It: Chapter Two, the highly anticipated sequel to 2017’s mega breakout hit It, is that impossibly rare horror sequel that is quite simply too big to fail. And you can damn well bet that the suits at Warner Bros are doing a high-kneed happy dance considering that, taken as a stand-alone film, It: Chapter Two is a bit of a slop-fest. Its unwieldy size and lack of editorial prowess makes for a patience-testing but scare-pocked horror odyssey better suited to the long-form narrative afforded by the small screen. In feature film form, It is more bloat than float.

From director Andy Muschietti, who shepherded the first film to a disgustingly profitable 700 million box office, Chapter Two re-introduces us The Losers Club 27 years after they “defeated” Pennywise the dancing clown. The cast Muschietti has assembled is impressive with the triptych of James McAvoy (Bill), Jessica Chastain (Bev) and a scene-stealing Bill Hader (Richie) claiming top billing and most of the screen time as far as the adult versions of these characters go. Joined by Jay Ryan (Ben), Isaiah Mustafa (Mike) and James Ransone (Eddie), the adult lineup of The Losers Club lacks the same all-for-one-and-one-for-all spirit of camaraderie that was carefully laid out with their 11-year old counterparts in the first chapter but Muschietti has done a terrific job casting to both appearance and general aura. As Chapter Two drifts between present and past, the commonalities become concrete with the cast, adult and child alike, standing out as a huge boon to It: Chapter Two, delivering genuinely funny moments and pathos in spades.

One of the chief problems of this second chapter is that plot-wise, the thing is fairly threadbare. When stretched to a knotty near-three-hours, it’s hard to ignore the litany of issues that infect Gary Dauberman’s script. Plainly, there simply isn’t enough material to sustain the obese run-time. Dauberman splits up the Losers crew nearly as soon as they are reunited, each sent on a separate journey into their past to try to collect a token and remember their trauma. A plot thread about Derry’s citizen’s collective amnesia is mentioned but unfulfillingly addressed, an unfortunate trend in this film.

The splitting of the group allows for solid individual scares, with Chapter Two likely eclipsing the actual terror of the first entry, but at the cost of a disjointed and uneven narrative. Pacing becomes an issue early on, with the second act of the film becoming outright turgid, It: Chapter Two feels episodic, more in line with the storytelling sensibilities of a Netflix binge-series than a long-form narrative. Muschietti uses this to the film’s advantage when singling out trauma and then dousing characters headfirst in that trauma like they’re being tarred and feathered. There’s Beverly’s trading parental abuse for homegrown domestic violence; Bill’s lingering guilt over the loss of brother Georgie; Eddie’s crippling anxiety and mysophobia; and Ritchie’s long shooed away “secret”, a potentially compelling part of his character that lacks credible follow-through. Each portion is handled with its own terror-inducing fever dream and though they work as distinct little chapters in a larger story, the movie buckles trying to juggle past, present, and a manageable run-time.

Frequent flashbacks deny the laws of addition by subtraction, fork-lifting in more material without the benefit of more payoff. Like much of the film, there’s simply too much on the plate which leads to one too many plot points – including multiple accounts of homosexual angst – dangling by picture’s end. There’s dramatic irony to the fact that Bill, now a horror writer not unlike Stephen King himself (who sneaks in a cameo here), is mocked for not knowing how to end a story when It: Chapter Two bungles the ending, often by virtue of overshare. Treating the story of The Losers Club and Pennywise as if it were the horror equivalent of Lord of the Rings simply doesn’t work and the tiring results speak for themselves. A sort of epilogue tires indefinitely in a movie that’s already worn out its welcome.

As far as horror elements of It: Chapter Two are concerned, the thing creeps. With a doubled production budget, the production looks stellar and Muschietti and his team do a great job of folding the practical scares of Pennywise in with some impressive CGI-laden set pieces. But despite claims that Pennywise himself would become a more fleshed out character in this sequel, the dancing clown remains an enigmatic side-character; a bath salts Jack in the Box. He pops out and shakes but, beyond a throwaway mention of “the Dead Lights”, there’s no further explainable of what drives this alien beast other than his being purely evil. Regardless, Pennywise is best when beckoning his would-be victims, Bill Skarsgård’s choopy coo reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh on a three-day meth bender. His vocal work, corkscrew eye and plentiful amounts of drool make him a hall of fame nightmare maker. When he goes spider-mode later in the film, the bloom falls from the rose, Chapter Two mistaking noise and scale for effective scare tactics and sacrificing Pennywise’s seductive “humanity” for towering VFX.

If from a broad perspective the effects are dazzling and to a scale that most horror movies can only dream of, not all the digital wizardry works. The de-aging on the children (the young actors now having entered puberty and are thereby ineffective at playing 11) is particularly of the uncanny valley variety, their visages taking on a loose plastic mask quality in some earlier shots. With auteur Martin Scorsese going all in on the de-aging technology from his hotly anticipated epic The Irishman, Muschietti’s film should serve as a warning of the dangers of doing so ineffectively. The effect is unpleasant and decidedly took me out of the moment.

When all is said and done and It: Chapter Two has run its entire 170 minutes, fans will likely be mostly satisfied with the conclusion, even if it takes a roundabout way of getting to the endgame. The myriad inefficiencies are softened by many a standout element: Bill Skarsgård’s effectively terrifying Pennywise, next-level staging and production design, various creepy (if never all that scary) scenes, moments, and tableaus, and a satisfying cast of adult Losers led by a Bill Hader dead-set on proving his Hollywood BDE (seriously people, let’s put him in everything). It: Chapter Two isn’t the perfect conclusion, but it’s a conclusion and one I’m prepared to live with, particularly in the age of extended universes, spin-offs, prequels, etc. Unless, of course, they try and upside us with a Chapter Three…

CONCLUSION: ‘It: Chapter Two’ buckles under its own ambitions and exhaustive run-time, revealing a movie that secretly wants to be a miniseries and can’t properly wrestle itself into normal horror movie form. Despite obvious pacing issues, the conclusion to Stephen King’s epic is scary and well-acted (with Bill Hader standing above the crowd) with terrific production elements to boot.