It Chapter Two

Rating: 8/10 (15 September 2019)

The original 2017 It was a fantastic adaptation of the Stephen King novel, much slicker than the 1990 TV-made Tim Curry movie, and it became the highest-grossing horror movie of all time. The first film ended with the words "It Chapter One", so naturally a sequel would follow, which also served as the conclusion to the story, directed by Andy Muschietti (Mama). Basically, in 2016 Derry, Maine, Adrian Mellon (Xavier Dolan) and his boyfriend Don Hagarty (Taylor Frey) are attacked by a group of homophobic youths. Adrian is then thrown from a bridge, suddenly Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård, Stellan's son) appears at the side of the river, Don watches helplessly as the demon kills Adrian. A grown-up Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa), now a librarian, overhears the incident on a police scanner and rushes to the scene. Mike realises that "It" was not defeated and has resurfaced, so he calls the other members of the Losers Club back to Derry. Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) is a successful mystery novelist in Los Angeles and is married to a English actress Audra (Jess Weixler), Ben Hanscom (Jay Ryan), formerly overweight, is fit and a successful architect living in Nebraska, Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain), now Rogan, is a successful fashion designer in Chicago and endures an abusive marriage to husband Tom (Will Beinbrink), Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) a successful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) is a successful risk assessor living in New York City and is married to Myra (Molly Atkinson), and Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) is a firm accountant in Atlanta, Georgia and married to teacher Patty Blum (Martha Girvin). Most are amnesiac about their childhoods and disturbed by the calls but agree to return. Stanley, however, commits suicide after his call. The Losers reunite at a local restaurant and slowly begin to recover their memories, but are terrified by disturbing visions of fortune cookies coming to life or containing hideous creatures, created by It. The group is then informed of Stanley's suicide. Richie and Eddie decide to leave while Mike tells Bill about meeting a Native American tribe who showed him a vision of It arriving to Earth from the stars, and about the Ritual of Chüd, a way of destroying It once and for all. Bill and Mike convince Richie and Eddie to stay and finish what was started, reminding them of the blood oath they made as children. It is revealed that bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) survived the fall down the well, he was arrested by police. Since then Henry Bowers (Teach Grant) has been confined to a mental hospital, but he escapes, with the help of It, and makes his way to Derry to find and kill the Losers. For the ritual to work, each Loser must have an artefact from their past. Beverly goes to her old home and finds the love letter Ben wrote for her, though she still believes Bill wrote it. Bill goes to the storm drain where his brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) was killed and recovers Georgie's paper boat before meeting a boy named Dean (Luke Roessler) who says he hears the voices of children and sees a clown. Ben goes to the town's high school and, he realises that his artefact is his old yearbook page, which Beverly was the only person to sign. Eddie goes to a pharmacy and recovers an inhaler. Richie goes to an abandoned arcade where he finds a game token. While finding these objects, it flashes back in time to see young Bill (Jaeden Martell), young Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), young Beverly (Sophia Lillis), young Richie (Finn Wolfhard), young Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), young Stanley (Wyatt Oleff) and young Mike (Chosen Jacobs). The flashbacks reveal other frightening encounters the Losers had with Pennywise and It's other guises, but also the happy memories they shared together. After escaping individual encounters with It, the Losers use a shower cap from their childhood clubhouse for Stanley and Mike finds the rock that started their fight against the Bowers gang ago. Bill realizes that It is going after Dean and rushes to a carnival to save him, but he helplessly watches Dean be devoured by It right in front of him in the hall of mirrors. Traumatised by his failure to save both Georgie and Dean, he returns to 29 Neibolt Street to murder It. Bowers attacks and wounds Eddie and Mike but is killed by Richie. The rest of the Losers head to the Neibolt house to help Bill. The group descends into a massive cavern beneath the sewers and complete the Ritual, throwing their artefacts into the fire inside an ancient ornament. This only summons It, unaffected by the ritual, It becomes a giant, spider-like form with Pennywise's head. Mike is pressured by It into revealing to the Losers that the Natives who attempted the Ritual in the past all perished. The Losers are then thrown into nightmarish scenarios while in the cavern, but they each escape. Richie is hypnotised and paralysed by It and is about to be killed, but Eddie saves him, being impaled by It in the process. The Losers regroup and realise It can be killed if they stand up to him and make him feel smaller, so they insult It over and over, making him physically shrink and weaken. When small enough, they are able to tear out It's heart and crush it, killing It once and for all. Eddie dies from his injuries despite Richie's attempts to save him. The remaining Losers are forced to escape, as the Neibolt House collapses to the ground. The remaining Losers return to the quarry where they once swam together. Beverly realises it was Ben who wrote the letter all along, they share a kiss and start a romantic relationship. Richie returns to the bridge where he had once carved his initials, alongside Eddie. Mike decides to move out of Derry to start a new life. The Losers all receive posthumous letters from Stanley, explaining that he believed he would have held them back, he believed his death would reunite them, and he knew they could defeat It if they were brave without him. Also starring Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter, Logan Thompson as Victor "Vic" Criss, Jake Sim as Reginald "Belch" Huggins, Peter Bogdanovich as Peter the film director and Stephen King as the Shopkeeper. Chastain, McAvoy, Hader and the others do well as the Losers Club grown up, the young actors make a welcome as their childhood counterparts, and of course Skarsgard steals the show as the disturbing nasty clown. It recreates a few of the moments from the 1990 version, the special effects are fantastic at bringing the sinister demonic images to life, I agree the ending is maybe not as dramatic as it could have been, and some complain it is too long, at almost three hours. But it uses its time well, like the first film you feel for the characters, and it draws you in, a most enjoyable supernatural horror. Very good!