‘It: Welcome to Derry’ Review: Is Prequel Series to the Iconic Horror Franchise Worth Your Time this Halloween Season?

My generation grew up thoroughly terrified by “IT.”

From the iconic Stephen King novel that sat on my mom’s bookshelf, tempting me to look at the cover, to the 1990 movie that lived rent free in my adolescent brain for a decade. I was no exception to the trauma.

As I got older, I shed my fear of horror movies and became a staunch critic and often letdown fan. The 2017 reboot of “IT” perfectly represents the latter.

I waited with excitement for a year. I went into the theater expecting horror greatness and left feeling somewhat betrayed. And don’t get me started on ‘Chapter Two.’

A Behemoth Story

One of my biggest qualms with both the 1990 and 2017 versions is successfully presenting such a massive story in a single or even double film. King’s novel has a ridiculous word count of nearly half a million spread across 1100 pages.

I thought that the story would be best represented as an 8 or 10 part series. My wishes were granted by HBO with the release of “It: Welcome to Derry.”

The 8-episode series premiered on HBO on October 26, 2025, and serves as a prequel to the films. It was developed by Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs. Bill Skarsgård would serve as an executive producer and reprise his role as Pennywise the Clown.

“Game of Thrones” showed us that HBO can make an amazing production. If they gave “It: Welcome to Derry” the same commitment to excellence, the world of horror could be changed forever.

Welcome to Derry

Set in 1962, we follow a new group of kids as they handle the turmoil’s of being teens in a small Maine town that is haunted by an evil entity.

One scene in and we learn two things. “Derry” doesn’t hold back on the gore. And director Andy Muschietti loves to rely on terrible CGI and cheap jump scares. Loud music and cheap effects constantly ruin otherwise excellent, tense scenes.

The series features a lot of characters, with a mix of adults and youths. It reminded me of a grislier version of “Stranger Things.” And so many Easter Eggs to the original films and story you could make an omelette big enough to cloak Rhode Island.

The movie uses flashbacks and features both standard storylines, like Pennywise tormenting the kids, and asinine ones, like US military involvement. It fleshes out some of the lore from the novel but still manages to be flimsy.  

Large Ensemble

I really liked the kids and was heavily invested in their escapades. The 1962 version of the Losers Club was composed of Marge (Matilda Lawler), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Will (Blake Cameron James), Rich (Arian Cartaya) and Lilly (Clara Stack) who was easily my favorite character in the series.

Clara Stack is a very young actress and flawlessly represented a teenager in 1962 and a character in a horror story. It will be fun to watch her progress into an acting career and (hopefully) horror going forward.

Taylour Paige plays Charlotte, an activist, and Will’s mother. And Paige was the best of the adult characters, showing the chops to be versatile, even when hamstrung by a shoddy script.

James Remar plays General Shaw, who is using the resources of the US Air Force to locate Pennywise. The military wants to harness his power, didn’t you know? It’s a stupid narrative that’s not part of the source material. But Remar is a great character actor who holds his own.

And here’s a hot take. The Bill SkarsgÃ¥rd schtick. He’s a great actor and was born to play Pennywise, but it felt repetitive and flamboyant here. IT is an otherworldly being that is pure evil. Here, Pennywise gets a bit too cute for my tastes.

Two Months of Terror

It’s a shame that Andy Muschietti has never met CGI he didn’t like. As with “IT: Chapter Two”, its distractingly bad and completely unnecessary in almost every instance. He’s so close to having something good. I would like to watch it with him and show him the error of his ways.

Stephen King diehards who are hungry for anything will doubtless enjoy “It: Welcome to Derry.” It has more of the same stuff, some done well, most done poorly. The kids are great and some of the scares are decent. Bad writing and really bad effects make it bad to watch.