Welcome To Derry” Is So Good That I’m Somehow All In

Note: This post broadly covers episode 1 of IT: Welcome To Derry, but don’t worry if you haven’t seen it yet! No major spoilers are revealed.

I’m not a horror person, by any means.

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That said, I’m super curious — especially when there’s a scary project everyone’s excited about. And let’s say that has gotten me into trouble a few times.

You know what did not work for me? Getting caught up in all the excitement about Jordan Peele’s Us and ending up way over my head in a packed movie theater. It did not go well. My friend mimicked the raspy voice Lupita used so chillingly as we waited for an Uber home. And I cried. I cried right there on a crowded street in Brooklyn.

But here I am not learning my lesson again, because I’ve been so curious about It: Welcome to Derry. Would it freak me out? Would I have to watch at Sunday morning at 11am? Or would this be a complete no-go nightmare?

Curiosity won out, of course.

It: Welcome to Derry lands us in an eerily sleepy town in 1962. In the opener, we meet Matty Clements. He’s clearly trying to escape from something sinister. But deciding to hitch a ride with a seemingly typical family on a road trip turns down right bloody.

Once the son started spelling words like necrosis, Matty knows it’s time to be out, but it’s too late. He’s been kidnapped by this extremely twisted family.

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The opener was a LOT for me, but I needed to find out more about Matty. Is he still alive? Is he the infamous It clown? Why was he running away in the first place? Four months after his kidnapping, Matty’s friends — Teddy, Lily, and Phil — are trying to figure it out.

Phil, for one, is obsessed with aliens. Lily is just relieved to find people who believe she heard Matty talking to her through her bathroom pipes. The three, along with Phil’s little sister, Suzie, go on a search for answers.

It lands them on the doorstep of Ronnie for answers. Her father is the owner of the local theater where Matty was seen last, and has been wrongly accused of kidnapping him. She’s unsure on trusting the other kids, but she joins them so she can clear her father’s name.

Their investigation starts back at the theater, and a demon baby takes most of them out… in the FIRST episode. So we know instantly that no one is safe. And even though horror isn’t really jam, that “anything can happen” energy always gets me hooked!

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That wild scene even got Twitter talking!

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But the Derry kids (or what’s left of them) are just a handful of the characters audiences are sure to have strong feelings about. In the first episode, we also meet Major Hanlon. He heads up an airforce division that is testing out the new B-52.

From the frosty welcome he receives, it’s clear that Major Hanlon will have to deal with the human threats of racism and bias. Needless to say I’ll be tuning in weekly to support this Black excellence, and see how he handles these everyday threats.

For fans of the It franchise, It: Welcome to Derry will be thrilling, required viewing. But for my fellow scaredy cats, know that you can handle this one if you’re long awaiting that new season of Stranger Things that just never seems to come. My pro-tips: watch it in daylight, and remember there’s no shame if you have to hide under your blanket from time to time!

Are you braving It: Welcome to Derry? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Stream It: Welcome to Derry on HBO Max.

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