When it was first announced that IT (2017) and its sequel IT: Chapter 2 (2019), based upon the horrifying Stephen King novel, would be getting a prequel series documenting the origins of Pennywise, fans were conflicted. The films were fairly effective horror, even if they were flawed. So the idea of watching Pennywise stalk Derry in an earlier cycle had some appeal. At the same time, the project felt like a cash grab, retreading what has been done before. But we needn’t have worried, as IT: Welcome to Derry unleashes the most terrifying version of Pennywise to date.
The year is 1962, and spring has arrived in the small, familiar town in Maine. Despite the warmth of spring melting away the snow, a darkness is approaching Derry. Children have begun to disappear, violence is brewing in the town’s streets, and the military are performing digs around the city’s border. A cosmic entity who disguises itself as a dancing clown named Pennywise has risen from its slumber, and it has awoken with a voracious appetite.
From the opening moments, it becomes clear that IT: Welcome to Derry is operating on a darker, more brutal register than the film adaptations. We know that the Losers Club defeated Pennywise in the films. That inherited plot armour blunts the horror that was inflicted onto the 1988 Losers Club. But with this prequel series, that no longer affects the action. The tables are turned, as we know this time Pennywise wins. The only real question is who is going to make it out alive.
Pennywise holds nothing back as he haunts the local children and he feeds on their fears with open cruelty. While some scares are undercut by shaky visual effects, the series becomes genuinely unsettling when it leans into practical effects and the uncanny valley. That’s where Welcome to Derry finds its bite. Whether it’s Pennywise luring you with your dead father preserved in pickle jars filled with his body parts, forcing you to relive birth as your dead mother delivers you again, or turning a nuclear-family road trip into something grotesque and unrecognizable, the horror is as imaginative as it is disturbing. These are not just monsters popping out of the dark. Pennywise feeds on the children’s worst fears, their insecurities, and their unprocessed trauma. He isn’t just playfully taunting, he is mean, brutal, and absolutely terrifying.
Narratively, IT: Welcome to Derry follows a structure that will immediately feel familiar: A group of children realize that they are being haunted and hunted by a creature that disguises itself as a clown. Together, they decide to investigate it only to discover they are way in over their heads. It’s a story that we have already seen play out in the film adaptations and in the original mini-series. But what gives Welcome to Derry a leg up is the scale and savagery of the horror that Pennywise inflicts on these young ones. It makes the narrative feel as fresh as it is dangerous. And it doesn’t stop there, as the series expands outward with a web of subplots that deepen the mythology and flesh out the lore of Derry.
To complement the 1962 Losers Club plotline, we also see the US military attempt to capture Pennywise and weaponize him. While conceptually this narrative shows a lot of promise, it does stumble in execution, especially in the final two episodes. Watching Pennywise completely rip through US soldiers like tissue paper, and then go head-to-head in a battle of mental fortitude with Dick Halloran (Chris Chalk), yes, Dick Halloran from The Shining , was compelling. But the idea crumbles under the weight of its own ambition in the final few episodes, as internal logic gets partially thrown out the window. And just like with many Stephen King stories, IT: Welcome to Derry wraps itself up a bit too neatly.
Despite its few narrative missteps and uneven visual effects, IT: Welcome to Derry succeeds where it matters most. It strips Pennywise of the clown’s restraints and unleashes carnage galore. This is not a playful trickster, nor a monster bound, but a mean, merciless cosmic entity that Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd embodies with terrifying precision. When the series is firing on all cylinders, Pennywise dominates Derry every second he is on screen.
All episodes of IT: Welcome to Derry are now streaming on Crave (Canada) or HBO MAX (US).
