Can a whole city be haunted? I’m not talking about one creepy house at the end of the block with peeling paint and a "Keep Out" sign. I'm not talking about a basement you avoid after dark because it smells like wet copper. I mean the dirt. The air. The very foundations of every building in town.
The first episode of Welcome to Derry just dropped, and man, it dragged me back into that cursed town kicking and screaming—partly because I’m a total King nerd and partly because it’s just that unsettling. This isn't the Losers' Club story. We know how that ends. We've seen the slingshots and the silver slugs. This is the story of the town that let them happen, set in the peak of the 1962 post-war boom. Let me tell you right now: the "plot armor" is officially off. This is Derry in its raw, unfiltered state.
My Personal Rating: 8.5/10 🎈
(Losing 1.5 points only because I might actually need a nightlight again. My anxiety was through the roof by the twenty-minute mark.)
So, What exactly is "IT"? (A Quick Refresher for the Squad)
We all see the clown, Pennywise, right? Bill Skarsgård’s lazy eye and that drool—it’s iconic. But for the newbies, remember: that’s just a skin. A mask. "IT" is actually an ancient, cosmic nightmare from a void called the Macroverse. It’s a being of pure, chaotic energy. Its true form—the Deadlights—is a writhing mass of orange destructive force. If you look at it, your mind doesn't just "break"; it shatters like glass hitting concrete. You become a "husk," just a body with no soul left.
The coolest (and weirdest) bit of lore the show hints at? IT has a "sibling" named Maturin. A giant, ancient turtle who literally vomited out our universe because he had a stomach ache. I love King's brain, I really do. It sounds absurd, but it creates this epic scale of Creation vs. Consumption. While the Turtle creates, IT consumes. IT crashed here millions of years ago like a malevolent meteor and just... waited for us to evolve into something tasty.
It's a psychic parasite. It doesn't just eat your meat; it eats your fear. That’s why it goes for kids. Adults have boring fears—mortgage payments, infidelity, high cholesterol. But kids? Their fears are pure, visceral, and "salty." The monster under the bed is much more delicious to a cosmic entity than existential dread about a 401k.
The 27-Year Cycle of Trauma: Why Derry is a Meat Grinder
The show really leans into the "poison" of the town. Every 27 years, IT wakes up, feeds for about 12 to 18 months, and goes back to sleep. But the scariest part isn't the killing—it’s the apathy.
Derry has a murder rate six times the national average, yet everyone acts like it’s Mayberry. The adults see a kid go missing and they just... look the other way. They're complicit. They're part of the monster's "immune system." It’s that "Derry sense" where people just forget the bad stuff. It’s a psychic fog that makes human beings act like cattle.
The show mentions the historical "Feeding Frenzies":
1741: The entire first settlement—340 people—just vanishes. All they found were bloodied clothes leading to a well.
1908: The Kitchener Ironworks explosion. 102 kids died during an Easter egg hunt. Survivors said they saw a clown handing out balloons near the smoking ruins.
1935: The Bradley Gang massacre. This one is chilling because it wasn't a monster; it was the "good citizens" of Derry turning into a homicidal mob. IT just fans the flames of our worst instincts.
1962: The Black Spot fire. This is where we are now. A nightclub for Black soldiers burned down by a racist group called the Legion of White Decency. It shows that in Derry, human rot and supernatural evil are basically dating.
Episode 1: "The Pilot" (And my raw reaction)
The episode starts at the Capital Cinema playing The Music Man. Such a genius, meta choice. That movie is about a charismatic con man (Harold Hill) who tricks a town by targeting their kids. He’s a perfect mirror for Pennywise—a "charmer" who promises joy but is actually just a parasite.
We meet Maddie, a kid with a pacifier and a black eye. The pacifier is a "carving mechanism"—his version of Eddie Kaspbrak’s inhaler. He’s trying to stay small and safe. When he tries to hitchhike out of Derry (the biggest mistake any human can make), he passes a "Welcome to Derry" sign that literally features the logo for the Legion of White Decency. The rot is right there on the surface.
He gets picked up by a "perfect" 1950s family. In seconds, the dream curdles. The mother’s eyes cross (a classic Pennywise "glitch"), the car starts looping in a psychic circle, and then—in one of the most "What the hell am I watching?" moments—the mother gives birth to a leathery, winged, rotting baby. That is a deep cut from Mike Hanlon’s stories in the book. Maddie is snatched, and his pacifier floating into the sewer gave me major Georgie-boat flashbacks. It was a brutal way to start.
Meet the "New Losers" (Protect them at all costs)
We’ve got a new crew, and I’m already attached to them, which I know is a trap.
Lily: The heart of the group. Her dad died in a gruesome pickle vat accident, and the town mocks her for it. She spent time in Juniper Hill (the asylum), which connects her to every "crazy" character in King's Maine.
Teddy: His trauma is generational. Being Jewish in a town that has a "Legion of White Decency" is scary enough, but IT manifests as a lampshade made of human skin to trigger his family's Holocaust survival memories. It’s targeted, personal, and incredibly cruel.
Phil: The "Space Cadet." He’s obsessed with aliens, watching the Standpipe for UFOs. He thinks the threat is from the stars, not realizing the "alien" is already under his feet.
Ronnie: The motor-mouth. He’s the Richie Tozier of 1962.
Leroy Hanlon: This is the biggest win for me. He’s a pilot and the grandfather of Mike Hanlon. Seeing the Hanlon family history play out is going to be emotional, especially considering the racial tension of the era.
The Easter Eggs (The Nerd Stuff!)
I literally screamed when Dick Halloran showed up. Yes, the chef from The Shining! Before he went to the Overlook Hotel, he was an army cook in Derry. He has "the Shine," which means he can sense the ancient evil living in the sewers. This connects the whole King "Macroverse" in such a satisfying way.
Also, seeing "Alvin Marsh" (Beverly’s abusive dad) carved into a bathroom stall? That was a punch to the gut. It reminds us that while we’re watching this new story, little Bev is probably somewhere in town right now, suffering. The timeline is so tight and well-constructed.
The Ending: That Projector Scene...
The kids think Maddie is trapped in the cinema, so they go on a rescue mission. The theater is empty, the film starts warping, and Maddie appears on the screen—exactly like Georgie appearing to Bill in the basement.
But this wasn't a warning shot. When the nightmare family burst through the silver screen into the real world, the physics of the room just broke. It was chaotic, loud, and bloody. Susie—one of the kids—gets her arms ripped off. It’s IT’s signature move, a calling card of ultimate contempt.
It tells us right away: Nobody is safe. There is no "Turtle" protecting these kids yet. There are no silver slugs. They are just witnesses to a horror no one will ever believe.
Final Thoughts: If you’re a fan of the books or the movies, you have to watch this. It’s dark, it’s personal, and it explores the "banality of evil"—how human hatred provides the perfect soil for a monster to grow. I’m strapped in for the rest of the season, but I’m definitely keeping the lights on tonight.
Who else saw that Dick Halloran cameo and lost their mind? And that winged baby?! Let's dissect this in the comments! 🎈
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