Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Disclaimer: ‘Welcome to Derry’ is recommended for viewers 16 and older.
When a little boy goes missing in the small town of Derry, his school friends begin investigating his disappearance after one of them hears eerie sounds coming through the bathroom pipes. It doesn’t take long for the kids to realise that something really, really bad is happening in their town.
Based on the world created by Stephen King, the eight-episode horror series It: Welcome to Derry kicks off with a violently disturbing cold open, as Matty Clements’ (Miles Ekhardt) decision to hitch a ride goes horribly wrong. What follows is such wild supernatural mayhem that you half expect Matty to wake up from a nightmare. Instead, the story jumps ahead four months, and Matty is nowhere to be found.
Schoolgirl Lilly (Clara Stack) gets spooked when she hears Matty’s voice singing in her bathroom and turns to his nerdy friends Terry (Mikkal Karim Fidler) and Phil (Jack Molloy Legault), hoping they’ll believe her. And so begins the mystery: is Matty really gone, or is something sinister lurking beneath Derry, snatching away its children? They’re soon to find that an ancient evil lurks in their town, taking the form of a sinister clown (a terrific Bill Skarsgård) who feeds on his victims’ fears before quite literally devouring them whole.
Beyond the missing-boy mystery, Welcome to Derry also introduces Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), a military pilot hoping to start a new life with his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and son Will (Blake Cameron James). Unfortunately, the predominantly white neighbourhood isn’t welcoming towards the Black family, while Leroy faces racial tensions at the airbase. To make matters worse, the military is involved in a bizarre secret operation to locate a mysterious supernatural entity, hoping to harness its powers as a weapon. I mean, what kind of army goes looking for a mythical monster to weaponise? Only in America, I guess!
Unlike Stranger Things, where the kids’ perspective largely dominates the narrative, Welcome to Derry divides its attention between the young protagonists and the adults, whose troubles range from racial prejudice and injustice to military conspiracies and supernatural horrors. The two storylines gradually become intertwined, while the children find themselves facing nightmares that no amount of therapy could possibly undo.
The young cast is quite entertaining, particularly as Lilly, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Will and Rich (Arian S. Cartaya) form an unlikely little gang of amateur monster hunters. Their adventures offer some much-needed comic relief, whether they’re attempting to summon ghosts in a graveyard or coming up with increasingly ridiculous plans to investigate Derry’s terrifying secrets. Although there’s always the feat that they might just die next. Arian S. Cartaya is especially endearing as Rich, whose sweet-natured personality and dependability make him one of the more likeable characters of the show.
Among the adults, Taylour Paige stands out as Charlotte, a strong-willed woman who refuses to remain a silent bystander when she witnesses injustice. The military subplot introduces General Francis Shaw (James Remar) and the mysterious Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk), whose supernatural abilities are exploited to track a dangerous entity. Chalk is fantastic as Hallorann, initially coming across as cocky, self-centred and almost drunk on the privileges his extraordinary powers afford him within the military. But as Welcome to Derry unfolds, his swagger gradually gives way to the portrait of a deeply haunted, tormented man who, despite his seemingly antagonistic demeanour, has a surprisingly kind heart.
Absurd is perhaps the best way to describe some of the horror in Welcome to Derry. The series doesn’t shy away from grotesque imagery, gruesome deaths and bizarre supernatural manifestations, sometimes pushing the violence so far that it almost becomes comical. The pacing can also feel uneven, particularly in the earlier episodes, but the atmospheric world-building, impressive visual effects and increasingly twisted mysteries make it difficult to look away.
The series really comes into its own as it begins exploring the centuries-old evil haunting Derry, weaving Pennywise’s larger-than-life backstory into the beliefs, oral traditions and folklore of the Indigenous communities who have lived in the region for generations. Rather than simply dumping exposition on viewers, the creators bring these legends to life through eerie staged flashbacks, lending the monster a mythic presence that stretches far beyond the town’s present-day horrors.
And then there’s Bill Skarsgård, who is once again nightmarishly creepy as Pennywise. The man barely needs to do anything to send chills down your spine. His twisted expressions, unnerving mannerisms and sheer delight in terrorising children make him a horrifying presence, devouring his young victims as though they were nothing more than sweetmeats. The make-up team astutely transforms him into an evil that is bound to give most viewers the creeps.
The climactic ‘Welcome to Derry’ episodes are terrifyingly gory, supernatural and relentlessly tense, with the violence reaching some truly stomach-churning heights. As the mysteries surrounding Pennywise and Derry’s cursed history begin to come together, the children are forced to make a united last stand against a monster threatening to destroy their entire town. It’s a thrilling, chaotic and often brutal confrontation, combining supernatural spectacle with the familiar Stephen King theme of ordinary kids finding extraordinary courage in the face of unimaginable evil.
Overall, It: Welcome to Derry is a wildly entertaining, frequently disturbing horror series that expands Pennywise’s mythology while delivering plenty of gruesome scares. It’s occasionally ridiculous, sometimes uneven, and definitely not for the faint-hearted, but when the horror hits, it hits hard. And if you thought Pennywise was terrifying in the It films, this series gives you plenty more reasons to never trust a smiling clown again.
Watch ‘It: Welcome to Derry’ on Disney+/JioHotstar.
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