It: Welcome to Derry - Pennywise’s Origin Story Is Positively Terrifying

This prequel series proves the clown still has plenty of tricks left

I need to say this right up front - It: Welcome to Derry is positively creepy and I LOVE IT!

When they announced a prequel series to the recent It movies, I had every reason to be skeptical. Prequels rarely work in horror. They usually try to explain too much, answer questions nobody asked, and strip away the mystery that made things scary in the first place. But HBO Max and the team behind the films understood the assignment.

This show is everything I wanted and stuff I didn’t know I needed. The references to Stephen King’s work are chef’s kiss perfection, and the horror hits harder than I expected from a streaming series.

TMJ Rating: 🍿🍿🍿🍿/5

What Fresh Nightmare Are We Getting?

It: Welcome to Derry takes us back to 1962, 27 years before the events of the 2017 film.

We’re following a new group of kids in Derry, Maine as Pennywise begins another feeding cycle. But this time we’re also getting military conspiracy, Cold War paranoia, and deeper exploration of what Pennywise actually is.

The show kicks off with one of the most disturbing opening sequences I’ve seen on TV. A kid named Maddie tries to hitchhike out of Derry during a snowstorm and gets picked up by what seems like a nice family. Then things get weird fast.

The pregnant mom goes into labor and gives birth to a flying demon baby that proceeds to terrorize Maddie before killing him.

Yeah, this show doesn’t waste time establishing that it’s going to be brutal.

The Horror Works on Every Level

Welcome to Derry understands that Pennywise works because he’s not the clown. He’s a shapeshifting cosmic entity that feeds on fear, and the clown is the form we’re most familiar with.

The show explores all his different manifestations. Flying demon babies, nightmare lampshades made of human faces, visceral birth imagery that makes you physically uncomfortable - Pennywise becomes whatever terrifies each individual victim most.

The scares are unsettling. That opening birth sequence is nightmare fuel. The scene where Lily gets trapped in a living sack filling with water while her dead mother taunts her? Horrifying, of course. The claustrophobic supermarket sequence where pickle jars contain her father’s dismembered body parts? I wanted to look away, but couldn’t.

This show commits to disturbing imagery in ways the movies couldn’t quite manage. HBO Max’s lack of restrictions allows them to go further with the gore and psychological horror.

The 1960s Setting Is Perfect

Setting this in 1962 was brilliant. The period piece aesthetic works beautifully. Everything feels vintage and authentic. The colors pop, the costumes nail the era, and the production design makes you believe you’re actually in early 60s small-town America.

But more importantly, the time period adds layers to the horror. Cold War paranoia, institutional racism, homophobia - all the fears of that era get woven into Pennywise’s feeding patterns. The show doesn’t shy away from showing how fucked up society was, which makes the supernatural horror feel grounded in real-world terror.

Plus, removing modern technology eliminates all those annoying “why don’t they just call for help” plot holes that plague contemporary horror. These kids are truly isolated.

The Stephen King References Are Incredible

As a Stephen King fan, the references scattered throughout this show made me so happy. Dick Hallorann from The Shining shows up as a major character. The military storyline ties into King’s recurring themes about government experiments and cosmic horror.

The show understands King’s broader universe and uses it without being obnoxious.

Derry itself gets fleshed out as this cursed location where horrible things have always happened. The show hints at other King stories that could exist in this universe, which opens up so many possibilities for future seasons.

The Kids Get Put Through Hell (I Might Love That)

One thing this show does better than the movies - it’s not afraid to kill children. Like, brutally murder them on screen.

The first episode introduces you to this group of kids, makes you care about them, and then kills half of them in one devastating sequence.

Phil, Teddy, and little Susie all get slaughtered by that demon baby in the movie theater. The show doesn’t hold back from showing their deaths either. We’re talking about dragging kids across floors, ripping into them, throwing corpses against walls while blood rains down on the survivors.

That establishes immediately that nobody’s safe. Plus, the surviving kids carry real trauma from what they’ve witnessed. Their fear feels earned, and their reactions feel authentic.

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Where It: Welcome to Derry Gets Complicated

The show runs two parallel storylines that don’t quite connect yet.

We have the kids dealing with Pennywise’s manifestations, and then this whole military conspiracy angle with Major Leroy Hanlon (Mike’s grandfather from the movies).

The military stuff is interesting. They’ve discovered Pennywise is some kind of weapon that generates debilitating fear, and they want to weaponize it for the Cold War. But two episodes in, it feels disconnected from the kids’ storyline.

I’m trusting they’ll bring these threads together, but right now it sometimes feels like watching two different shows set in the same location.

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The CGI Question

Look, Andy Muschietti has never been great with CGI. The It movies suffered from over-reliance on computer effects that looked fake and undermined the scares. Welcome to Derry has the same issue at times.

The demon baby is mostly CGI and occasionally looks video game-y. Some of the body horror effects lean too heavily on digital work when practical would have been scarier.

That lampshade made of screaming faces? Cool concept, but the execution looked a bit wonky.

That said, the CGI here is the best I’ve seen from anything Muschietti-related. It’s still noticeable, but not distractingly bad.

And they mix in enough practical effects and clever camerawork to make most scenes work despite the digital enhancement.

Should You Float Down to Derry?

If you’re a horror fan, absolutely watch this. If you loved the It movies, this expands that universe in satisfying ways. If you’re a Stephen King completist, the references alone make it worthwhile.

Fair warning; this gets dark and brutal fast. Children die horribly on screen. The body horror is visceral and uncomfortable. The psychological scares stick with you long after the episode ends.

I’m already counting down until the next episode drops. This show has its hooks in me, and I’m here for whatever nightmares Pennywise has planned for the rest of the season.

Fellow horror addicts and King fans: are you watching this? How do you think it compares to the movies? Drop your theories about where the military storyline is heading!