Two years after the successful “Chapter One”, the saga of Pennywise, the diabolic entity in the shape of a clown murdering young children in Derry, and of the group of children who fought him back, returns with the second installment from the more-than-1000 pages novel by Master of Horror Stephen King.

Did they nail it? Unfortunately, for us they didn’t. The almost three hours long movie loses quickly all the grip and eerie atmosphere which was so cleverly built in its first installment. We don’t know if it depends by the absence, this time, of Cary Fukunaga, who precedently created the extraordinary suave creepiness of the first season of “True Detective” and gave a fundamental artistic contribution to the screenplay of the first movie. Here the flaws which were present also in the book, return: a fragmented narration, too few cohesion among the actors which spent the first part of the movie wandering alone instead of being a team like they were as children, with the result that you never too much sympathize for them and you welcome with reliefs the flashbacks with their children version.

A terrible (not terrifying) use of CGI is also to blame for overexposing the evil creature (sinking the masterful work by actor Bill Sarsgard) and bring an unwanted sense of unvoluntary comedy in some scene which were supposed to be scary. Even the ending, which we won’t spoil, will leave a sense of disappointment to those who love the book and its message.

Not everything has to be wasted, as the opening sequence, a brutal homophobic attack featuring a great cameo by Xavier Dolan, is a little masterpiece (there are two other great cameos: one by iconic 70s director Peter Bogdanovich, the other, you’ll see…), Benjamin Wallfisch composes a fantastic and emotional score and in the adult cast Bill Hader as Richie and James Ransone as Eddie give two amazing performances, but you leave the cinema with the feeling that this Chapter Two is a sad lost opportunity to have another masterpiece standing beside an unforgettably scary Chapter One.