When I first heard about a series being done that centered on Stephen King’s most successful novel, I got excited because I had seen the movie adaptations and the miniseries with Tim Curry as Pennywise, which was creepy. Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise is scary as frick. He is beyond Joker levels of insanity, and the Joker rewrote reality after gaining the powers of an omnipotent being, killing Batman in hundreds of ways all because he thought it was funny. And that does even compare to Pennywise. So, finding out his origin would be interesting.
The first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry brings the horror, suspense and intensity of the films to the small screen. The episode wastes no time getting right into it with a nightmare fueled birth scene that is as disturbing as the maggot birth in 1985’s “The Fly.” Except where Geena Davis’s character is horrified by what she brought into the world, the mother in this series looked into the abyss and smiled tenderly. What transpired next had my jaw slacked and my eyes bugged out. I was not expecting things to get intense right out the gate. Actually, I was expecting something to happen but not the way that it did. Nonetheless, it was a great way to intro the series. As the episode progressed, we are introduced to a group of kids who started experiencing strange happenings when they investigate the disappearance of one of their friends. At first, they are set up to be the protagonists, but this series throws a massive curve ball that makes you go, ‘Well, never mind.’ Usually, the demise of adolescents in horror films happens offscreen or it is implied. Not with Welcome to Derry. These kids get folded like Sunday laundry. Like I mentioned before, I watch a lot of horror movies, never witnessed the death of someone just hitting puberty. IT: Welcome to Derry also gives us a plot device that will revolve around two airmen who are assigned to a new base nearby complete with a top-secret bunker that is deemed classified. How this will play into the overall story is anyone’s guess at this point.
What is interesting about Welcome to Derry is that it doesn’t feel like a television series. It feels like a movie, like the budget was put forth into this with the added incentive of “Let’s make this scarier than the movies.” Which they did. The scares are good. The mystery is good. The performance of the child actors is amazing. And the buildup is a nice pacing. We don’t need to see so much at one time. Let it cook. That’s what this first episode did. If you’re a horror fan, or a Stranger Things fan, or a fan of the “IT” movies, I highly recommend watching IT: Welcome to Derry. You won’t be disappointed.
IT’s getting 5 out of 5.
