PLOT: Three youngsters venture into the Western Wood where they encounter a terrifying ancient spirit.
REVIEW: It’s always so cool when a company is able to release a surprise episode. While fans certainly speculated it would happen with Stranger Things, Welcome to Derry is answering those wishes and giving us A Story of Derry. It tells the tale of a Native American tribe who are struggling to find food. Three young members of the tribe head to the forbidden “Western Woods.” They immediately regret their decision and see that the legend of the woods is true. And I’m sure we can all guess what that is.
The cast is mostly filled out with unknowns, though Dark Winds‘ Zahn McClarnon shows up in an intriguing role. Obviously, there’s no Bill Skarsgård, as Pennywise doesn’t get its Bob Gray form till later in the story. It does suck to not have the actor around, as all the best episodes of the show featured him. However, we still get that classic Pennywise attitude whenever the monster speaks to someone while in other forms. It’s also pretty interesting to see Pennywise take up the form of a Moose and cause so much destruction. It really highlights the sort of damage that it can do when he’s not trying to farm fear from his victims.
A Story of Derry has an almost Prey aesthetic to it, with its focus on a young Native American girl. This goes the Hunt for Red October route (and the former film), with the episode starting out in the Native tongue, only to switch to English after a few lines. I still think this is the ideal way to present the story with a foreign tongue to an English-speaking audience. I don’t mind subtitles myself, but it’s clear that the average viewer isn’t a fan so this is a nice sacrifice.
The biggest aspect of this surprise episode, and what makes it all worth it, is that we finally get a more prominent look at Maturin the Turtle, who is given an awesome cosmic appearance, made up of the cosmos. It’s such an interesting visual, and I’m glad they were finally able to see the character in physical form (even if it takes place during a drug-induced trip). Here’s hoping this isn’t the last of him, and the creators are more comfortable with showing him.
As was often the case with Welcome to Derry, the characters can make some colossally stupid decisions that end up getting people, sometimes themselves, killed. I do wish they’d done a little better job getting characters from Point A to B without relying on them losing some brain cells in order to accomplish it. But this doesn’t exactly have time on its side, and needs to get things going. There’s also some good tension towards the beginning, but the time constraints mean that Pennywise has to make an appearance very quickly. I was hoping that we’d get a little more of the mind games and manipulation, but if anything, that tells us what place the monster is in its development.
A Story of Derry is only 30 minutes in length, and doesn’t really tell us anything that any loyal King fan wasn’t already aware of. But it gives some added depth and some more straightforward explanations of things that have been mentioned throughout the show and movies. As such, some people will probably see this as a waste of time, but I feel like it was a fun little surprise for fans. It wouldn’t fit in with a full season as it would feel too much like a detour, so this little side story was the perfect way to tell it. I hope this and other series take advantage of being able to tell these stories that give the main seasons even more depth. And it’s just a bonus that this dropped on Halloween.
A Story of Derry is Now Streaming on HBO Max.
The post It: Welcome to Derry Surprise Episode Review: A Cool Stephen King Character Finally Arrives in The Story of Derry appeared first on JoBlo.
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