It Chapter Two takes place 27 years after the first It and is about the now grown up Loser’s Club who have a really bad day when Pennywise decides to return to their hometown of Derry. Mike Hanlon, the only Loser’s group member who stayed in Derry, gives each of the other members a call. All are busy with their own lives but decide to return because of the promise they made as teens which was to come back if IT ever returned. All the characters must face their deepest fears from their past in order to conquer Pennywise once and for all.

If you’re looking for effective and creepy jumpscares, IT Chapter 2 should satisfy your desire for a lengthy creepy haunted-house feel of a film. If you’re searching for a compelling story along the lines of Get Out or Hereditary you unfortunately won’t find it here.

Some scares are predictable but nonetheless have a drastic shift from quiet to loud volume- this caused me to flinch in my seat a few times and in that vein, the sound design and timing of these creepy noises was striking. The make-up and special effects for some of the supernatural horror sequences was visually pleasing. It Chapter Two is brutal, gory, and has some kills that will may make you cringe.

Character development is attempted but unfortunately never reaches a level that evokes true emotion. Effort was put into giving each character attention but it felt extremely formulaic. After the group arrives in Derry we focus on individual characters one at a time and to really understand each person’s pain we cut to flashbacks of their past that reflect some of their current fears. It follows this pattern for every. Single. Loser. There’s little surprise, it feels contrived, and I couldn’t latch on to any particular character. No one felt relatable. Each of their own sequences just seems like it’s purpose is to have some dark jumpscare moment at the end of it. And if you’re into that then like I said earlier, you will be happy with this film.

Character development is attempted but unfortunately never reaches a level that evokes true emotion.

James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, and Andy Bean portray the adult versions of the Losers Club- and they all do fine. I particularly liked Bill Hader as Richie who had a lot of effective comedy written for his character which he delivers well on.

You would think with a 2 hour and 49 minute running time that there would be a complex narrative but there isn’t. The story is very thin, merely focusing on its scares. If you simply want a good horror film and don’t care too much about the conclusion to this series, I would recommend Ready or Not– which has your jumpscares but is also faster-paced and primarily focuses on a single protagonist which made me feel more connected to a character more than this did.

If you must know what happens to our group of losers and will be fine with a small story full of jumpscares- then I would recommend it to you and think you’ll be happy with it.