It was always a giant story that involves childhood, terror, and wounds that can never be healed by time. First published in 1986, it introduced us to the cursed town of Derry, Maine, where seven children known as the Losers’ Club fought against something evil that they called Pennywise the Dancing Clown. There have been several adaptations throughout the years, from the miniseries in 1990 to Andy Muschietti’s two-part film series, ‘It’ in 2017 and ‘It: Chapter Two’ in 2019. While they all were able to grasp the essence of the book, none of them have been able to capture King’s world completely. And so, HBO’s ‘It: Welcome to Derry‘ brings us back to the nightmare with a prequel.
The series, by Muschietti along with Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane, takes us back in time to 1962, a long time before the blood oath of the Losers’ Club was made. This time, we are able to see the town of Derry from a different perspective. The series is set in a time when change in society was also underway, and there was an impending feeling of global war. With its setting squarely on this period, Welcome to Derry brings King’s supernatural horror stories into the real-life fears that shook America. The series is loosely connected to the research of Mike Hanlon in the original novel, which consisted of interchapters that explored the strange history of Derry.
Derry as a Character: Exploring the Town, Its People, and the Shadows Within
However, unlike in the preceding movies, this time the HBO series spends enough time introducing the town itself and its people. We see the families that have suffered the agony of Derry for generations and understand how the terror of Pennywise manifests in terms of meanness, racism, and indifference. The introduction of the element of the story being told from the angle of people of color and native communities, especially characters like Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, portrayed by Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo, as well as Rose, portrayed by Kimberly Norris Guerrero, is, quite frankly, long overdue. Rather than revamping King’s story, it more or less completes it. For the very first time, we see that the terror of Derry does not reside only in the otherworldly forces of evil; instead, it is fueled by the very fabric of the town itself.
Bill Skarsgård reappears as Pennywise, and this time his appearance is even more terrifying. This time, the clown appears less like a distant nightmare and more like an inexorable truth about Derry itself. The show is never trying to pin down his definition too much, and that becomes even better in this instance. Pennywise is always a mystery, a shapeshifting figure of the worst that Derry has to offer. The hallucinations in this show even go beyond what Muschietti has set up before, dark, frightening, and firmly planted within the terror in its purest form. The terror feels even more tangible in the sense that it is dramatic, and we understand exactly what it is leading to.
Welcome to Derry, a location that does not require constant fright jumps and special effects magic. It is a town that breeds dread in a subtle way, showing that meanness and unfairness create a void in which something like Pennywise can flourish. Even when the grown-ups forget about Pennywise, it seems that their bad behavior beckons him to enter. There is a creepy sense that the problems of Derry have neither a beginning nor an end, but that Pennywise will always manage to get back as long as its citizens fail to notice the things that are amiss in their midst.
What makes this series even better is the characters. Chris Chalk, as Hallorann in The Shining, brings a level of connection to the Stephen King universe that is very thoughtful. There are little nods to the series that fans will appreciate, such as the inclusion of the bus from Shawshank Prison or the references to Maturin, the cosmic turtle god who is a balance for the evil of Pennywise. However, these things never feel like they are being forced into the narrative, instead enhancing it and giving the sense that this is all a part of something much bigger.
The Endless Echo of Pennywise Lies Beneath the Streets of Derry
It seems that Muschietti and his crew have taken the good and the bad of their film experiences to heart. The way this tale unfolds allows each plot twist and every character to take a breath, while the visual components of the story capture the feeling of a creepy small town that King conveyed in his novel. It all looks normal on the surface, but something is off. While this series is by no means a substitute for the Losers’ Club itself, it does help to flesh out what they were fighting against. We get to see the beginnings of the cycles of violence in the town, and we are given glimmers of what the next generation might be up against as they face off against the same thing decades down the line. This is a story of cycles, of fear that manifests anew but never truly dissipates. Of course, this first season is only the beginning of the end when it comes to the history of Derry. There are rumors of additional seasons to come, and this is a good thing for this story. After all, King’s It was never just about a fight, but about how the memory of that fight is preserved, how the fear can be passed down from one generation to the next. Welcome to Derry provides something new. The launch date for this series is October 26, and it leaves us wondering what else might be hiding beneath the peaceful streets of Derry. Maybe we will never get to the bottom of the mystery of Pennywise, and maybe that is for the best. It is a mystery that leads us back, because nothing ever stays hidden in Derry.
