The clown is back in town.
It: Welcome to Derry is a new HBO series set in the universe of Stephen King’s It. The show reunites the trio behind 2017’s It and 2019’s It: Chapter Two (director Andy Muschietti and producers Jason Fuchs and Barbara Muschietti) to tell a never-before-adapted part of Stephen King’s book of the same name. As of the time of writing, the first two episodes of nine have been released just in time for Halloween, and these two hours of television have already delivered on the eerie atmosphere, exceptional filmmaking, and brutal deaths that fans of the recent films expect.
The idea behind Welcome to Derry was actually set up in Muschietti’s first It film. In that movie, Ben has an extended scene in the Derry library where he researches the town’s history and discovers a terrible disaster happens to the town every 27 years. In 1791, all 91 settlers that founded Derry, Maine, disappeared without explanation. In 1908, the Derry Ironworks blows up and kills 88 kids who were on an Easter egg hunt put on by the factory. In 1935, a gang of bootleggers are killed in a shootout with police (which also kills several Derry citizens).
Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, which is 27 years before Pennywise attacks the kids of the Losers Club in the first It movie, and will tell the story of the Black Spot Fire referenced in It. The pilot begins with a pilot—Major Leroy Hanlon (Mike Hanlon’s grandfather from the 2017 film) arrives at the Derry Air Force base to work on an unknown special project that could help end the Cold War. Meanwhile, a group of children start investigating their friend Matty’s disappearance that has been more or less ignored by the adults. This group includes protagonist Lilly Bainbridge, who suffered a nervous breakdown after her father’s death; Teddy Uris, the uncle of Stanley Uris from the Loser’s Club; Phil Malkin, a sci-fi-and-girl-obsessed conspiracy theorist; and Veronica Grogan, daughter of the man who runs the local movie theater and the last person to see Matty alive.
Within the first episodes, the show brings Derry and the Cold War setting to life and adds a sense of imminent doom. There are multiple signs throughout the school telling the kids to “duck and cover” to avoid nuclear attack while the military officials state that nuclear war is imminent. There’s a silent tension (that sometimes becomes overt racism) whenever Black characters like the Hanlons and Ronnie Grogan are around White characters. These initial episodes also emphasize the creepy way that the adults don’t really care about what happens to the children of Derry, which in the It book is an effect of Pennywise’s influence—there’s a shocking scene where a child gets beat and kicked by other children on Main Street and the adults completely ignore it.
“Derry is a microcosm of America. You can’t tell the story of America, and you can’t tell the story of Derry, without what was really going on in 1962, and it felt like exploitation of fears and exploitation of hatred,” said Brad Kane, the co-showrunner of the series.
From the opening scene of the first episode on, the scares in this series have so far been top-notch. The effects are just as horrifying as the multi-million dollar films, and the series establishes right away that no one is safe, especially the kids. There was an excellent amount of buildup to each frightening scene, and when the horror finally reaches its climax, it feels satisfying and thrilling every time.
The first episode does great work in setting up the framework of how powerful Pennywise is without actually showing him. Despite Bill Skarsgard returning to play Pennywise the Dancing Clown later this season, some viewers may be disappointed that the clown doesn’t appear in the first couple of episodes. This actually is to the benefit of the series. It is a shapeshifter, and It’s true form is glowing gold orbs called the Deadlights. The shift away from the clown form helps make the start of the series scarier: instead of searching the screen for red balloons or circus sounds to figure out if It is near, the scares will take many viewers by complete surprise.
What makes this show a must-watch is its ability to subvert the formula established in the It films and similar projects like Stranger Things. The initial premise—a group of kids trying to fight an evil entity—seems like it’s a carbon copy of the Losers Club, but without spoiling too much, that assumption is ripped apart by the end of the first episode. The series also follows two parallel stories with different protagonists: Lilly Bainbridge’s plotline with the other kids being stalked by It feels like what’s expected from an It series, but Leroy Hanlon’s storyline around the military’s secret project in Derry leans more toward sci-fi mystery. This is a welcome addition to the It storyline—in the novel, It is an alien that crashed on Earth and has a larger cosmic role in existence, but this has been ignored in the film adaptations until now.
Speaking of Leroy, Jovan Adepo does a great job of portraying a loving, formidable, and intelligent man able to face the twin dangers of Pennywise and Derry and the military’s racism. Clara Stack is also a standout as Lilly, and she does a great job showing the guilt and self-loathing that reflects her character’s inner turmoil. Really, every actor is great and memorable (which sucks when one suddenly dies and you want to see more of them).
Producer Barbara Muschietti said that, when it came to making the characters, “What’s incredibly important for us always is to have an emotional anchor. We created characters that are human, with real-life problems.”
Perhaps the most notable and well-acted character outside the main cast is Chris Chalk as Dick Hallorann, a prominent character from The Shining. This isn’t a simple nod to the fans, though: Hallorann is in King’s original It novel and his psychic abilities play an important role in the history of
Derry and the Black Spot Fire. Moreover, almost all of King’s novels are interconnected, and while the writers have said they won’t put in-universe Easter eggs in just for fun, they absolutely plan on using elements of the connected universe (like Shawshank prison and The Shop) where it makes sense and supports the story.
These first two episodes are everything a horror fan could want from the series: the premise is exciting, the characters are great, the pacing doesn’t drag, and the horror is truly horrifying (if gore or childbirth makes you squeamish, you’re going to have a rough time). It: Welcome to Derry is definitely worth the watch if you’re a fan of the franchise, but it is also worth watching if you’re just a fan of horror or great writing. Episode 3 comes out on November 7th.
