Well, the pressure is really starting to build in Derry, but not all of it is coming from the hate radiating, shapeshifting clown that lurks in the sewers and crunches the occasional child. No, thanks to some savvy scheduling by Netflix, It: Welcome To Derry is now the other period piece show currently showing featuring kids from a small American town under siege from an otherworldly monster who can go inside your mind and attack you with your greatest fears thanks to the final season of Stranger Things roaring into town and making a lot of noise.
However, Pennywise is no slouch and Stephen King’s most notorious creation isn’t about to take things lying down, so as a result, episode 6 may be the most tense and creepiest installment yet and it does it without falling back on the fantastic, extended horror sequences that the show has been getting applauded for. As we get ever closer to the popping point for the creature’s cycle of fear, the clown us showing no signs of slowing down.
In the aftermath of everyone piling down into the sewers of Derry to capture a centuries old fear monster and ultimately ended up getting ripped to bits, the survivors attempt to lick their their wounds with varied levels of success. Leroy is understandably pissed that his young son Will was traipsing around the fetid lair with his friends and inadvertently caused the death of his wingman, Pauly. However, due to the evil influence that seeps into everyone who resides around the town, he reacts violently when his boy confronts him. Elsewhere, despite the fact that Lilly narrowly escaped the jaws of death (and Pennywise) by discovering one of the thirteen “pillars” that have been used to contain the creature for hundreds of years – however, despite having a tool to fight It, the rest of the gang are reluctant to return leading to a bitter argument between Lilly and Ronnie. However, while Charlotte brings Will and Ronnie to The Black Spot to reunite her with her father who is in hiding, Lilly flees to the only person left she can trust: Ingrid Kersh.
However, it seems that Ingrid’s been keeping some rather sizable secrets and the main one is that she’s been feeding kids at Juniper Hill Psychiatric Hospital to Pennywise since the thirties. Why has she been doing this? Because the form of the clown Pennywise the creature takes is based on the act her father, Robert Gray, used to do back in his carnival days. In fact, she’s so convinced that the fear addicted funster is her father, she’s been remaking the clown costume she used to wear as a child when she finally goes to find him.
But while we recoil in horror from the idea of Periwinkle the Clown, the rest of the gang spend winding down at The Black Spot blissfully unaware that the more insidious members of Derry have rightly deduced that Hank is indeed hiding out on the premises. Before you know it, some masked men have chosen to take the law into their own hands – and bitter history tells us that nothing good can possibly come of it…
While I’ve genuinely been having a blast with It: Welcome To Derry and it’s carnival of outlandish horrors, there have been some fair critisims levelled at certain aspects of the show. Not to waste any more column time on the inconsistent CGI, there’s sometimes an issue with the writing and performances as it almost seems like the writers and actors are having to rush their way through some overly convenient plotting in order to make space for the expansive and detailed, showstopping horror sequences that almost feels like little mini-movies unto themselves. However, after last week’s barn burner of an episode that finally reintroduced Pennywise and had him go all Alien on all an sundry, you’d expect the season to take a quick breather, however, after watching In The Name Of The Father we soon find that Welcome To Derry is only getting revved up.
While those epic, messed up extravaganzas that we’ve been enjoying are a little thin on the ground this week, the show instead delves into some deep lore and some much needed character beats in order to make the upcoming tragedy all the more hard hitting. In fact, while there is a slight trace of those writing short cuts that’s been irking some people (people believing in a shapeshifting monster instantly upon being told; very on the nose dialogue; melodramatic delivery), this 6th instalment may be its strongest yet when it comes to good, old fashioned set up. For a start, Dick Halloran’s origin story is now complete as his run in with Pennywise allowed It to reach into his mind, open that metaphorical lock box he’s been nerfing his powers with since 9 years old and turn his Shining ability up to 11. Now Halloran is barely able to function thanks to the fact that his powers are running unchecked and he’s seeing dead people everywhere and it proves to be quite a nice nod forward to Shining sequel Doctor Sleep that also saw a grown Danny Torrence turning to booze to counteract his “gift”.
Elsewhere, we spend a surprisingly large amount of time with Marge and Rich as the diminutive motor-mouth and the one-eyed former ladder climber start to bond in a genuinely sweet way. In fact, watching them chat at lunch, seeing Marge turn on the Pattycakes and then witnessing them wander around The Black Spot knocking back “Airforce Cokes” and having Rich play drums with the band stands as some of the legitimately best character stuff the season has seen, which will not doubt make the upcoming disaster all the more harrowing.
But while Rich and Marge bring the sweetness and Will and Charlotte reunite Ronnie with her father in hiding, the real meat comes from the genuinely unnerving discovery Lilly Bainbridge makes about the only grownup she can count on.
I was wondering why the show has cast someone like Madeline Stowe in a seemingly minor role, but the revelation that Ingrid is Bob Gray’s daughter and Pennywise has allowed her to believe that his clown form is in fact her dear old daddy reincarnated is magnificently twisted. What’s even more fucked up is that not only do sinister flashbacks show her leading kids to their doom in Juniper Hill, but she’s even fashioned a costume of the clown character known as Periwinkle her father helped her cultivate as a child and its been her and more Pennywise that’s being spying on them the whole time. While we got an origin story for It’s arrival to earth and it’s subsequent trapping, the origin of it adopting Bob Gray’s Pennywise identity is still something of a mystery that seemingly is on the verge of being cracked open like Halloran’s mental lockbox – and I can’t wait.
However, the real rotten cherry on the mouldy cake proves to be the fact that we’re finally on the verge of witnessing the terrible fire that consumes The Black Spot and while disembodied pickle monsters, murderous clowns and distorted versions of loved ones are good for a jolt, the sight of murderous, masked bigots pulling up with vengeance in their eyes proves to be way more terrifying. So with things due to come to a head in a mere 7 days, I guess that Pennywise and the denizens of Derry have nothing to worry about when it comes to pretenders to the throne.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 