‘It’ was already one of Stephen King’s best-selling books, but it reinforced its popularity in the 90s with the miniseries in which Tim Curry himself from ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ was in charge of playing the villain, traumatizing (more than) a generation of children and leading to the ruin of children’s party clowns around the world. For those who are not familiar with the premise: a cosmic horror wakes up every 27 years to feed on the children of Derry, and both the book and the miniseries showed us the past and present of the protagonist gang, who managed to defeat it (or so they thought) and who, 27 years later, have to meet again to put an end to It.
This two-time narrative was changed when the book went to the big screen a few years ago: it was made with two films, the first (2017) set in the past and the second (2019) in the present, with uneven results both at the box office and with critics. And time is once again a factor, because what comes to us from HBO is a prequel to the book.
A priori, ‘Welcome to Derry’ repeats a scheme, a scheme from which ‘Stranger Things’ clearly draws (especially from its T4), with a gang of several boys and a girl who decide to join together to investigate what is happening in Derry and defeat the evil Pennywise… but that scheme is blown up in the pilot episode. And one of the main virtues of this series is its courage (sometimes directly sudapollismo) when it comes to dealing with the original material, and going beyond what has already been stated.
In fact, the group ends up being three girls and two boys, compared to the gang that we already knew of only one girl in the group (which, due to the treatment given to Bev’s character, was one of its weak points). ‘Welcome to Derry’ even dares with a kind of Stephen King MCU that ranges from winks to his universe (‘The Mist’) to direct character appearances (Dick Hallorann from ‘The Shining’).
Andy Muschietti, responsible for the 2017 and 2019 films, is also the creator of the series, also directing several of the episodes. In interviews he had commented that he had to cut back a bit in the movies because he wanted to have been more of a beast, and here it seems that he gets even, becoming clear from the first scene, and of course with its groovy opening (where ‘A Smile and a Ribbon’, by the 50s duo Patience and Prudence, plays). This commitment to terror is a success, and also not to abuse Pennywise: it gives the series and its characters their own entity, expands the mythology of the saga and creates more expectation for these appearances. Bill Skarsgard repeats this, of course, joining a not very well-known cast, where only Jovan Adepo (star of ‘The Three Body Problem’), James Remar (the father of ‘Dexter’) and, of course, the iconic Madeleine Stowe will be familiar to you.
But it is another success to pay attention to the mystery and the history of these characters, managing not to fall into the typical gang of repellent children and not to “try too hard” in this regard. And the friendship between Lilly, Mike, Ronnie, Marge and Richie makes us slowly grow fond of them, and we even shed a few tears. Furthermore, the point of historical commentary regarding social struggles is very well integrated, reminiscent in that sense of the excellent adaptation of ‘Watchmen’ that HBO also made. At a certain point in history, we wonder who is scarier, the supernatural or humans.
In short, ‘Welcome to Derry’ has been a magnificent surprise, which also – without going into spoilers – we know will have a continuation: Muschietti had already said before the premiere that with this season he wanted to “open a window” and that “the story will truly manifest itself in the 2nd and 3rd seasons”, and the audience garnered by the series seems to pave the way for him (its premiere was the third most watched in the history of HBO, and since then it has been gaining viewers week by week). The second will go 27 years in the past, taking place in the Great Depression and addressing the Bradley Gang Massacre (inspired by the Brady Gang). These characters will not be there, but if we have given Ryan Murphy 12 votes of confidence for ‘American Horror Story’, I think Muschietti deserves that we let ourselves be carried away by what he wants to tell us now.
