IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 Review

It’s pretty exciting to see a horror property like Stephen King’s IT take over Sunday nights on HBO. It’s even more exciting to see Andy Muschietti, the director of both of the wildly successful IT movies, return to the town of Derry, Maine, to bring audiences even more scares set in this twisted world. Despite its popularity, I wasn’t sure how well IT: Welcome to Derry would translate Pennywise’s antics to world of television, and yet, I was equal parts thrilled and horrified with what Muschietti has unleashed on Sunday night television, just in time for the Halloween season.

Today, we’re kicking off our weekly reviews of IT: Welcome to Derry with Episode 1. This show is a wild ride, so we will be discussing spoilers in this review – it’s impossible not to! With that in mind, this is your official spoiler warning! If you have any interest in this show, make sure to watch it for yourself before reading this review – these shocks are worth experiencing first-hand. Now, let’s dive into the review!

---

IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 Review

Image by HBO

IT: Welcome to Derry‘s first episode is a, surprisingly, very strong start to such an ambitious series. For those unfamiliar with the IT movies, they are primarily cinematic spectacles, relying on high-end VFX and sound design to meticulously craft the world of Pennywise’s hallucinations. Trying to translate that formula to HBO is certainly a risky move, even if HBO is the best possible choice for this show to air on. What was really important for IT: Welcome to Derry, from the very first episode, was proving that the series could capture the established vibe of the IT franchise, defined by its nightmarish nature.

So, did Welcome to Derry pull this off? Well, having only seen the first episode, I can’t make any promises for the future of the show, but I can say that, without a doubt, the show proves its worth as a continuation of the IT universe from its opening sequence alone. The series opens with Pennywise preying upon his first victim, Matty Clements, and though it’s impossible to not feel bad for this kid, it’s equally difficult to not feel completely enthralled by how horrifying of a sequence this entire opening was. I don’t think we’ve ever seen Pennywise strike in such an outlandish way, trapping Matty in a moving car of his own creation. With IT, it’s important to capture the feeling of being trapped in a living nightmare, and as devastating as it was, Matty’s death sequence perfectly captured this feeling.

In many ways, the entirety of IT: Welcome to Derry‘s first episode felt like a waking nightmare, as Pennywise and Muschietti both prove that they’re not waiting around until later episodes to kick this thing off. The horrors are in full swing from the very episode, as Welcome to Derry‘s dives headfirst into the jumpscares, gore, and of course, the torment of children. It’s morbidly admirable how little Welcome to Derry holds back on its characters based on their age. While this first episode may sacrifice a little in character development what it makes up for in pure nightmare fuel, having children bear the brunt of these attacks is pretty shocking, and without giving too much away just yet, let’s just say that if you thought the IT movies were bad when it came to children’s mortality rates, then you should be prepared for Welcome to Derry to totally bewilder you.

Image by HBO

I did mention though that Welcome to Derry does sacrifice some character-building to dedicate more time to Pennywise’s nightmare sequences. With that in mind, let’s talk about the characters. Matty Clements was a great choice for an opening kill, mainly thanks to how well Miles Ekhardt does in the role. You really feel for Matty, and his friends after his death. However, when it comes to some of these other characters, I think that Welcome to Derry suffers a little because of its reliance on child actors. As much as you can see them trying, some of the line deliveries in this episode are pretty unconvincing. For me, Jack Molloy Legault was one step away from reading off a teleprompter, and while there’s a certain charm to Mikkal Karim-Fidler’s acting, I think he could definitely use more practice before he’s ready to hold a show together. Thankfully, Clara Stack and Amanda Christine are certainly up to the task, which honestly, makes the ending of Welcome to Derry Episode 1 quite promising, despite its brutality.

In fact, the focus on children who don’t quite have the acting chops to lead a show reminds me a lot of the first season of Stranger Things, even if the cast on that project was a little better than this cast. However, where Stranger Things was able to make up for its child actors was in its adult storylines. Welcome to Derry does have an adult storyline going on in the background, focusing on, interestingly enough, Dick Hallorann, a name that Stephen King fans will be quite familiar with. However, this storyline is not nearly fleshed-out enough quite yet for it to have any impact on me, especially considering how crazy the Pennywise storyline is from the very beginning. I’m not giving up on it – there’s still plenty of time for the military base to hook me in. However, when the credits rolled on Welcome to Derry Episode 1, I wasn’t even thinking about that side of the show.

What Episode 1 lacked in the character department, however, it more than made up for when it came to Pennywise’s nightmarish taunts, of which I counted four in this episode. So, let’s rank them! From least scary to most scary! Well, I think it’s fairly easy to place Lilly’s drain hallucination at the bottom of the list, considering the big scare at the end, was a measly bloody finger poking out of the drain. Next up would be Teddy’s lamp nightmare, a pretty horrifying visual considering his father’s historical lesson moments prior. However, there’s a pretty big leap between these two, and the remaining two hallucinations in this episode. Matty’s opening death takes second place, thanks to its shock factor, grossness, and the absolutely disturbing visual of that demon baby birth. That leaves the theatre sequence as taking the crown for the scariest sequence of Welcome to Derry Episode 1.

Image by HBO

The theatre sequence closes out Welcome to Derry Episode 1, and to say this episode went out with a bang would be a grievous understatement. Of the five children that enter the theatre in search of Matty, only two of them leave alive. That is an absolutely shocking mortality rate for what seemed to be the main cast of the show. Even more shocking is how brutal these deaths are, with Teddy being torn to shreds on-screen, and little Susie Malkin having her arm torn off right before our eyes. I told you this show wasn’t holding back! If there’s anything good to come out of this ending, it’s that the two strongest actors in the bunch, Amanda Christine and Clara Stack, make it out alive, which is promising for the future of the show. This was truly an unforgettable ending, and brought the kind of must-see shock value that marks any successful HBO Sunday night show. Well-played Andy Muschietti, well-played.

As the credits rolled, it left me uncertain about the future of Welcome to Derry, but confident in it all the same. Clara Stack can certainly hold this show together as its lead, if things play out that way, but Amanda Christine has just as much potential to fill that role, which means that, worryingly, either of these two characters could die next. The haunting finale of Welcome to Derry highlights that, even if he’s not in this episode in Bill Skarsgård, clown-form, Pennywise is very much present in this episode, and looms over Derry like a terrifying curse. It’s going to be a great moment when Skarsgård does eventually debut, but for now, I’m excited to see the horrifying ways that Pennywise is going to turn up across these upcoming weeks.

So, Welcome to Derry Episode 1 was a shocking, nightmarish, gore-fest, filled with jumpscares and harrowing child deaths. As disturbing as that all sounds, it’s really exactly what the IT franchise calls for, marking this pilot episode as a huge success for horror fans. What did you think of the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry? Be sure to let us know, and thanks for reading!

See also: All Alien Movies, Ranked

---

Where to Watch IT: Welcome to Derry?

Image by HBO

IT: Welcome to Derry airs weekly on HBO, 9pm E.T., or if you’re reading from the UK, 1am GMT on Monday mornings. You can also stream new episodes of the series on HBO Max, or Sky in the UK. The series is set for 8 episodes.

• ShareCopied to clipboard
• X
• Facebook