'Hey, Stranger Things peeps – it's 1962, we were "kids on bikes" first. You too, Goonies.' Photos: Handout
There's a wealth of depth and expanse to the universe of woes and wonders crafted by Stephen King, and the happy news is that we have an ever-widening field of storytellers eager to explore its darker corners (they're all dark, Davey).
In recent years, we've had Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, the Carrie TV show), Osgood Perkins (The Monkey), Francis Lawrence (The Long Walk) and Edgar Wright (The Running Man), among others, tackling King-related projects with varied but usually good results.
And now, Argentinian filmmaker Andy Muschietti returns to the slayground that made him Hollywood-famous – Derry, the blighted New England town from his 2017 and 2019 movies based on King's controversial doorstopper It.
Welcome To Derry is a planned three-season prequel to It, which the creators (Muschietti, his older sister Barbara, and Jason Fuchs) have said will be told in reverse, with each successive season going further back in time to one of the evil entity's "active periods".
Having watched the first season to the halfway mark (though Episode Five will be out by the time this is published), I can vouch for the fact that this is a trip worth taking – just brace for some speed bumps and potholes.
'I'm scared, Dad. That evil entity's been telling me you did horrible things in WWII... like blowing up a whole secret lab full of mutant Nazi experiments.'
Said entity – which, it bears noting, only occasionally manifests itself as the evil clown Pennywise – preys on children, terrorising them relentlessly before claiming their lives; while leaving adults hapless and (almost wilfully) clueless to the young ones' suffering.
The players in this initial 1960s-set season come together fairly quickly, although there's a huge red herring early on as to this era's version of the Losers Club. This little speed bump ends in spectacularly hideous fashion, as the showrunners drive home the point that It doesn't set much of a lower age limit for its victims.
Soon, most of them are in place: from fearless pilot Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo) to traumatised schoolgirl Lilly (Clara Stack), local indigenous rights activist Rose (Kimberly Norris Guerrero) to veteran soldier General Francis Shaw (James Remar), town projectionist's daughter Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine) to Airman Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk). Among many others, of course.
Wait, what was that last name again? That's the other treat for Kingverse fans: it's reliable old Psychic Dick from The Shining (though I prefer to base my memories of the character on his prose appearances, not the mati katak jabroni from the Stanley Kubrick movie).
It's more than an Easter egg – it's a full-fledged crossover, as Hallorann plays a vital role in unravelling the mystery and misery of It, thanks to his gift of "the shine".
'OK, this shot should silence all those complainers who keep whining that Pennywise hasn't shown up yet.'
With so many characters involved here, it's a relief that the story is broken up over eight parts to let things breathe better.
Sure, there are a few obvious "hammer time" moments for a load of social messages to be driven in, but otherwise, the main price to be paid is some diffusiveness in the narration.
This just makes it incumbent upon the viewer to... bloody well pay attention.
Other tolls imposed upon us are the occasionally ill-fitting imagery and dodgy CGI (urgh, just had a The Flash flashback) that detract from the otherwise finely woven horror.
Cases in point: the 1970s throwback demon baby from the first episode (I'm thinking It's Alive meets a Terry Gilliam animation), and the third episode's cemetery chase ghouls that look like they strayed out of a Ghostbusters VFX work-in-progress server.
But every subsequent episode has redeemed the lapses of the previous one so far. In a showstopping second episode sequence, poor Lilly's supermarket trip turns into increasingly unnerving, claustrophobic and ultimately soul-crushing horror (especially if you paid attention, Constant Viewer, to what was said about her father in the first episode).
Then, after the fourth episode is done showing us the entity's increasingly nasty haunting of the Losers (including an eyeballs-on-stalks hallucination that left me close to hysterics), we get to see Hallorann's shine in action – delivering a lengthy and enthralling flashback that unfolds a wee bit of It's (grammar nazis, should that be "Its"?) more recent backstory.
So yes, It: Welcome To Derry has been a bit off-on-off-on so far, but overall, the tapestry being woven has the makings of a compelling and haunting saga that neatly expands on the original, a trip to the past that feels both familiar and fresh. And always freaky.
New episodes of It: Welcome To Derry arrive on HBO Max every Monday.
Summary:
The Galloo that holds us together.
