It: Welcome to Derry left us a Halloween surprise in the form of a small, 30 minute prequel. What a fun, bite-sized treat to close out the spooky season with!
Is this basically just an expansion of Taniel’s flashback where he told Dick all about how his people became the guardians of the monster Yes? I’ve read some claims that this was mostly cobbled together from cut scenes of it, but I haven’t been able to verify that.
It does feel like it could be true, though, and there were a few images that I’m fairly certain were identical (mainly the big overhead shot of all the fires being lit). It featured many of the same characters as well, such as Sesqui and her daughter, Necani.
While I did appreciate the use of Penobscot to open and close the episode, I would have preferred it if they either used it throughout or just stuck with English the whole time. As it stood, the transition between them felt a little awkward and clunky.
But awkward and clunky is something that I could call the whole episode. Thirty minutes, including a few minutes of credits, really limits what you can achieve. Everything would have breathed a lot better if we had a little bit more extra time.
The individual scenes were great. Sesqui’s battle against Pennywise was well shot, and she felt like a competent, brave warrior who didn’t let her fear overwhelm her until the very end. The infected priest also looked appropriately creepy and disturbing, especially before his limbs got all elongated.
The problems came more from the disjointed connections between scenes. For example, Zahn McClarnon chewed through scenery with gusto and was a really unpredictable presence, but the transitions from savior to kooky guy in the woods to really disturbing guy in the woods to cannibal worshipping Pennywise as a god were very abrupt. I didn’t even trust the sight of the dead bodies at first because I assumed that they were a hallucination, something that Pennywise was doing in order to create fear and drive the kids away from him.
The idea of someone luring in victims while simultaneously keeping himself protected by the dagger is really interesting, especially since he apparently had a direct connection to Maturin, the turtle deity thanks to whatever plant he was smoking. Those are two conflicting stances that just aren’t explored at all.
The entire tribe going from “we’re moving” to “yes, we’ll follow the vision of a young girl thanks to something that we know nothing about” also happened basically entirely off screen. We just needed a bit more time! That’s all!
It also would have let us have more horror sequences. Like I said, Sesqui’s battle with Pennywise was great, but the scene where it was menacing the kids was painfully short. I would have liked to see each kid face a fear instead of them just being grouped into one.
Still, if you enjoyed It: Welcome to Derry, then you’ll enjoy this treat. If you get really excited over Stephen King lore, you might want to check this out too, if only for the Maturin of it all.
Random Thoughts
Why was Pennywise called the Galloo in the show but the Kullo here? I don’t know. It feels like a weird change.
Always love to see Zahn McClarnon on my screen. This is his second time in a Stephen King adaptation. He was also one of the villains in Doctor Sleep.
It really isn’t Welcome to Derry without some kind of monster baby. It’s actually a little concerning just how often that pops up.
If you can’t find the episode, that’s because it’s technically under its own heading. Look under the Related tab, and it should be there.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
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