One, with the first act dedicated to exposition and the denial of Pennywise’s existence, the second act dedicated to following each individual going off to “face their fears,” and the last act dedicated to the showdown with Pennywise.
However, what made this narrative structure work in It: Chapter One was how naturally all the events fell in place with the plot and the themes. Since the main characters were children, splitting them up and having them face their fears made sense towards the story. In the exposition, we saw each child’s insecurities through the way they acted with each other and the world around them. Along with the innocence inherent in children, it primed us for what to happen next, making the lineation of events in It: Chapter One make concrete and natural. In It: Chapter Two, everything feels forced. By setting up the plot as a scavenger hunt that only makes sense to one character, everything feels done for the sake of pushing the narrative forward. It exposes each moment as just a simple plot device rather than a natural progression of thought made by the character, making the film rather predictable and bland.
Instead of continuing on the ideas of fear and the past that its predecessor laid out for them, It: Chapter Two opts to be on the nose with the themes it is trying to explore by relying on Mike’s voiceover explanations to explain what’s going on. Due to the reliance on Mike’s explanations, It: Chapter Two deems it appropriate to push every concept within the film to the extreme, making the film feel like a wall for the directors to toss ideas onto until something sticks, resulting in a movie dominated by spectacles with little direction or integrity. Even the fears of the individuals of the Loser’s Club, the central core of the franchise, get tossed aside in favor of a supernatural entity none of the characters are truly afraid of, leading the film to just be bundled with cheap scares and forced reactions from the characters’ themselves. It: Chapter Two turns moments that made its predecessor feel like a nuanced and intimate childhood story about conquering one’s fears into a giant, mainstream, and glorified jump scare that fails to land.
In the end, It: Chapter Two feels like a boring funhouse. There is no proper build-up or a space for us as an audience to properly explore the human emotions that the horror genre grants for its films. It: Chapter Two chooses style over substance, relying on overly drawn out jump scares that feel cheaper than deserved, reminding me why the horror genre has had a bad rep for years. Yes, each scare is bigger. There is more blood, more effects, and an even louder soundtrack, but none of the quantity added into the spectacle do anything but merely shock for a millisecond, leading each scare to feeling meaningless and laughable. Ultimately, the unamusing spectacles and total lack of direction of It: Chapter Two make it a three-hour bore, lacking so much in thoughtful substance that even its’ star-studded cast and bigger budget couldn’t even save it.
2/5 STARS