Once Pennywise is again on the loose and
red balloons start ominously floating through
Derry, each receives a phone call from Mike
Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa; Chosen Jacobs as a
kid), the lone Losers Club member to remain
in their Maine hometown. They return to fulfill
a blood oath sworn as kids to come back to
defeat Pennywise again, if he ever reappears.
But traveling away from Derry has somehow
made their memories foggy, and they come
back with only a faint idea of why they’re back.
Just as the first “It” was a coming-of-age tale,
“Chapter Two” is a homecoming. It’s a reunion
movie, just with some dead kids here and
there. Part of the appeal of both films is in how
they balance dark and light. “Chapter Two,”
especially, is funny thanks in large part to Hader
(who slides in a Jabba the Hutt impression) and
Ransone, the likably frenetic actor who played
Iggy in the second season of “The Wire.”
“It” also tips the other way, and as clever as
some of the movie’s nightmare scenarios are,
a handful derive cheap scares out of terrible
fates befalling children in scenes drawn out
for suspense. It’s an easy route to getting
an audience’s adrenaline up, and a dubious
method of moviemaking. Hitchcock did it once
and later called it “a grave error.” There is less
evidence of contemplation behind the violence
in Muscietti’s film.
But the “It” movies— a kind of pop-horror with
ghastly scenes you can eat popcorn to — have a
way of dealing both seriously and blithely with
such terrors. Our fears are both terrifying and
ridiculous in “It.” They’re rendered impotent only
by our own insistence of their powerlessness.