TV review: The streaming-series It prequel is well worth a watch

Set in the world of Stephen King’s “IT” universe, IT: WELCOME TO DERRY is based on King’s “IT” novel and expands the vision established by filmmaker Andy Muschietti in the feature films “IT” and “IT Chapter Two."

Like Stranger Things? Then don’t miss It: Welcome to Derry (Sky Atlantic and NOW).

This eight-part series is the latest take on the Stephen King novel It, following two movies that each had their own style: one plain creepy, the second, full-blown action horror.

This TV version is more relaxed. 

Yes, there is creepy from the get-go, when a hitch-hiking kid called Matty disappears after being picked up by the family from hell.

But parts of it are everyday American high-school drama, set in the ordinary town of 1960s Derry (in Maine, United States).

It’s not all ordinary, though, because there is an evil clown living in the sewage system. 

This isn’t a remake of the movies — the book is 1,000 pages long, so there is plenty of new material here, in what is effectively a prequel to the two movies.

We follow a group of school friends trying to find Matty, who is talking back to a few of them through the water pipes of the town. 

I hate jump-scare movies, but the scary bits here are so laughably over the top it could almost pass as a parody. (The lampshade scaring the kids was my favourite.)

But this isn’t Scream. They aren’t just playing it for laughs — there is something weird going on at the airbase on the edge of town, where they are testing a new bomber to take on the Soviet Union.

There is a proper spooky scene in episode one, where the kids go to the cinema and rewatch the movie that was showing when Matty disappeared.

He appears on screen and walks towards the kids, blaming them for his disappearance because they were only pretending to be his friends.

Then he morphs into a scary clown in front of them, releasing a flying baby with razor-sharp teeth who likes biting off arms.

It’s classic Stephen King — over-the-top horror mixed with the emotional pain of a kid without friends.

There are racial angles too. The police are trying to pin the disappearance on the projectionist in the cinema, an African-American from the wrong side of the tracks; an African-American major in the Air Force causes waves after his family move into a house on the right side of the tracks and the locals aren’t exactly delighted.

The action flags a bit at times, dragging out the small-town America scenes for too long before dragging us down into the sewers again with its evil clown.

But this is good stuff for Halloween, something to get your teeth into. Give it a watch.