It: Welcome to Derry

"Derry" has a distinct point of view, aesthetic and rhythm to it that is very easy to get lost in.

Assured, atmospheric, and full of eerie, unnerving dread, the series doesn’t reinvent King’s world—it enriches it.

King diehards will be impressed by how faithfully the show recreates IT’s atmosphere of fetid, rising dread. Even Derry Girls fans who have switched on in confusion might be convinced to stick around – at least until the geysers of gore get going and the body parts pile up.

Welcome to Derry excels in juggling its numerous storylines (so far) and offers great showcases for actors Chris Chalk and Jovan Adepo, as well as its countless scene-stealing child stars. It’s unclear if the HBO show will be able stick its scary landing, but the first batch of episodes prove to be spine-chilling fun this spooky season.

The first episode accomplishes its most important task of re-establishing Derry and Pennywise with style and some expertly-drawn out tension, though some of the more CG-heavy scares fall flat.

“Derry” dribbles out character details episode-by-episode through five (of eight) episodes made available for review, routinely connecting seemingly disparate characters. That “Stand by Me”-meets-“Stranger Things” vibe of the first episode returns in episode three, thankfully, since it’s the show’s most potent element.

It’s ghoulish fun to see it all play out, but “Welcome to Derry’s” ambition sometimes outstrips its execution. The special effects can look corny and the story overloads us with too many characters. But each are given King-sized personalities.

Here, either it’s assumed we know more, or character development was a casualty of the writing process. Either way, some characters are written pretty thin. Luckily, the young actors are all engaging, making up for a lot of that. And if you like horror — it sounds as if horror would be self-evident in a horror series, but fans of the genre know it can be surprisingly lacking — “It: Welcome to Derry” won’t disappoint. At least not much.

It turned out a Stephen King story about an ageless evil that arises every 27 years is tailor-made for a prequel.

"Easter eggs" ease us into the discomfort zone we’ve come to expect from adaptations of the horror King. It's not as clever a brand extension as FX's superb Alien: Earth, and if this isn't top-tier King—it’s not even the best It—it's far from the worst.

Viewers looking for Stand by Me or even HBO’s King adaptation of The Outsider may be disappointed by the conventional plot and surface-level gestures at difficult topics like race in America, Native American erasure, and Cold War parallels, but those looking for invention, captivating characters, and flying two-headed newborns, IT: Welcome to Derry has a place for you to stay.

Whether or not "Welcome to Derry" over explains things remains to be seen. One thing is certain, though: the show is consistently bloody, with a mean streak that might catch some viewers off guard.

Unfortunately, some of the most unsettling moments of terror and gore to grace the small screen are contrasted here by some of the cheapest and corniest. .... There’s still surprising depth to Welcome to Derry’s overarching allegory of evil. Having an antagonist who feeds on fear, then drastically expanding those fears on a macro level of a still-segregated society, is smart, timely, and more frightening than most of the show’s actual scares.

It: Welcome to Derry is not going to trouble the top tier of TV adaptations in the King pantheon (including the 1990 version of It wherein Tim Curry’s Pennywise made coulrophobics of us all) but it is solidly entertaining stuff – on a par with Under the Dome, say, rather than the dismal recent offering that was The Institute – and should give fans the nightmares of their dreams.

A strong return to an imperfect horror world. Turns out, clowns are still very upsetting on the small screen.

The kids — also including Marge (Matilda Lawler, the secret weapon of “Station Eleven” and “The Santa Clauses”), Lilly’s socially desperate friend — are the strongest element in the story and the show; their energy overwhelms the obviousness of the narrative, and whatever takes us away from them, into pace-slowing side plots, is time less well spent.

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 satisfy, 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.

Thanks mainly to the performances of Paige, Adepo, and Chalk, IT: Welcome to Derry is not without its storytelling merits, even if none of them are all that scary.

As is, we’ve got some effective scares, but acting, and especially writing, that can’t live up to the series’ pedigree.

“Welcome to Derry” feels like a lesser imitation of the Netflix phenomenon ["Stranger Things"] in almost every way. “Things” mythology and monsters are cooler, the characters are generally richer with more complex psychology, and the evocation of smalltown 1980s isn’t as hamfisted (nor anachronistic) as this show’s early ‘60s. .... The Muschietti team has certainly set up potentially intriguing storylines in these first five chapters, so who knows where it could all go.

For the first five episodes, Welcome to Derry fluctuates between dialogue-heavy scenes that incrementally further parallel mysteries (which we know must eventually lead to Pennywise in the sewers) and overwrought, traumatic backstories that force actors into a uniform state of skittishness and desperation.

Episodes strain to touch on those fan-favorite aspects almost as often as they work to expand the Stephen King universe from within (even incorporating a missing kid plot reminiscent of “It: Chapter One”). But an engine fueled by filling in the blanks isn’t built to last, and these dots, once connected, prove tacky and sour.

It’s both surprising and ultimately frustrating, then, that Welcome to Derry isn’t so much a further adaptation of the novel as a half-baked attempt at a prequel, an elaborate but ultimately vapid work of King fanfiction dumped into an entertainment landscape that already boasts no shortage of such endeavors.

The creators have opted to basically replicate the core plot of the movie/book and fill in the gaps with what feel like third-tier King devices and clichés.

Welcome to Derry has flashes of good ideas buried within the franchise machinery, but without the novel’s sturdy spine, it never stands upright.

It does have a decent story structure and execution, but also a sameness to other similar series in the genre that makes it impossible for it to stand out in any real way. It's just another installment to an IP that will likely satisfy die-hard fans of Stephen King's novel (and its numerous adaptations who are hungry for more details and backstories, but barely anybody else who isn't as obsessed and devoted to it.

It’s a show that’s too often stuck in first gear, only coming to life in its big, surreal set pieces and lacking almost everywhere else. It also suffers from that common plague of the streaming era: It takes forever to get where it’s obviously going.

The worst King adaptation in many moons.