"No spoilers but the first half of It: Welcome to Derry episode 7 has shaken me to my CORE," I said in a message to a friend a couple of weeks back, caps and all. "Me thinks this is gonna be a good one," I added alongside several crying and gritted teeth emojis, which goes some way to explain my mental state as I watched the harrowing small-screen horrors unfold.
With the first season now done and dusted, I don't think I'm alone in claiming that the HBO spin-off's penultimate chapter wasn't just good, it was the standout – and an unforgettably chilling depiction of one of the most notable interludes in Stephen King's original novel: the burning down of The Black Spot.
They gave us ample warning, and yet still I found myself bug-eyed as Chief Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) and his racist cronies descended on Hallorann's club with their threats, guns, and Universal Monsters masks. Director Andy Muschietti revealed that the fire, which was alluded to in his movie adaptations, was going to be a key moment in the prequel series long before it premiered. Having just recently read the book, too, I knew the gist of what was in store. In truth, though, nothing could have prepared me. With a few twisted tweaks to the source material and a heartbreaking death, it wound up being the scariest sequence of the year – and not just because Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise spends the whole time slurping on severed heads and stoking up bloody carnage.
While the novel makes no secret of the fact that a lot of Derry's residents are horrid, it's heavily implied that much of their awfulness is due to It. Characters like Henry Bowers and John "Webby" Garton are undeniably prejudiced towards Black and queer locals, but their proximity to the violence-loving cosmic creature supposedly amplifies their existing hateful attitudes. It: Welcome to Derry boldly ignores such wishy-washy insinuations, and instead makes clear that Bowers and co have a clear motivation for torching The Black Spot; ferreting out wrongly accused fugitive Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider).
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When the party-goers stand up against their brutish demands to give up Grogan, Bowers' supremacist group barricades the Black Spot's doors and starts throwing Molotov cocktails through the windows. Unlike in the book, they wait outside to shoot those who manage to escape. The awful scene kicks off with a three-minute oner; the camera weaving between characters as they panic, scream, and scramble in their attempts to avoid the flames. With so many actors, so much action, and a rapidly changing set to navigate, it's a huge technical achievement – and makes you feel like you're right there in the smoke.
"It was about showing these kids and the audience that the ultimate terror of Derry might just be the humans who live there," Fuchs notes. "They're not brainwashed. They're not hypnotized. Those are people making the cruelest choices imaginable, and I don't think there is an aspect of horror more horrifying in season 1 than what they do in the context of that attack. Although, you know, It has done his part to rile things up, and certainly takes advantage.
"To see that through the eyes of children, who are perhaps to some degree apportioning some of the blame to the supernatural evil, was really powerful. It spoke to a certain truth, and that's what we're always in search of with this show and with Stephen King; storytelling as emotional truth."
That loss of innocence isn't just spiritual, either. Lots of people perish in the fire, but in terms of main characters, it's Arian S. Cartaya's Rich who doesn't make it out alive. In a gut-wrenching act of self-sacrifice, the boy insists his crush, Marge (Matilda Lawler), hide out inside a cooler before climbing on top of it and sealing it shut with his body weight. As burning debris collapses around him, Rich recalls the first time he ever saw Marge before kissing the top of the cooler. It's devastating, and so much more lastingly terrifying than the gory theater massacre in the pilot or the Goosebumps-style ghosts in episode 3.
The fact that the kids were there at all was gobsmacking to me. On the page, Will Hanlon, the father of Losers' Club member Mike, reveals to his son he was present at The Black Spot when it came under siege in 1930 – the show, following the movies' timeline, retcons the events to 1962 – and only managed to escape thanks to its chef, Dick Hallorann. The show remains faithful to this, though there's one key difference: Will was an adult in the book. With that, I had assumed it would have been Will's pops Leroy who'd get caught up in the bar's blaze; I was wrong, and having youngsters there adds a whole new level of terror to the proceedings.
"In terms of Will and the kids being there, we wanted the audience to experience this through the eyes of those characters," says Fuchs. "They've experienced the entire story through the eyes of the kids, with the exception of Leroy, Charlotte and Hallorann. There's something even more tragic, I think, about seeing the worst of humanity through young characters who are all about what's best about humanity.
"These kids really represent the best of us; they're hopeful, they're determined. These are good people, and I think they're hopeful about the world. So to have that hopefulness challenged by the stark evil that they see there felt the most interesting dramatically; can light triumph over dark? Can the power of unified belief triumph over the divisiveness of fear?" The finale suggests so, with our heroes besting corrupt General Shaw (James Remar) and sending It back into a 27-year slumber. But with two more seasons on the cards, the frights are only just beginning.
Honorable mentions:
Snacking on the kitchen worktop, Bring Her Back – Poor Oliver's possession (and hunger) takes a dark turn in the final act of the Philippou Brothers' Talk to Me follow-up.
Bursting bean bag chair, Opus – They're uncomfortable enough when they're full of beans. Stuffing them with near-death humans is a step too far.
Gladys under the covers, Weapons – There should be a rule about jumpscares appearing in a movie that, up until that point, wasn't really jumpscare-y.
Swimming T-Rex, Jurassic World: Rebirth – One of the most nail-biting set-pieces in the book gets the big-screen treatment for the first time.
MRI machine, Final Destination: Bloodlines – Of all the ways to die, this one sucks the most
It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max. For more, check out our picks of the most exciting new TV shows heading our way or our deep-dive into this year's many Stephen King adaptations.
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