IT: Welcome to Derry Review: Andy Muschietti's Bloated Prequel Just Doesn't Have the It Factor

On paper, it's easy to justify the existence of IT: Welcome to Derry. Andy Muschietti's IT films, based on Stephen King's classic horror novel about a demonic clown terrorizing a group of kids across generations, were massive box office hits, and they reserved just enough from the book to leave the door open for future adaptations. In our current era of overexplanation, a prequel about Pennywise's origins feels inevitable. And since we live in the world that Marvel hath wrought, a good portion of the entertainment we get these days is in service of a greater cinematic universe, meaning that Welcome to Derry is also focused on integrating lore from King's extended works, seemingly laying the groundwork for a connected network of King adaptations. Therein lies Welcome to Derry's biggest issue; it's a series weighed down not only by the amount of ideas it's trying to cram into one season of TV, but by its duty to the corporation behind it.

Created by Muschietti, his sister Barbara, and Jason Fuchs, Welcome to Derry functions as an explainer of what happened during Pennywise's (played, as ever, by Bill Skarsgård, who also executive produces) last visit to the cursed town of Derry, Maine, in 1962 before he dropped in on the Losers' Club 27 years later. Much of the inspiration for the series is pulled from the novel's interlude chapters, in which Mike Hanlon, the only Loser who remained in Derry as an adult, tries to make sense of his encounters with It by digging into the town's dark history of racism and violent hate crimes, and how Pennywise capitalizes on the fears of the era he pops up in.

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The Hanlons are the series' biggest narrative link to the films (other than the clown), with Welcome to Derry's primary story centering on Mike's grandparents, Leroy (Jovan Adepo) and Charlotte (Taylour Paige), who have just moved to this odd little town with their 12-year-old son, Will (Blake Cameron James), just as a number of local children have gone missing. Leroy has been stationed at the military base that has sprung up in Derry, and — surprise, surprise — its appearance in town is directly related to Pennywise's reemergence. This is where the show divides into its two narratives: One revolves around Leroy's reluctant involvement in the military's mission; the other around Will and his band of misfit friends, who find themselves being targeted by a supernatural entity that they don't really begin to make sense of until several episodes in.

3.4

IT: Welcome to Derry

at HBO

Like

• The first episode is legitimately shocking
• At least Bill Skarsgård seems to be having fun

Dislike

• It's trying to do too much
• The military plot isn't interesting
• The characters are uninspired
• The scares aren't all that scary

This is one of Welcome to Derry's myriad problems. The series has made the bizarre choice to withhold Pennywise, so that by the time he finally comes face to face with the kids in his best-known form, we've sort of seen it all in terms of what he's capable of doing to them. That the show takes too long to even get to its central villain and, in turn, tie together its two main stories could perhaps be forgiven if it had anything in the way of interesting characters, decent scares, or compelling visuals. It's also a show that wants to make statements about racism, corrupt law enforcement, nationalism, and exploitation of Indigenous people, all on top of the main ideas of IT, which primarily revolve around childhood trauma.

That's not to mention what appear to be efforts to set up a larger television universe based on King's work, which come about through the inclusion of The Shining's Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), who is using his telepathic powers to help the military's mission, and the frequent name-drops of Shawshank Prison. The Muschiettis have sketched out their plan to spin Welcome to Derry into a three-season show, and if it gets renewed, we can expect to see future seasons set in 1935 and 1908. Hearing that, and taking into account the many references to King's other novels, you do start to wonder: What about what we're watching right now, though?

What we're watching right now is a bloated show full of characters so thinly realized that it's hard to develop any attachment to them. The admittedly shocking first episode does give a sense that all of the kids — save Will, who needs to live in order for Mike to someday be born — are expendable: Lilly (Clara Stack) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine) have both lost parents, while Matty (Miles Ekhardt) comes from a troubled home, which makes them all natural prey for Pennywise. Muschietti and Co. find plenty of ways to mess with them, which are often gorier than they are scary. Based on the amount of times Pennywise manifests as a creepy mother, the creative team seems particularly interested in childbirth as horror, which is an overblown concept that would only really be interesting if Welcome to Derry had anything to say about it. 

Unfortunately, in a show packed with excessive, half-baked details, every element feels as though it's only been added as a way to distract from the fact that Muschietti doesn't really know how to confidently execute any of the ideas he's laid out. In that way, Welcome to Derry just feels like another of Pennywise's theatrical acts of trickery.

Premieres: Sunday, Oct. 26 at 9/8c on HBO and HBO Max
Who's in it: Jovan Adepo, Taylour Paige, James Remar, Chris Chalk, Blake Cameron James, Stephen Rider, Madeleine Stowe, Bill Skarsgård  
Who's behind it: Andy and Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs, Brad Caleb Kane
For fans of: Andy Muschietti's IT movies, I guess
Episodes watched: 5 of 8