A solid follow-up to the original that continues the streak of excellent adaptations of King's work

Rating: 9/10 (5 September 2019)

IT Chapter Two is the sequel to the 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel of the same name. Starring Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Isaiah Mustafa, and Bill Skarsgård, it is a solid follow-up to the original that continues the streak of excellent adaptations of King's work.
Twenty-seven years after the events of Chapter One, the Loser's Club have all grown up and left the town of Derry, Maine, with the sole exception of Mike (Isaiah Mustafa), who chose to remain as the town librarian. One night, Mike realises to his horror that IT has returned and has resumed feeding on scared children. Before IT can claim more victims, Mike calls up his childhood friends one by one to reunite them and fulfill the vow they took when they were younger to destroy IT permanently.
Much like its predecessor, IT Chapter Two relies on scaring the audience through building up a creepy atmosphere of uncertainty and inner torment within the main characters, rather than with typical jumpscares. In spite of that, this film was considerably more drama heavy with less horror elements, likely due to the previous film featuring children a great deal more and the protagonists now being mature adults. The grown-up Loser's Club cast in this film each do a fantastic job mirroring their child counterparts. All of them bring their own uniqueness to their characters, with Bill Hader standing out the most as the grown up Richie, who injects some much needed comic relief into some of the film's more dramatic moments. However, once again, it is Bill Skarsgård as IT, in particularly his clown form Pennywise, who is truly terrifying as a supernatural force to be reckoned with. Despite the 170 minute runtime, the film is never boring and is brilliantly paced and edited thanks to the creative direction of Andy Muschietti. This really does feels like the conclusion to what could be considered the ultimate Stephen King adaptation, complete with all of the usual tropes and even some surprising references to his other work. With that said, IT Chapter Two is certainly worth watching, provided Chapter One has been viewed first of course.
I rate it 8.5/10