Stephen King's terrifying world of Derry, Maine, has returned for a new series, which begins with an undeniable bang. Serving as a prequel to Andy Muschiett's It films (2017 and 2019), HBO's Welcome to Derry takes place in 1962, following a new group of adults and kids terrorized by the mysterious entity.
With Andy and Barbara Muschietti as EPs—and Andy as director—showrunners Jason Fuchs and Brad Caleb Kane bring fans an entertaining new look at a familiar world, and the premiere is a pretty solid introduction. At least, it doesn't shy away from blood and gore, which is what I'm looking for.
A jaw-dropping opening scene
The premiere opens up with an unforgettable sequence, which definitely hooked me right away. We meet a young boy named Matty (Miles Ekhardt), who, after being caught sneaking into a movie theater, is chased out by an angry employee. But not before he interacts with the theater manager Hank's (Stephen Rider) daughter, Ronnie (Amanda Christine), who helps him get away.
Matty attempts to hitchhike away from Derry and gets picked up by a family who, at least in the beginning, seem super wholesome. There's a pregnant mom, a dad, and two kids. They tell him they're headed to Portland, which is great for Matty, but he soon realizes that's not the case at all. And actually, these people are very dangerous.
The scene ends in a fantastic horror sequence, seeing the mom give birth to a… demon baby with wings? It flies throughout the car and attacks Matty, leaving him presumably dead. But we don't see the body, and we can assume we're not done with him just yet.
Present day: April 1962
We then cut to the present day, which is in April 1962. It's been four months since Matty went missing, and his friends are feeling his absence. We meet several characters here. There are school kids Lilly (Clara Stack) and Marge (Matilda Lawler) and Phil (Jack Molloy Legault) and Teddy (Mikkal Karim-Fidler), then there's Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), who's just arrived in Derry to work at an Air Force base.
While Marge is desperate to fit in with the popular girls, Lilly is more reserved and gets bullied. Meanwhile, Phil and Teddy are a bit geeky, and their dynamic is fun and entertaining. The show is obviously trying to find its next Losers Club, but will they be compelling enough as the iconic kids of It? I'm doubtful.
As for Leroy, he's shown around the base alongside another new member, his colleague and friend Captain Pauly Russo (Rudy Mancuso), and the mention of "secret projects" piques their interest. We also get to meet General Shaw (James Remar), their new boss, and we see a quick appearance from Dick Halorann (Chris Chalk), who horror fans will know from The Shining. He'll be more prominent in future episodes.
We learn more about Leroy's new job throughout the episode, namely how he's meant to test out a new B-52 plane. He has trouble with one of the airmen, who doesn't treat him with respect—not explicitly said, but very likely because Leroy is Black—and General Shaw shows him support.
Lilly thinks back at moments with Matty before his disappearance, remembering a secret hangout spot he had shown her that overlooked Derry. During this flashback, we learn of a trauma Lilly went through and why, unfortunately, kids at school bully her. She recalls the death of her father, who worked at a jarring mill. One day, when she and her mom went to pick him up, she had left a toy inside, and when her dad went inside to get it for her, a machine malfunctioned, and it killed him.
Lilly feels responsible for her father's death, something Matty had consoled her about.
In the present day, Phil and Teddy discuss their friendship with Matty, with Teddy feeling guilty that they didn't show up to his birthday.
Voices from the drain
In the bathroom at home, Lilly is alarmed when she starts hearing voices coming out of the bathtub drain. She listens closely, and it sounds like someone is singing. She thinks it could be Matty, but becomes terrified when two bloody fingers reach out. She tries to tell Marge about it the next day at school, but she doesn't believe her. She's scared that Lilly's claims will cause even more bullying.
Not knowing where else to turn, Lilly goes to the secret hangout spot looking for Phil and Teddy. But while Teddy hears out her story, they don't believe her. That is, not until something happens to Teddy, too.
While eating dinner with his family, Teddy tries to ask his dad about kids being kidnapped, but his dad doesn't want to hear it. As Jewish Americans, he tells Teddy a horrifying story about their family's experience in the Holocaust, where people's faces were used as lampshades. He urges Teddy to focus on the real world instead of reading comic books.
Later that night, while reading—yes, comic books, of course—in bed, Teddy faces a disturbing attack when faces appear on his lampshade. His brother then walks in, and they disappear, but the incident is scary enough for Teddy to start believing Lilly's story.
At last, Teddy, Phil, and Lilly are on the same page: They need to figure out what really happened to Matty. Their first stop is the library, where they read newspaper articles about Matty's disappearance. This leads them to The Capitol, the movie theater where he was last seen. They try to speak with Ronnie, but because the police bothered her dad so much about the disappearance, she doesn't want to talk to them. That's until she hears about the voices from the drains.
As it turns out, Ronnie heard voices at the movie theater, too, and she agrees to take the group there.
Before the big movie theater conclusion—which, spoiler alert, doesn't end well—we also get a scene of Leroy in his room at the base at night, in which he is attacked by multiple masked men. They claim to be looking for classified information, and even though he almost gets killed, he won't tell them anything. Pauly comes in and helps fight them off.
A massacre in the movie theater
As big as the opening scene of Welcome to Derry is, the ending is also a very awesome horror sequence. The group of kids ends up at the movie theater, including Phil's poor little sister, and they sit down to watch a scene from The Music Man. Lilly quickly identifies the song as what the voice in the drain was singing, but she doesn't understand why. For more context, this is the movie that's playing at the start of the episode when Matty sneaks into the theater.
As the kids watch The Music Man, they notice Matty is there, inside the movie, standing alongside a crowd of people. They start calling his name, and he hears them, though he doesn't want to listen. He feels betrayed by his friends and refuses to come out. He's holding a baby, who is covered in a blanket, and you can probably guess which baby that is…
Yes, it's revealed to be that same flying demon baby from the show's opening. The creature flies out of the movie and into the theater and goes after everyone. As it flies around, it also grows rapidly in size, and unfortunately for this group of Derry kids, it's deadly. The monster kills everyone besides Lilly and Ronnie, with the episode ending with a killer scream from the former.
You can't deny that's a memorable way to end an episode.
So far, Welcome to Derry is entertaining me enough to keep watching. Though I still feel a sense of, "Why are we making this show?" as a diehard It fan, there are a few standout scenes for me. It's no secret that the Muschiettis know how to do horror. But can they, and the showrunners, deliver a story that makes it worth revisiting Derry? We'll see.
Stream new episodes of Welcome to Derry every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max, and check back with us here at Show Snob for our recap of episode 2!