That timespan gives Muscietti’s “Chapter Two”
some deeper meanings to play with: how many
of our darkest fears don’t change so much from
childhood, how the brutalities of life bring new
horrors, how fun it is to imagine Finn Wolfhard
growing up to be Bill Hader.
Made with the same visual flair as the first
movie by Muschietti, “It Chapter Two” is
likewise a big-screen funhouse full of vivid
setpiece thrills animated by each character’s
fears. Some are better than others but they are
consistently imaginative. In one, a giant Paul
Bunyan statue turns menacing and careens
through the town square.
It’s stuff like this, I think, that made “It” such a
sensation and “Chapter Two” such a satisfying,
if overstuffed, sequel. It has less to do with the
scary clown and more to do with its maximalist
nightmares. Hallucinatory but familiar
visions come alive. One ill-advised peek into
Pennywise’s sewer, in a scene worthy of Dali,
culminates in a swarming hive of hands clawing
at the interloper.
Time has done some funny things to the Losers
Club. Richie Tozier (Hader) is now a stand-up
comic. Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy; Jaeden
Martell as a boy) is novelist whose book is
being adapted into a movie. Beverly Harsh
(Jessica Chastain; Sophia Lillis as a girl), having
been abused as a child by her father, has fallen
into an abusive marriage. Eddie Kaspbrak
(James Ransone; Jack Dylan Grazer as a kid)
is a successful New York businessman. Ben
Hanscom (Jay Ryan; Jeremy Ray Taylor as a boy),
overweight as a youngster, has somehow hit the
jackpot. He’s thin, handsome and an architect.