There’s a moment in IT: Chapter Two where a monstrous leprosy victim, who so scares the hypochondriac character Eddie, vomits into his face to the tune of Angel of the Morning. It’s a moment so deeply incongruous, so bafflingly odd that it felt as if the editor had either mixed up the tapes, or was simply very drunk. It was also the moment where it became very clear that the IT project had veered wildly off he rails and wouldn’t be able to deliver on the mildly promised potential of the first chapter.
When 2017’s adaptation of the first half of Stephen King’s 1986 novel rose from the storm drain and into the cinemas, many people (including me) were pleasantly surprised. IT had a fantastic central cast that bounced off each other wonderfully, a haunting score, and aside from one too many jump scares, felt like a refreshing take on a classic story that wasn’t afraid to show some disturbing moments.
The casting of Pennywise, too, felt like a genuine strike of oil, with the excellent Bill Skarsgård bringing so many of his own practical effects to the role, including his mildly terrifying ability to manipulate his eye stalks like a demonic Marty Feldman.
Then the sequel happened, posing the question: just how do you serve up the least interesting part of King’s original story and make it suddenly interesting? The film-makers decided to assemble a cast that on paper sounded like a winner, but in practice was a solid thud. They also padded out the story with some horrible CGI, lacklustre set pieces, and de-aged the main kids from the first film in some hastily put-together flashbacks – such was the fear that they’d lose that first-film magic.
Now, in 2025, IT: Welcome to Derry has arrived. Set 27 years before the events of the first film, the HBO streaming show aims to provide a three-season story arc tackling a different time period in each to really get to the bottom of who Pennywise the Clown is, what makes him tick, and if he’s ever been friends with a New York financier or indeed visited his island.
The first obstacle for the show-runners is “how do you continue this story in an interesting and fresh way and try to break new narrative ground as you do it?” After the first couple of episodes the answer seems to be that you just can’t.
The only real ace they have up their sleeve is that Pennywise hasn’t shown up properly yet, his place instead taken by a menagerie of computer-generated threatless beasts, including a winged demon baby that looks like Gregg Wallace after he’s been put in a teleporter with a KFC bucket.
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Other than that, we’re already doing the same things over and over, with voices coming from sinkholes, missing people appearing in something someone is watching and smiling at them, as well as inanimate objects moving in a very non-scary way.
All are brought to life with soulless computer-generated whatever-the-opposite-of-flair is, and the usual overly loud telegraphed bang scares and over-the-top body movements. It’s scored with a detuned fax machine to really sell that you are watching something scary.
They’ve tried to spice things up a bit with references to and characters from other King works, but this all really comes across like the creaking seams on a stretched waistcoat ready to burst.
However, the biggest eye-roll, one that even Bill Skarsgård would be hard-pushed to replicate, is a subplot of the government trying to weaponise a child-killing clown, which in terms of government schemes is up there with sending raptors into war, or sending Jimmy Savile into space.
That there is a bounty of gold in the Stephen King hills is undeniable. He has written 65 books, and that’s a lot of material to draw from. What’s also undeniable is that there must be better out there than this.
Following in the wake of other King adaptations that came out just this year – the underrated The Long Walk, and the life-affirming Life of Chuck – you have to wonder if more care can be taken to make something like IT: Welcome to Derry a bit more scary, and a little less loud and dull?
How on earth can they squeeze three seasons out of a lemon that is already just passing pure scented air?
IT: Welcome to Derry is streaming in the UK on Now.
John Rain is the host of Smershpod
