IT: WELCOME TO DERRY

As a voracious reader of everything Stephen King has ever written and a huge fan of the ‘IT’ miniseries and subsequent two films, this series was the cherry on top. A prequel to ‘IT: Chapter one’, ‘IT: WELCOME TO DERRY’ begins in 1962 with the disappearance of local boy Matty Clements. Months later, Major Leroy Hanlon (Johan Adepo), his wife Charlotte (Taylour Paige) and their son Will (Blake Cameron James) move to Derry, Maine, a picturesque and seemingly quiet town. A group of teens, Lilly (Clara Stack), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), Marge (Matilda Lawler) and Richie (Arian S. Cartaya) begin to have terrifying visions of a monstrous shape-shifting clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). Every 27 years Pennywise awakens and goes on a killing spree, mostly targeting children to feast on. With his grotesque appearance, bulbous head and eerie voice, he gains power from the hate and fear of others, and the racial tensions in Derry make it his perfect hunting ground. U.S. military base commander General Francis Shaw (James Remar) has a naive understanding of how sewer-dwelling Pennywise functions but is secretly trying to capture him to use him as a weapon to end the Cold War. He orders Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk) a psychic character who is also in ‘The Shining’, and Hanlon, whose past brain injury from combat has left him unable to feel fear, to locate him. This series delves into the origins of amateur entertainer Bob Grey’s transformation from a devoted father to an evil entity. The entire cast are phenomenal, particularly the child actors and of course Skarsgård who embodies Pennywise with every fibre of his being. While the momentum builds, you’ll need to wait until episode five for him to fully appear, but when he does it is oh so bittersweet. His scenes are the most visceral and you won’t forget his wet, slobbery mouth in a hurry. Rumoured to have cost $80 million US dollars in total to make, the elaborate sets, time period details and visual effects give it a cinematic, big-screen feel. Graphic, brutal and chilling, this is a superb addition to the Stephen King universe.