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The most intriguing evolution for Wallfisch in his approach to It: Chapter Two is his obvious attempt to increase the depth of everything, including both the character and horror halves of his work. The character and location themes, while sometimes fragmented as needed by the narrative, really flourish in this score. More interestingly, however, is the shift in the suspense and outright horror passages, which rely far less on overbearing post-processing manipulation this time around. As the heroes are now capable adults, the score represents their battle with more accomplished orchestral mayhem, sometimes aided by religiously massive choral accompaniment. Yes, there are still a few horror genre cheap tricks in the music, but Wallfisch restrains himself to more organic techniques on the whole. In so doing, his suspense material has found a home someplace between Christopher Young and Bear McCreary, with extraordinary intelligence defining moments that are often too abrasive to appreciate alone on album. Wallfisch and McCreary are, in this era, providing intellectually fascinating suspense music, fulfilling a role that John Ottman was once thought to occupy in the late 1990's. In the case of Wallfisch in particular, these lyrical horror scores often sound magnificent due to really compelling recording qualities. It's not often you can describe a horror score as "lush," but the broad soundscape and perfect amount of reverb in these mixes supplies a feeling of authentic and expansive connection with the listener that is all-too-absent from most contemporary film score recordings. In short, It: Chapter Two once again sounds fantastic, even if the shrill violins, violent flutes, and blasting brass are obnoxious in their strident atonality. The diminishment of electronic manipulation has led to cues like "Festival Pursuit" and "Neibolt Escape" that are quite impressive without obvious synthetic involvement. (Incidentally, the former cue really reminds of McCreary's The Cloverfield Paradox in its chugging strings and the latter's conclusion raises memories of Ottman's The Usual Suspects with its choral resonance and descending piano line). The horror sequences still contain the insufferable Pennywise vocal and instrumental techniques ("Come Home" and "Henry Bowers"), and Wallfisch reuses the children's recordings of an old English nursery rhyme from the previous score in several cues. While somewhat more organic, don't expect much of this material to be any more palatable than it was in the prior score.

The quantity and development of themes by Wallfisch for It: Chapter Two is admirable, though there still isn't any single thematic identity that can tie the entire concept together for the mainstream. The light waltz for the town of Derry is the most likely candidate, and it returns whimsically on piano in "27 Years Later" and "The Clubhouse." Aside from experiencing greater gravity in "The Barrens," the idea is more often suppressed in the score and isn't a strong presence in concluding scenes. The theme for the original boy of the story, "Georgie," receives a crucial reprise in the gorgeous "Silver Bullet." The children's bonding theme from the first film, tied mostly to the Beverly character, is explored further in "Beverly Escapes" and the opening of "Your Hair is Winter Fire" before it evolves into representing the Stan character's influence in "Bar Mitzvah" and "Stan's Letter." The ascending figures of this theme also form the basis for a motif of conclusion for the score in "You're All Grown Up" and "Nothing Lasts Forever" that is translated into a gripping representation of grand mystery in "Back to Neibolt." The most interesting new theme in this score exists for the ritual meant to exorcize Pennywise once and for all. Heard fully in apocalyptic choral glory in "The Ritual of Chüd," this theme is resolved in "You're All Grown Up" as the heroes dispatch the evil alien. None of these motific associations is blindingly obvious, though, which may bother some listeners. As such, if you're not sympathetic to the gore of the film, then approaching It: Chapter Two solely from the perspective of a film music collector may leave you appreciating the atmospheric personality of the score and its superior recording more than its narrative. The trio of closing cues is quite redemptive, but it doesn't provide the Derry theme or any other overarching franchise identity a distinct and definitive conclusion outside of wink and nod references in "Goodbye." The understatement by Wallfisch is intentional, surely, as is the slightly modern electronic backing, but there's a sense of catharsis that is somewhat missing. Still, the music on the whole is a noteworthy achievement and an improvement on the prior score, which itself was a more than decent entry in the genre. The album release is once again long. At 103 minutes, there is more than twenty minutes of top-notch lyrical suspense material here to add to similar sequences from It and The Cure for Wellness for a fantastic compilation. Note that these generous Wallfisch albums tend to go out of print on CD within a year or two, so you should not hesitate to appreciate a lossless presentation of this strong genre entry sooner rather than later.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For Benjamin Wallfisch reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.36 (in 14 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.18 (in 3,508 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

Total Time: 102:47