This Isn't The Movies
If you watched the It films - either the recent ones with Bill Skarsgård or the 1990 miniseries - you know what to expect from Pennywise. Creepy clown. Kids in danger. Some scary moments. Overall family-friendly-ish horror that balances scares with heart.
IT: Welcome to Derry is NOT that.
This is Pennywise unfiltered. This is what happens when you take the R-rating seriously and HBO lets you actually explore the darkness Stephen King wrote about.
Critics are saying this is "far more disturbing than anything in either It films." They're not exaggerating.
One reviewer - a self-described "seasoned horror buff" - said there's a body-horror sequence "the likes of which I have never seen before."
Coming from someone who watches horror professionally? That's a statement.
The Atmosphere Does Heavy Lifting
What makes Episode 1 work isn't just shock value. It's the ATMOSPHERE.
The show is set in the 1960s, and the production design is impeccable. Everything feels period-accurate but slightly wrong. Like you're watching history through a funhouse mirror.
Derry looks normal. Charming, even. Small-town America with diners and theaters and friendly neighbors.
But there's this pervasive sense of wrongness underneath. The way people interact. The way the camera lingers just slightly too long on ordinary things. The sound design that makes silence feel threatening.
You're watching mundane scenes - people going about their lives - and your entire nervous system is screaming that something is WRONG.
That's masterful horror direction. That's understanding that dread is scarier than blood.
The Violence Hits Different
Here's where I need to be careful not to spoil anything, but this show doesn't pull punches.
When bad things happen, they happen BRUTALLY. Not gratuitously - there's purpose to the violence - but without the safety net you're used to from mainstream horror.
The It movies had scary moments, sure. But they also had guardrails. There were limits to what they'd show, what they'd do to characters.
Welcome to Derry removed those guardrails.
Multiple critics noted it's "strikingly gory" and warned parents to "keep your kids away from this one."
As someone who watches extreme horror regularly, I'm telling you: they're not being dramatic. This show goes THERE in ways the films couldn't.
I literally told my teenage boy this morning, “Hell No, you're not watching this one”.
Pennywise Is Genuinely Terrifying Again
Bill Skarsgård made Pennywise iconic in the films. But there was always a performative quality to it - you could see the actor having fun with the role, which worked! But it also created distance.
In Welcome to Derry, Pennywise feels ANCIENT. EVIL. Not a scary clown performing scares, but something genuinely malevolent that's been terrorizing Derry for centuries and doesn't need to try to be scary - it just IS.
The show taps into what made King's novel so unsettling: Pennywise as cosmic horror. An entity that doesn't just kill - it FEEDS on fear and suffering. And it's been doing this forever.
One of the hardest things to do in modern horror is to surprise people. We've all seen enough that we can usually predict where scares are coming from.
Welcome to Derry, managed to keep me off-balance. The pacing is WEIRD in the best way - it doesn't follow predictable horror beats. Scenes that should be safe aren't. Moments you think are leading somewhere go completely different directions.
Critics noted the "clever crafting of suspense and unpredictability creates a disturbing aura."
As someone who usually sees horror coming from a mile away, that unpredictability is REFRESHING. And deeply unsettling.
Why This Works When Other Horror Doesn't
I think what separates Welcome to Derry from forgettable horror is that it understands the difference between SCARING you and DISTURBING you.
Jump scares wear off. Gore becomes wallpaper. But genuine disturbance - that feeling that something is fundamentally wrong - that LINGERS.
This show goes for disturbance. It gets under your skin and stays there. Hours after watching, I was still thinking about it. Still feeling uneasy.
That's what horror is SUPPOSED to do.
The Body Horror Element
Without spoiling anything specific: if you have ANY sensitivity to body horror, be warned.
The show features sequences that are physically uncomfortable to watch. Not gratuitous - narratively justified - but INTENSE.
Even for me, there were moments I had visceral reactions.
That's impressive. That's pushing boundaries in ways that feel purposeful rather than exploitative.
The Verdict
IT: Welcome to Derry Episode 1 is the best kind of horror: the kind that reminds you why you fell in love with being scared in the first place.
If you're a casual horror fan, this might be too much. If you're desensitized like me and have been chasing that feeling of REAL fear for years? This delivers.
It's not perfect - no pilot episode is. But it's EFFECTIVE. It establishes tone, stakes, and genuine terror in ways that promise this series is going to be something special.
I went in expecting decent horror TV. I got something that actually scared me.
That's worth celebrating. And worth warning you about.
If you watch horror to feel something again - to push past the desensitization and find genuine fear - Welcome to Derry totally delivers.
Just maybe don't watch it alone. Or before bed. Or if you're planning to sleep peacefully anytime soon.
Consider yourself warned.