It Franchise Forgets Pennywise’s Fear Factor in Welcome to Derry

I’m having a great time with It: Welcome to Derry, but there’s one creative decision that gnaws at me. I’ll never forget walking out of It: Chapter One in 2017 thinking that I’d just seen one of the best horror movies of the 21st century. Pennywise was terrifying in every form, and director Andy Muschietti shaped those sequences with a high level of craft that still makes them memorable today.

Then It: Chapter Two arrived and I still enjoyed it. But the drop in quality was hard to ignore. Fans often point to the adult storyline as the novel’s weakest thread, which is fair, yet that wasn’t the real problem. The issue was the sudden, overwhelming dependence on CGI that broke the spell the first movie cast so effectively, and a tonal shift that ignored what made Chapter One so enduring.

It: Welcome to Derry Is Repeating The Same Mistake It: Chapter Two Made

CGI spirit in It Welcome to Derry episode 3, Now You See It-1

Just like the unforgettable drain sequence that opened It: Chapter One, Welcome to Derry launched with a strong set piece. Even though it rewrites Matthew Clements’ death scene in It, the tension worked because everything unfolded inside a moving vehicle with no means of escape, the claustrophobia tightening its grip on the audience as Matty realizes he’s in real danger.

Then CGI mutant baby showed up at the end, but that stumble felt forgivable, mostly because the buildup carried the scene and held the fear together. The most glaring moment arrived in episode 3, “Now You See It,” during the climactic graveyard chase scene. If you’ve been online this week, you’ve probably seen the negative reactions to the floating spirits that chase the kids out of the cemetery.

A lot of fans compared the scene to a Scooby-Doo visual gag, also making Welcome to Derry impossible not to compare it with Stranger Things, and I agree. Nothing about the scene was frightening. The CGI—from the spirit to the ridiculous green screen bicycle riding—undercut every attempt at tension.

This is where It: Welcome to Derry’s budget constraints feel most transparent. It isn’t 2005 anymore, and audiences have moved well past special effects that feel like leftovers from early Doctor Who. That era has a particular charm, but c’mon, this is HBO. CGI can absolutely be scary, but it needs to be reined in, and a frightening scene requires real craft behind it to walk the tension like a tightrope.

Bad CGI hurt the It movies, but It: Chapter Two really struggled from Stan Uris’ spider-head to the monstrous Paul Bunyan, and those shoddy effects are unfortunately some of the clearest memories I have of that movie. The tone tipped too close comedy, which felt like a conscious decision to distance itself from the nightmarish sequences It: Chapter One established, which did a much better job of weaving comedy and horror with rhythm.

Somewhere between the making of It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two, a decision seems to have been made to sanitize the Pennywise franchise, to make it more broadly accessible. The tonal shift is noticeable, and it transferred over to It: Welcome to Derry, making the killer clown feel more cartoonish than a threat, and the show hasn’t even revealed the clown yet.

It: Welcome to Derry Needs To Find The Tone That Made It: Chapter One So Great

Pennywise popping out of the wall in the It Chapter One projector scene

With this new show, the scariest It moments still happen in It: Chapter One. Think back to the haunted house sequence where Pennywise corners Eddie Kaspbrak, or the Leper scene where a real performer in full makeup chases him. Given the franchise’s current track record, I wouldn’t be surprised if that same chase scene replaced the actor with a CGI Leper had it been filmed today. And to achieve what?

VFX in horror isn’t all bad, though. There are moments when it elevated the terror, especially the projector sequence in It: Chapter One. It’s one of the most memorable scenes because of the tension built through its pattern: the flickering light switches on and off as the slides change, then the images start distorting, creating a visual pulse that guides you (and the characters) toward the scare.

Until boom: Pennywise erupts from the wall. The effect works because the suspense has already done the heavy lifting. The Hall of Mirrors scene remains the trademark moment of It: Chapter Two for the same reason—it’s all about the build-up—how you tease the audience—and then the rug-pull.

The graveyard chase in It: Welcome to Derry, on the other hand, never earns that reaction. Visually it’s so distracting that you can’t suspend your disbelief; you can only focus on what looks wrong. The scene doesn’t give you anything to hold onto emotionally, and it leaves you feeling nothing. Indifference is the last thing a horror scene should inspire.

It: Welcome To Derry Is Still Fun, But It Needs A Course Correction

It: Welcome to Derry is still a fun show, and I’m especially curious about the government subplot. But if it keeps repeating It: Chapter Two’s biggest mistake, but It: Welcome to Derry‘s bad CGI is a pattern with WBD’s Stephen King adaptations. The TV budget makes the rough scenes even more obvious than they were in It: Chapter Two, and the shift toward wider accessibility feels intentional, although it doesn’t feel like the right direction.

In trying to make the franchise more approachable, the show reduces Pennywise into less of a threat and more of an entity to laugh at. I want to be able to point to a post-2017 moment that rattled me the way the projector scene eight years ago. Right now, I’m not confident that It: Welcome to Derry is heading there.