Spooky Season 2025: It: Welcome to Derry Season 1 Episode 1-5 Early Review

The following is a spoiler-free review of the first 5 episodes of Season 1 of It: Welcome to Derry (out of 8). The first episodes premieres October 26th at 9pm on HBO and will also be available to stream on HBO Max 

It: Welcome to Derry is a prequel series set before the events of the most recent film adaptations of Stephen King’s It, It and It: Chapter 2 released in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Taking place in 27 years before the events of the first film, the story follows Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), a man who moves to Derry, Maine along his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and son Will (Blake Cameron James), to work in a mysterious army base run by General Shaw (James Remar). Shortly before their arrival, the disappearance of a young boy kicks off a series of unfortunate events that would soon afflict both the town, and its residents. Meanwhile, a new group of kids sets off to solve the mystery of their missing classmate.

Surrounded with plenty of hype going in, the series marks a solid addition to the ‘It’ franchise, finally addressing lingering questions left over from the book and subsequent films adaptations. Putting a spotlight on the town of Derry, the town is explored even further, offering up some strong world building and expanding on King’s universe. On a technical level, the series does a great job in recreating its 1960’s setting in terms of atmosphere, while strong production and costume design round out a pretty accurate nostalgic package. Beautifully shot and scored it is clear that no expense was spared in the making of the series.

Considering its source material, many viewers will surely be wondering how scary it is. In short, It: Welcome to Derry is mostly effective in that regard, though unnerving at points, it never rises to the level of overly terrifying or chill inducing. Extremely brutal at times, the series holds nothing back, taking its violence to some disturbing places that will likely leave audiences horrified. Without giving too much away, it explores the many different shapes of Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård), its shapeshifting antagonist, in some creative ways over the course of the season. While the series’ promotional material has demonstrated that it isn’t going to merely be the Pennywise show, a fact that may rub some viewers the wrong way, it allows the series to explore new sides to this character that audiences have never seen before, making it all the more unique.

The cast all deliver strong performances in this ensemble piece, with Adepo and Paige leading the way. Remar, meanwhile, refreshingly defies casting expectations as General Shaw, and slowly becomes one of the series’ most fascinating characters. The chemistry of its younger cast creates a dynamic that may not quite come close to that of the 2017 film, but still make for serviceable replacements viewers will grow to care about, and fear for their safety, given the high stakes established early on. Now to the most hyped part of the series, Skarsgård slips right back into the role of Pennywise without missing a beat, somehow making him even scarier and more menacing whenever he appears.

Though fans of the ‘It’ franchise or of Stephen King’s body of work will find plenty to like here, It: Welcome to Derry, thus far, is not without issues, one of the biggest is a slow start. Taking some time to find its footing, once the series hits the ground running, it never look back. Like the films, it is not afforded the greatest VFX and as a result, viewers could be pulled out of the moments where it overrelies on digital effects. While more noticeable at the start, the issue improves over additional episodes but continues to linger to a lesser degree. On the other side, the argument could be made that the subject matter might be better suited as a feature film, instead of a series, as it suffers a few hiccups in moving to an episodic format as it finds its footing over this first run of episodes.

In the end, It: Welcome to Derry may not be a homerun so far, but it is off to a decent start, benefitting from a big budget, leading to top tier production values, a talented ensemble who all give it their all, and enough intrigue to keep viewers invested in whatever happens next. Adapting a grey area within the Stephen King universe, the series looked to be a risky proposition on paper, however,  it proves mostly successful at carving out an original story that builds upon works from said universe, and goes even further, opening up the potential of even more stories to tell come future seasons should the first be successful.

still courtesy of HBO

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Connor Carey

www.connorsmoviereviews.com/