So the thing about this movie is, it’s part of this trilogy, right. And it’s extremely part of the trilogy, to the extent that it just feels like this random middle episode where the plot advances a bit, but which neither initiates nor resolves anything — structurally, it’s just a bridge between the first and third movies, except then 95% of it is a flashback to an event whose outcome we already know from the first movie.

And so the problem with the flashback story is twofold to me. The first is that it didn’t really feel like it was making any effort to be set in 1978. The kids weren’t 1978 kids, really only the music (and I guess a bit the clothes) marked it as being in the time it’s supposed to be in. Sloppy period pieces aren’t rare, but if being a period piece is your whole raison d’être, you should try harder.

But the more fundamental flaw is that nothing happens in the flashback movie. Like, yes, it’s a prequel, so we already know they can’t/won’t defeat the witch, but also they don’t even defeat the killers: Literally what happens is every Shadyside kid dies. They totally fail in every goal they had, and they lose. The protagonist comes back to life at the end, sure, but it wasn’t part of a clever plot to foil the witch, it was just a coincidence. There’s no meaningful narrative triumph in that.

And so if the 1978 flashback doesn’t work on its own terms, then this whole thing becomes just this part of the clue-gathering for the wrap-up finale installment. And it’s fine at that, I guess. There’s a lot of “ooh, wait a minute, that changes things” and whatever. But while that might be enough to make a random episode of a TV series worth the time, I don’t think it’s enough to make a movie worth it. A movie should by god stand on its own as a thing. Even Avengers: Infinity War told a coherent story in itself, in a way this doesn’t.

Long story short, I feel a little guilty writing these up as movies, because I don’t think they are. I think they’re just two hour episodes of a TV show.