It Chapter 2 Movie Review: Scares and Laughs Galore, The Losers Club's Final Battle With Pennywise Is Worth It

The much-awaited horror film, It Chapter 2, is running in theatres now. The movie is the sequel to 2017's It, which was one of the rare good movie-adaptations of Stephen King's works. It will still take me time to get over the absurdity that was Pet Sematary. It  Chapter 2, focusing on Pennywise's haunting of Derry, picks up 27 years after the events of the first film. The seven kids of the Losers' Club are now in their mid-30s and a couple of them turned out to be hot, a joke that the movie makes full use of. It Chapter 2 has children from the first film, plus their grown-up counterparts are played by A-listers like Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James McAvoy etc. It: Chapter 2: Pennywise the Clown Is Here to Scare The Daylights Out Of You! (Watch Video).

Truth be told, It Chapter 2  is enjoyable but the charm of the first film was tough to follow up with. We get plenty of scary moments that will make you squirm. In fact, the moments are so many, that near the end of the film, I developed a stomach for it. As Priyanka Chopra said in her fim, Mary Kom, "Kisi ko itna mat darao ki dar khatam ho jaye." The VFX is top-notch and elevates the film. The visual effects also help the movie ditch the horror-movie tropes and just revel in the outlandish, terrifying, elaborate set pieces. The best thing about It Chapter 2 is that the horror scenes don't creep up on you slowly. They are on the nose. The demon is right there in front of you, in its full glory, kill it or make a run for it. There are a few scenes that could be best described as - if Inception was a horror film.

The first film wasn't solely about the terror spread by the evil dancing-clown, played by Bill Skarsgård. Subtly, but it was also about the horrors of sexual abuse, racism, and bullying. It Chapter 2, thankfully, maintains the tone and talks about homophobia, domestic abuse, and, of course, childhood trauma. The major theme in the film is that you don't absolutely outgrow what you were as a kid. You keep running into the same problems as an adult as you did as a kid until you face your demons head-on. Beverly Marsh gets out of the clutches of her father's abuse but ends up marrying a very similar douchebag. Same goes for hypochondriac Eddie. Ben Hanscom, though now hot, is still a fat kid inside. The makers successfully mask the lack of character development in the comfort of this familiarity of the characters.

The only character we actually see a new side of is Richie Tozier, played incredibly well by Bill Hader. He has been hiding a secret with his offensive humour all this while. The themes of inner-battle are handled well by the film. Also, Bill is an absolute delight on the screen in a remarkable performance.

The Losers' Club, in the present, only has a hazy memory of what had happened in the past. The more you go away from Derry, the more you lose of your memory, the film explains. There are many similar chapters of 'It' mythology that are explored in the film but all does not settle well. But the director, Andy Muschietti, and, the writer, Gary Dauberman, did not have much of an option since the source material, the book by King, is so heavy itself. While romancing with the mythology,  makers end up making the film look quite childish, especially in the final act. Ironic, that the first film with primarily child actors looked less childish than this one.

Speaking of the kids, we get to meet them again. In fact, the majority of the horror set-pieces are still around them in the flashbacks. But there lies the main problem. The transition from flashback to present is not seamless. I was left confused about the timelines of these horror scenes. Where exactly did they take place in the first movie's narrative? Also, unnecessary new kids are added to the plot to be killed, because, of course, the main cast is too sacred to be gunned off before the climax. Take a lesson or two from Game of Thrones? Kill your main characters!

Along with plenty of scares, It Chapter 2 also dishes out plenty of laughs winning brownie points for that. I think horror and humour are somewhere very close to each other on the spectrum. It is so easy to end up laughing at a horror film unintentionally (or horrified by a comedy film). But the humour in this film is self-aware and well-executed. Jokes come at the right places much like in the superhero movies in the MCU.

Yay

-Bill Hader is the king of the Losers' Club, no arguments!

-Jessica Chastain hits home

-In fact, the casting is brilliant. As if the kids in the first part have actually grown up to play the roles

-VFX helps in bringing some never-seen-before horror scenes to life

Nay

- The movie is so long that being eaten by a clown doesn't seem like a bad idea

- The convoluted mythology makes it look kiddish

Final Thoughts

It Chapter 2 manages to squeeze every possible horror scene into one film. You might find it tiresome, you might find it roller coaster ride of horror.  It is a bit lengthy. The set-pieces are elaborate and well pulled off with VFX. It Chapter 2 has some of the best laughs and scares in a horror movie since 2017. Keep your expectations in check, and you'd definitely enjoy this absolutely bonkers of a horror film.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 06, 2019 01:54 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).