HBO Welcome to Derry review: the prequel series just ain’t it

You’ve never had to wait this long for Hollywood to adapt another Stephen King tale, but the last couple of years have been unusually jam-packed with films and series based on the prolific author’s work. Some of the recent projects, like Carrie, The children of the cornAnd ‘Salem Field were duds that couldn’t recreate the terrifying magic that made earlier adaptations of these classic horror stories. But others, like Chuck’s life And The long walkwere (mostly) critical successes that reminded audiences how powerful King’s stories could be in the right hands of filmmakers.

This new wave of King adaptations was kicked off by Warner Bros.’ pair of relatively recent films. He features that did a wonderful job of making the classic story of kids fighting a supernatural monster feel fresh. The new one from HBO This: Welcome to Derry the prequel series has potential; we can almost see how a He a prequel delving into Pennywise’s past could be a fascinating expansion of this part of King’s work. But rather than fleshing out Derry’s history with exciting and disturbing new details, the series mostly reprises the original. Hewith a lower production budget that makes everything too chitzy to be scary.

Maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal if Welcome to Derry‘s story was more engaging if its performances were stronger or its horror moments were actually scary. But the most alarming thing about this series is how long it takes for the killer clown to show up and get to work.

Set a few decades before the events of He, Welcome to Derry zooms in on the fictional Maine town at the height of the civil rights movement. In 1962, life in Derry was calm and simple for the city’s predominantly white population. Nuclear families are the norm and no one really questions why the military recently created a secret base nearby.

Although Derry’s indigenous population has long been displaced, it’s easy for white residents to convince themselves that racism doesn’t exist in the city because local projectionist Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) is a black man. It is also easy for many Derry residents to forget how many children have gone missing in mysterious and inexplicable circumstances over the years.

But when a young boy disappears after leaving the movie theater one night, the residents of Derry are quick to place the blame on Hank and assume that he has done something nefarious to the child. Other kids in the area, like Hank’s daughter Ronnie (Amanda Christine) and classmate Lilly (Clara Stack), know the accused is innocent. But they also know that no one will believe them if they try to explain the otherworldly presence that they have identified as the real danger.

After Welcome to Derry first gives you a glimpse of one of the many forms that Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård, who also serves as executive producer) takes to scare people, it becomes very clear that showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane aren’t really interested in telling a story that feels materially different from the original. He‘s. Each of the show’s young characters has disturbing encounters with the monster long before learning its name, what it wants, or how it likes to kill children. Being stalked by Pennywise is new to everyone, but if you’ve read King’s novel or seen any of its adaptations, you can easily see how many of them Welcome to DerryThe rhythms of are inspired by the recent He movies.

The monster whispers to children from toilet sinks and appears around town disguised as adults who appear normal until they start smiling with deranged expressions on their faces. What seems a little different here is how Pennywise manages to kill a number of children who initially seem ready to become children. Welcome to Derrythe central characters of. But these surprises quickly give way to a by-the-numbers plot that seems too concerned with explaining what’s going on exhaustively.

The series struggles to maintain a real sense of suspense as it shifts its focus between its proto-Losers Club and adult characters like Air Force Maj. Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige), and General Shaw (James Remar). As newcomers to Derry, they can all sense that there is something deeply strange about the city and the way long-time residents tend to behave towards outsiders. You can feel the series trying to use its historical setting to explore how Pennywise’s presence could make life particularly dangerous for people of color unlucky enough to end up living in Derry.

Sometimes this framing (and a handful of references to DC comics) makes it seem like HBO is intended to Welcome to Derry proceed in the same way as its Guardians series. But compared to GuardiansThis prequel’s social commentary regarding racism is relatively thin, and it starts to feel somewhat hollow once the series starts trying to riff on some of the tropes that shaped King’s film. Pet Sematist.

As Welcome to Derry features supporting characters like a younger version of The shinyDick’s psychic boss Hallorann (Chris Chalk) and named locations like Shawshank Prison, you get the sense that HBO might see the series as the start of a new franchise. These details help make the series feel like a testing ground for an interconnected universe of King adaptations. Everything would be much more interesting if Welcome to Derry didn’t share as much of its narrative DNA with Stranger Things what if the series’ horror settings were a little more visually inspired. But more often than not, the show’s scares feel rushed out of necessity and the bias is more gory than truly scary, and it’s sometimes hard to get a sense of which. Welcome to DerryThe target audience of is.

The moment Pennywise appears in his iconic clown form, Welcome to Derry has already telegraphed for a long time how this is all going to end and has exhausted its ability to conjure up anything that might really surprise you. What the show needs is some real mystery and more character arcs that don’t immediately show how doomed the people of Derry are until a new group of intrepid monster slayers shows up a few years later. But from its first season, Welcome to Derry just doesn’t have what it takes to tell a story you can really sink your teeth into.

This: Welcome to Derry also stars Madeleine Stowe, Rudy Mancuso, Mikkal Karim-Fidler, Kimberly Norris Guerrero, Joshua Odjick and Morningstar Angeline. The series will premiere on October 26.