Identity Crisis

Rating: 2/10 (7 September 2019)

This movie is extremely chaotic in the worst of ways. It struggles to find an identity throughout the entirety of the movie. There are brief subplots of romance and numerous comedic scenes that completely detract from the horror film experience. None of the comedy is good enough to classify the movie as comedy, and the romantic subplots are never fully fleshed out, leaving horror as the only moderately consistent characteristic of the movie. Despite this, the horror is superficial, relying on occasional jump scares and scary effects to evoke fear. This stands in stark contrast to It (2017) which has an underlying sense of dread throughout the movie, in addition to the standard horror scares. It (2017) develops a mysterious lore surrounding the events of the film that keeps audience members invested while evoking suspense. It Chapter Two attempts to provide resolution to the events of the first movie in an extremely convoluted way, with ridiculous details that remove any sense of immersion in the film. It Chapter Two is far too reliant on the events of the first movie, leading to a convoluted mess that attempts to achieve the feeling of the first movie, with the end result being something that feels like a satirical knock off of the first movie. The only reason this movie gets 2 stars as opposed to 1 is the fact that some of the effects were cool looking.