🎈IT: Welcome to Derry (2025) Review — The Birth of a Monster, The Death of Innocence

There’s something about Derry that never lets go. The town breathes like a living thing — whispering, watching, waiting. And now, with HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, that nightmare has a heartbeat again.

Serving as a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s IT films, this series dives deep into how the town became cursed — and how the creature we know as Pennywise the Dancing Clown first emerged. The result? A dark, stunningly crafted, and emotionally heavy origin story that proves fear is hereditary in more ways than one.

“Stephen King’s universe expands once more with HBO’s IT: Welcome to Derry, a bone-chilling origin story that explores the dark heart of Derry, Maine. Here’s our full review of the prequel series starring Bill Skarsgård.”

🧠 A Return to the Roots of Horror

Set in the early 1960s, Welcome to Derry feels like a time capsule cracked open to reveal something rotten inside. The Hanlon family arrives in town just as children begin to vanish, and from that moment, dread seeps into every corner.

The series manages something rare — it feels both intimate and mythic. While the films showed us what fear does, the show explores where it begins. Andy and Barbara Muschietti, alongside writer Jason Fuchs, expand Stephen King’s world with meticulous detail and a surprising amount of heart.

There’s horror, yes — but also grief, guilt, and the chilling realization that sometimes the real monsters are the ones who look human.

🎭 Bill Skarsgård: More Than a Monster

When Bill Skarsgård steps back into Pennywise’s oversized shoes, it’s not just a return — it’s a revelation. This time, he’s not just the boogeyman in the drain; he’s the whisper that starts the story.

Skarsgård’s performance is subtler, sadder, and even more unsettling than before. He gives Pennywise a tragic weight — a creature born out of loneliness and rage, learning how to weaponize laughter and fear. There’s a moment in Episode 2 when he tilts his head and simply smiles — and it’s pure nightmare fuel.

He doesn’t need dialogue. The silence is the scream.

💔 The Hanlons and the Heart of Derry

Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo shine as Charlotte and Leroy Hanlon, whose arrival in Derry sets off a chain of chilling events. Their performances ground the show in reality — showing that Derry’s horror isn’t just supernatural; it’s systemic. Racism, paranoia, and grief all feed the same evil that lurks in the sewers.

Adepo’s portrayal of Leroy — a soldier struggling to hold his family together in a town that seems to reject them — is quietly devastating. Paige, meanwhile, gives Charlotte the kind of strength that makes every scream feel earned. Together, they bring warmth to a world gone cold.

🎥 A Masterclass in Unease

Andy Muschietti directs several key episodes, and his fingerprints are everywhere — the way light flickers off a balloon, the long pauses before a scream, the feeling that something is always watching just off-frame.

The production design is stunning: pastel houses, flickering cinemas, and empty playgrounds drenched in fog. It’s 1962 Americana — but it feels haunted. The music choices, from The Music Man to soft jazz tunes, create an eerie calm that makes every moment of terror hit harder.

Muschietti once said that fear is most effective “when you care about who’s afraid.” Welcome to Derry proves him right.

💀 The Town That Never Sleeps

What makes Derry truly terrifying isn’t Pennywise — it’s Derry itself. The series treats the town like a sentient being: always hungry, always whispering. Every building hides a memory, every sewer hides a secret.

You begin to realize that evil here doesn’t start — it festers. And like the 27-year cycle King made famous, this story feels both new and inevitable.

📺 Streaming Info

• Title: IT: Welcome to Derry (Season 1)

• Streaming On: HBO

• Release Date: October 26, 2025

• Episodes: 8

• Genre: Supernatural Horror, Drama

• Creators: Andy Muschietti, Barbara Muschietti, Jason Fuchs

• Main Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Taylour Paige, Jovan Adepo, Chris Chalk, Madeleine Stowe

🎈 Final Thoughts — The Horror Event of the Year

IT: Welcome to Derry isn’t just a prequel; it’s a reinvention of what horror television can be. It’s smart, atmospheric, beautifully acted, and deeply unsettling. It reminds us that fear isn’t just about monsters — it’s about history, grief, and the stories we bury.

Bill Skarsgård delivers one of his best performances yet, while the Muschiettis prove once again that they understand not just Stephen King’s words, but his heart.

This is prestige horror done right — haunting, human, and hypnotic.

⭐ 5/5 — A chilling masterpiece that makes you afraid to turn off the lights… or look down a drain.