The tricky second chapter.

Like a psychotic clown attack from the shadows, no one saw It coming. Although, in hindsight, we probably should’ve. Riding high on a wave of 80s nostalgia ignited by Stranger Things and fortified by the Stephen King name-brand, the stars aligned for the film to make a killing – and it duly obliged.

Raking in $700 million on a $35 million budget, It was a runaway success, topping The Sixth Sense to become the highest earning horror movie of all time in the process, something beyond even the most optimistic studio accountant’s wildest dreams. However, that freak level of success brings with it inevitable consequences.

I mean, how on Earth do you follow up that level of unprecedented success? The pressure to recapture the first film’s lightening in a bottle would’ve surely been immense for Andy Muschietti, but the director doesn’t strike me as a man to shirk a fight and while I’m sure the nagging fear of failure will have been somewhere in the back of his mind, he clearly relishes this opportunity to roll up his sleeves to go one more round with Pennywise.

Twenty-seven years after he was defeated by the Losers Club, the demonic clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) is back to terrorise the town of Derry once more. Now grown up, the Losers have long since gone their separate ways, but with the children of Derry disappearing again, Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) – the only member of the gang still living in the town – calls the gang back together. With the memory and trauma of those fateful events twenty-seven years ago gradually returning, Beverley (Jessica Chastain), Bill (James McAvoy) and the rest of the Losers must face down their deepest, darkest fears to take down Pennywise once and for all.

The back half of Stephen King’s epic 1,138-page novel is a tricky beast for any adaptation to pull off. The 1990 Tim Curry-starring miniseries struggled to get to grips with the adult incarnation of the Losers Club and after the incredible success of It, this sequel suffers the same fate.

With the charm of the story’s coming-of-age section now gone and without the shock value of Pennywise to fall back on, the two-part series falters at the final hurdle, ultimately echoing the film’s recurring joke that Bill – now a Stephen King-esque novelist – just can’t write a good ending, as Chapter Two likewise fails to stick its landing.

Save for a stream of flashbacks, Chapter Two doesn’t have the crutch of nostalgia to rely upon as it struggles to conjure the warmth and heart that made the first film such a success. There are certainly flickers of life here and there as the adult cast banter and squabble like old times, yet the nostalgic Stand by Me aura that kept It ticking has all but vanished now that the Losers have grown up.

Of course, no film can get by on nostalgia alone, but while It backed itself up with the creeping dread of Pennywise and a lean, mean, and efficient narrative, Chapter Two’s plot and pacing feel like a huge backwards step.

Bloated, repetitive, and inconsistent, the film’s narrative finds itself going over old ground as it quickly gets caught in a rinse and repeat cycle with a laborious structure that not only retraces the steps of the first film but all too easily falls into a loop of predictable horror clichés for much of its drawn out running time.

With the Losers back together and Pennywise closing in on them once again, each member of the group must endure their own personal demons in a manner taken almost verbatim from the first film. It’s an extended sequence of scenes that play out like a stuck record and while they’re a welcome opportunity to delve a little deeper into the mind-set of each character, the stop-start approach throws the entire movie off its rhythm.

While the film’s first act should be working hard to ramp up the terror and anticipation, the over reliance on predictable horror plotting and easily flagged scares in these early scenes becomes dull, fast. Although the narrative sticks admirably to the source material, the result is a stumbling second act that sucks all the momentum and purpose out of the film.

Around all this, however, there are some admittedly touching moments as characters are forced to come face-to-face with past traumas and the script travels to some exceptionally dark places. In particular, we delve deeper into Bev’s abusive relationship with her father, Bill’s guilt regarding his brother’s death, Richie’s unresolved sexuality, and Eddie’s debilitating fears.

Much like the first film, Chapter Two isn’t afraid to follow Stephen King’s book down some particularly dark thematic avenues, something you can’t help but admire, especially with subjects that many other big studio blockbusters would steer well clear from. Unfortunately, this only makes the execution all the more disappointing, as bog-standard jump-scares, uneven pacing, and jarring humour undermine the admirable intent.

Feeling like little more than a loose collection of disparate scenes at times, Chapter Two’s plot is so choppy and badly thought out you’ll often struggle to follow it. The book’s infamous homophobic attack opens the film, yet makes no sense in the context of the rest of the narrative and is oddly never mentioned again, while the bizarre reappearance of the unhinged Henry Bowers may have worked on paper but feels absolutely ridiculous on screen.

With Chapter Two entering its finale, some well-earned emotional beats are hit as past and present merge together and parallels are drawn between the film’s two distinct eras. There’s certainly an air of staleness to the way Chapter Two plays out but it’s hard not to feel something as we see the gang come together like old times, culminating in a genuinely touching moment of reflection at the last.

The finale, like much of the film, however, is marred by a disappointing overreliance on CGI. In and of itself, CGI is no bad thing and It certainly had its fair share, yet Chapter Two falls into the age-old sequel trap of scale and budget bloat as it stuffs itself full of needless, overblown effects that do little but drain the film of the heart that served its predecessor so well.

Consequently, the horror rarely lands, particularly as the computer-generated theatrics in the film’s third act become increasingly overblown. As a stream of generic haunted house monsters fly across the screen, the film crawls further and further away from its horror roots and into the realm of all-out action, a move that doesn’t mesh well with the charming, low-key approach of the first film.

However, Chapter Two’s saving grace comes in the demonic shape of Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise, whose full-blooded performance injects a welcome physicality just as the entire film threatens to float off entirely. Ultimately, not even Pennywise can escape the CGI curse, but, around those moments, Skarsgård owns the screen as he throws himself into the role with reckless abandon, once again proving that he has what it takes to fill Tim Curry’s rather large clown shoes.

Around him, the cast are largely excellent, with everyone slipping into their grown-up Loser roles perfectly. It’s not an easy task to fill adult versions of young actors, especially when their roles have become so iconic, yet credit must go to the film’s casting department as each member of the ensemble not only looks like their younger counterpart but feels like they’ve been part of the gang for years.

After the barnstorming success of its predecessor, the temptation to stuff Chapter Two full of bankable stars must have been strong, however, despite big names like Jessica Chastain and James McAvoy in attendance, each member of the Losers Club has been cast with a character-first approach, resulting in an admirably organic air. Of these, the clear standout is Bill Hader as Richie, who absolutely steals the show (even if his wisecracking undermines much of the film’s horror), followed closely by James Ransone’s Eddie, whose appearance will bring back fond memories for any fan of The Wire season 2.

Behind them, Andy Muschietti works hard to evoke the same spirit that brought the first film its success, yet something is quite clearly missing from the mix. With It and Mama previously, Muschietti has proven himself an inspired director of kids but perhaps that magic just doesn’t translate itself to a largely adult cast; and while he absolutely deserved the chance to follow up on the first film’s achievements, something just doesn’t feel right this time around.

At its best, Chapter Two looks fantastic, with an assured style and bursts of visual flair that flow seamlessly from its predecessor, yet, distracted by the desperate desire to scale everything up, the warmth and heart has ebbed away. It’s a huge shame, as Muschietti is an undoubtedly talented filmmaker and a clear student of horror, however, the pressure to impress has got to him and thrown the entire film off kilter as a result.

Undermined by overblown CGI, repetitive pacing, and a needlessly long runtime, It: Chapter Two fails to live up to the high standards of the first film. When kept low-key, the visuals and atmosphere are solid, yet the film all too easily falls into the same trap as many a sequel before it, with a desperation to ramp up both action and comedy causing it to lose touch with its predecessor’s heart. Despite some touching moments and standout performances from the Bills Skarsgård and Hader, Chapter Two just cannot overcome its inconsistent script and sloppy structure as it sinks down the drain without a trace.