It: Welcome to Derry review – Blood-soaked prequel has its frights, and its flaws

This review is based on the first five episodes of It: Welcome to Derry.

As a lifelong Stephen King fan – with over 30 of his books in my collection and almost every film adaptation watched – you can probably imagine how excited I was when I heard that HBO was creating a prequel series to the It film series. A potential origin story of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, with Bill Skarsgård himself set to return? Yes please.

The 2010s It movies, while obviously not perfect, always held something of a soft spot in my heart. Maybe it's because of the stellar cast, led as children by the likes of Sophia Lillis, Jaeden Martell and Finn Wolfhard, and as adults by Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy and Bill Hader, who managed to tap into King's iconic original universe in a way that was so wonderfully unsettling – from screaming in blood-soaked bathrooms to investigating monster-infested sewers.

I went into It: Welcome to Derry with high hopes, and while the pay-off was far from a flop, it didn't quite reach the heights of its predecessors.

The series follows a similar premise to the original films, only this time set in the 1960s. A kid goes missing and a bunch of other kids try to work out what's happened to him, only to discover that a certain ancient alien presenting most commonly in the form of a dancing clown is behind everything.

Where this series differs, though, is with its adult characters. Several of them are the parents of the Derry kids, who also find themselves embroiled in their children's nightmares, while others – including a group of marines – are trying to end Pennywise for good. It's a strong set-up.

And there's certainly a lot to enjoy in the series. The opening sequence, for example, is particularly stand-out. Without spoiling anything, it's remarkably nauseating, atmospheric and easily one of the best scenes across the first five episodes – making a solid return back to the monstrous horror that made the town of Derry so terrifying in the first place.

The show is also visually impressive. Set in the '60s, there's enough to admire in the set and costume design, with the pastel hues of domestic suburbia juxtaposing against the literal horrors lurking under the surface of Derry – it's intelligently crafted. Notably, the opening credits are also hugely eerie – accompanied by a lullaby that sets the scene for scary before the action's even really kicked off.

The problems arise, predominantly, with the characters. While some, like Lilly (Clara Stack) and Will (Blake Cameron James) have enough development across the episodes to resonate with, a large portion of the characters just simply don't land. Several are underdeveloped, underused and borderline uninteresting, with not enough time spent on them to make us care about their fates or even really remember their names. If the It films made us fall in love with the Losers Club in only two films – it's fair to question why Welcome to Derry struggles to do so over the course of a season.

The plot itself also isn't the cleanest. With so many characters and storylines weaving together, from the kids, to the marines, to telepathic Dick Hallorann, to the parents, to the origins of Pennywise, the narrative can at times feel a little cluttered, unable to decide exactly which storyline is the most important and struggling to find a through-line between them. (Though there still may be time to repair this issue in the final three episodes.)

Welcome to Derry does have all the tropes of a successful horror – enormous gore, dark rooms, childhood trauma. At times, it's guaranteed to make you jump. When the show leans into the uncanny – a creepy stranger following you around a supermarket, or having a conversation with a friend who's suddenly stopped blinking – the scares are massively effective, and truly skin-crawling.

There are times, though, that it shifts into overexposure – revealing far too much of the alien and, in doing so, losing its fear factor. Because, really, is anyone actually that scared of a CGI monster-baby with multiple heads? I'm not sure. What I do know is that the show is far more effective when it's not trying to do too much, because ultimately, the more we see of It, the less frightening he becomes.

Another of the show's strengths lies within its connections to the wider Stephen King universe. From nods to Shawshank Prison to an unexpected role for telepathic Dick Hallorann from The Shining (this time played by Chris Chalk), the Easter eggs are well handled. They don't solely serve as forceful, distracting fan service, but are cleverly connected to the storyline, and I'm excited to see how much further the references could go. (If we could get a glimpse of Rose Madder or Desperation in there somewhere, I'd be elated, but that's probably asking for too much).

Of course, Bill Skarsgård is just as inhumane as ever as Pennywise – with his characteristic iconic grin and creepy, inflection-filled voice. And although his appearances in the show aren't exceptionally frequent, his monstrous presence is large, and you're always left awaiting his arrival. Skarsgård constantly remains the true horror of the show, even when he's not on screen.

Taylour Paige's performance as protective mother Charlotte Hanlon was another standout. While not unexpected – this is the same woman who played Zola, after all – Paige's character remains one of the most interesting in the show, and despite not having the largest role in early episodes, what she does bring is compelling, and I look forward to seeing what the show does with her character beyond the first half.

So, while Welcome to Derry perhaps isn't quite the nightmare I was hoping for, it's also not a total disappointment. For horror fans, and those who consider themselves to be Constant Readers (apparently that's the name of Stephen King's fandom), it will likely scratch an itch, especially as we head into the Halloween season. But if you're tuning in to Welcome to Derry and expecting to return to exactly the same sewers as It Chapters 1 & 2, perhaps you won't be floating too.

It: Welcome to Derry is coming to Sky Atlantic and NOW on Monday 27th October 2025 – sign up for Sky TV.

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