It : Chapter 2

It : Chapter 2 opens with two gay men walking away from a carnival after being on the receiving end of a homophobic insult. The bigots follow them and on a darkened bridge brutally assault them both while spewing invective and then throw one of them over the edge into the river below. It's an incident that's sadly still replayed on a daily basis in towns and cities all over the world. A terrifying moment of brutal realism that puts the supernatural scares that come later in the ha'penny place. It sets the tone for a darker, harsher sequel that doesn't live up to the success of it's predecessor but it comes pretty close.

2016. 27 years after the events of 1989. Pennywise the clown is back and the children of Derry, Maine are in mortal danger. Mike Hanlon sets out of bring the Loser gang back to where it all began. At the end of the 80's they banded together and defeated evil and now they'll have to do it all again. Their memories of that fateful day have faded but as Richie, Bev, Bill, Ben and Eddie come home everything rushes back at them. Life has been good to some and bad to others and it's going to take every ounce of strength they have to defeat the source of their worst nightmares.

It : Chapter 2 is 169 minutes long. It's a ridiculously overindulgent running time considering it's the second part of a story and if you've seen the 1990 mini-series you'll know exactly how it's going to play out despite all the padding. But it's so successful in it's casting that you'll be very willing to forgive it's longueurs. The younger cast from the first film appears in flashback through but this time around it's the adults in charge and they all hit the nail on the head. Jessica Chastain (Bev), James Ransone (Eddie), Bill Hader (Richie) sink into their parts effortlessly. The physical resemblances are good but they just become the characters from the first movie except a bit more decrepit.... well not Jessica of course.

And because they become characters we've already met you actually give a shit about them and that, for me, is one of the keys to a successful horror movie. They aren't just fodder for the Pennywise grinder. You feel bad when they get hurt, you feel scared when they are facing something horrifying. You don't want them to die and the tension is mighty when you think they will. It : Chapter 2 is laced with tense scenes but not many scary ones. It still carries that sense of creeping dread from the first film but lacks the all out scary vibe it had and it's successful jump scares are few and far between. There's nothing here like the home projector moment in the first movie but one small nod to a very famous John Carpenter film works like gangbusters and will freak out the more arachnophobic amongst us. (Like me!)

That running time though. It's going to be an issue for a lot of people. The opening third motors along. The gang arrive and meet up in a great scene and then the filler starts to appear. There's stuff in the middle and especially the last third that should never have made it past the editor's scissors. Visits to old ladies. The Henry Bowers subplot that totally fizzles out. Watery basements. Interminable headbutting. Moments designed to scare but that really add nothing but repetition and more running time. It's annoying. Had director Andy Muschietti been stricter with himself he could have turned out a film almost the equal of his first entry into Stephen King land (King himself has a fun cameo too btw) because the first film's themes of alienation, childhood terror and social rot are still present and that's why, along with the cast, it's successful despite it's length. The monsters in the best horror movies were always a proxy for the real life horrors of the day and that's what Pennywise really is. He's homophobia, he's racism, he's hate, he's intolerance, he's everything wrong with the modern world wrapped up in a manky red wig and a load of make up.

I've seen 5 star reviews for this and I've seen 1 star reviews. Can't agree with either. I'd place it on the higher side of 3 stars. It's not as good and definitely not as scary as the first entry but a magnificent cast and a nicely maintained sense of disquiet turn it into a solid watch.