The Failure of "It Chapter 2"

"It Chapter 2" is a hard sequel to make. Whether it’s the cosmic, trippy, and highly R-rated conclusion of the original novel by Stephen King, or the goofy giant spider person taking center stage in the second half of the 1990 miniseries, there’s a clear trend that while the first part of “It” may be memorable and iconic, the second part almost always ends up being confusing and convoluted. I hoped that, with such a great first installment, this newer version of “It” (2017) would be able to break this pattern. Sadly, it does not. While "It 2" is by no means a bad movie, it fails in almost every way to live up to its excellent predecessor, as well as being unable to really work as horror.

The sequel starts off 27 years after the first film, with our group of protagonists, the self-proclaimed “Losers Club,” returning to their hometown of Derry, Maine. Now adults, the Losers have all moved on with their lives and have forgotten the events of the first chapter of their story because of Derry’s strange mystical properties. The only exception to this is Mike, played by Isaiah Mustafa, who has stayed in Derry and investigated Pennywise for his entire adult life. When children start disappearing again, Mike reassembles the Losers Club to fight and kill Pennywise one final time.

The movie undoubtedly starts strong. The reunion of these long lost friends is a genuinely touching moment, largely due to the excellent cast. Much like the first “It,” which was able to carefully walk the line between horror movie and teen summer comedy with its well written and likable characters, "It 2"’s ensemble features talented actors, brilliantly casted to be almost indistinguishable from their younger versions (who are still present in the form of a large number of flashbacks). Two standouts are Bill Hader, as Richie, and James Ransone, as Eddie, with this duo providing most of the much-needed comic relief throughout the film’s 169-minute runtime. Of course, Bill Skarsgård also returns as the iconic Pennywise, maintaining his terrifyingness despite being underutilized in far less-effective special effects. However, once one looks past the charm of the protagonists and the first scene, it seems as though “It 2" doesn’t really have much more to offer.

After the first few scenes where all of our characters reunite, the movie quickly devolves into a long sequence of not-very-scary horror scenes. The film is quick to come up with a reason to separate the Losers Club, breaking apart the group to make room for scenes meant to scare. However, in doing this, the movie loses many chances for the character interactions that form most of its more memorable and enjoyable parts. This is only made worse by the fact that the pacing skids to a halt in the second act. At almost three hours, "It 2" seems bloated and quickly starts to feel repetitive, as the script tries to shoehorn as many “horror” scenes as possible before its action movie finale. Most of the horror scenes in Chapter 2 play out exactly the same. A character is alone and Pennywise attacks, only for them to escape completely unhurt and generally unaffected. The entire core of this film consists of an hour of what feels like the same set piece played on loop, making the whole movie feel stretched out, as well as really boring at times.

Despite this, "It 2" does have some good ideas. Its frequent use of the characters’ experiences as children to shape their fears in adulthood, whether it be Bill’s guilt over his brother’s death in “It” part one or Beverly still coping with her abusive father, is clever and connects halves of the “It” saga in both theme and substance. This kind of writing is well done, and truly makes the characters feel real, despite being sadly overshadowed by the film’s many structural issues.

Finally, we come to the most egregious failure of “It 2”: it just isn’t very scary. This isn’t to say that the more a horror movie scares you the better it is, but when half of a film exists exclusively to terrify, one would hope that it could deliver to some measure. There are many factors that contribute to this lack of horror. It certainly doesn’t help the film that “It” insists on using CGI and weird monsters in most scenes instead of Bill Skarsgård’s infinitely more horrifying clown. But many other reasons are beyond the filmmakers’ control. It’s not their fault that the main characters are now adults instead of children; that’s just how “It” was written. Still, it’s a lot less frightening to see Pennywise trying to trick fully grown men and women. Not only did the physical size difference between Skarsgård and the younger actors make him more intimidating, but the adult Losers Club also seems far too competent at outwitting the clown for audiences to ever really fear for them.

It’s also not the filmmakers’ fault that most audiences have already seen so much of Pennywise to the point where the repetitive nature of the scares in this movie definitely makes him feel more trivial. The film makes Pennywise feel more like a nuisance to the characters as they travel around Derry doing whatever menial chore the plot has cooked up. The audience is left wondering: “Well he couldn’t kill them before; why would he be able to now?” Compared to the first movie, where Pennywise seemed like a real and ever-looming threat who could snatch any of the protagonists at any time, "It Chapter 2" paints the clown as more of a monster to be slain. Without the mystery or fear, all that’s left in Pennywise is a villain with vague weakness and seemingly infinite cosmic powers who can’t kill a small group of very normal heroes because they can outrun him when he shows up to eat them. Even in the spirit of action movies, Pennywise turns into a massive computer-generated monstrosity for the final confrontation.

There is a running joke throughout the film that Bill Denbrough, one of the Losers and the protagonist of this story, is a writer unable to write a good ending, likely in reference to Stephen King’s own poorly done endings in many of his own books, including “It.” While "It Chapter 2" manages to avoid the dreamlike and confusing endings common in King’s novels, it still falls flat, especially when compared to its outstanding previous installment. Despite a talented cast and great character writing, we end up with a shockingly average movie that fails by any metrics of the horror genre.