Review: ‘It Chapter 2' is a big-screen funhouse

It can be a cheesy thing when a novel is split up and spread out over a handful of films, but Stephen King’s “It” is not one of those books. “It Chapter Two” takes up the book’s second half when those kids, now grown, are called back 27 years later to Derry after Pennywise returns. 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. “Chapter Two,” especially, is funny thanks in large part to Hader 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.