I Watched HBO’s ‘It: Welcome to Derry,’ The Pennywise Prequel Everyone’s Talking About – So You Don’t Have To (But You Really Should)

I’ve been waiting for this storyline for far too long. For a horror fan and an entrenched chronicler of Pennywise’s trail of blood going all the way back to the first “It” movie in 1990, it’s almost like It: Welcome to Derry is a career-capping masterpiece for the season of screams that we are currently in. It drags me back into that small town I know I shouldn’t love so much, but I just can’t stay away. The long journey is now within our reach, and lordy it’s glorious.

It Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, decades before the events of It: Chapter One, diving headfirst into the earliest days of Pennywise’s reign of terror, back when the evil first began to claw its way out of the sewers and into the mind of our main storyteller, Georgie Denbrough. The premiere wastes no time making one thing abundantly clear: no one….and I mean no one….is safe. This premiere delivers a handful of disturbing storylines that quickly converge into one of the most disturbing opening sequences I’ve seen in years. (Seriously, spoilers ahead if you haven’t watched it yet.) A lost boy, a douchey family, and a creature that simply shouldn’t exist get the ball rolling and sets the stage for the rest of the episode.

What I loved about Welcome to Derry is how it manages to take a formula we’re all so familiar with from Stephen King, childhood innocence clashing against unthinkable evil all while making it feel raw again. I can’t stop feeling the presence of Andy and Barbara Muschietti’s fingerprints all over this production, from the world-building that is so rich and lived-in. Every shadow hiding a secret, every street corner buzzing with Cold War paranoia, down to the way their camera lingers lovingly and abhorrently on human and supernatural carnage alike. What’s also notable here, beyond the supernatural terrors that lurk in Derry’s grimy shadows, is that there’s real human darkness to be found here as well. Racism, grief, and guilt that rot this small town long before Pennywise ever sinks his teeth into his first victim.

Jovan Adepo brings immense heat as the role of Major Leroy Hanlon, a decorated pilot whose personal story grounds the show in the social and political tensions of the 1960s. There’s also incredible emotional heft from Taylour Paige as Charlotte, and from young Clara Stack as Lilly, two women who are both just trying to survive in a town that feels cursed from the inside out. Stack, in particular, is giving one of the best child performances I’ve seen in recent horror memory. The fear is so real, her courage so fragile, and you absolutely believe every scream, every tear.

And, of course, then there’s the blood. This IS an HBO show I mean… Oh, mama, there’s plenty of it. The much-discussed sequence at the end of Episode 1 is not just shocking, it’s horrifying in a way that lingers. Long-time fans of Game of Thrones‘ most brutal twists and turns will find themselves feeling that same “did they really just do that?” feeling in this moment. It’s a reminder that Welcome to Derry is not interested in playing it safe. If you came here expecting predictable scares, forget it. The body count climbs fast and furious, and this series makes one thing brutally clear… in Derry, there are no guarantees.

Yes, it gives us the gore, more than enough to satisfy even the most hardened horror junkies out there, but there’s also restraint. Pennywise himself (played by the incomparable Bill Skarsgård) mostly lurks in the periphery in these early episodes, appearing in snippets and glimpses here and there. It’s the absence that makes him so much scarier, in a way. I feel him everywhere. This series also knows its fans, which is refreshing. They get that we’ve all memorized every beat of King’s novel, that we’ve read and watched every adaptation, analyzed every balloon and sewer grate along the way. So instead of retreading that old ground, it takes its time to expand.

There are nods to the cosmic elements of King’s mythology here of course with the turtle, the cycles of Pennywise’s return, but it’s also opening up new, fresh layers of lore in ways that feel like we’re just getting started. The Muschiettis are clearly playing a long game here, with the creators already teasing a three-season arc that will explore Derry’s cursed history through the decades. So, yeah, if you’re a horror fan, this is your Halloween feast. It: Welcome to Derry does not just float, my friends it soars, drips, and claws its way into your nightmares with all the cinematic and tonal chops it needs to prove, once again, that in the world of Stephen King, the monsters are real – and they’re a hell of a lot closer than you think.

Episode 2 will drop a few days early to celebrate Halloween. The episode will premiere Friday, Oct. 31, at 12:00am PT/3:00am ET on HBO Max. It will premiere as planned on Sunday, Nov. 2, at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on HBO. Future episodes of the eight-episode season will continue to drop Sundays on HBO and HBO Max leading up to the season finale on Sunday, Dec. 14.