Wanna play a game of Tag, You're It?

Rating: 7/10 (15 September 2019)

Gary Dauberman, as Screenwriter, has done a tremendous job of reworking and revitalising Mr. King's novella of a very naughty clown that comes out to play once in every twenty-seven years. This, being the second instalment of a double-bill, with the first chapter being released in 2017, but, both here is an amalgamation of the exceedingly atmospheric television movie (1990) of the same name.
It Chapter Two starts off twenty-seven years hence when our miniature heroes are fully grown-up and each having spread their collective wings and fled the roost that is small-town Derry, Maine, USA. Except one. The one, that is, recalling, reclaiming the flock to honour the oath that was once committed to each other twenty-seven years previously.
It Chapter Two has the best of both worlds, a schism if you will, in this, we see, more than simply a telling of the horror genre. We see horror in many aspects here, as expected, but what is interesting is that we see, also, melodrama, nostalgia, responsibility, reflection, guilt and deeper, more concerning adult themes of forbidden love, bigotry, sexual phobia, sexual repression and suicide and all within a strong context of friendship, honour, loyalty that builds into a framework of parallel worlds of the horrifying Pennywise and the bonds that were the young children of twenty-seven years back to concatenating old memories and events from the middle-aged adults.
What, too, exemplifies the charged atmosphere is the wonderful work from Checco Varese (cinematography) and all involved with Direction from Andy Muschietti to the many that gives here a more than spellbinding array of visual delight and astonishment. This is simply a gripping visual display of imagination and fortitude bringing together good & evil within one single conceptual chef-d'oeuvre.
With the illustrious Mr. Hader, the charismatic Mr. McAvoy to the distinguished Ms. Chastain at the forefront there is a significantly strong cast that bounces off each other projecting charisma that gives the film a wider sense of personality that examines the element of both youthful and older cast together. While we see the charm of Mr. Skarsgård and his goading of the main players, it is all here, and their respective parts that are more than the foundations holding this piece together.
It Chapter Two is no circus. This is all out, all unforgiving horror, on many levels, and within its fabric there lies a clown and its prey, once more: all grown up.