Thus far, the new It prequel series, It: Welcome to Derry, has been extremely well-received on HBO Max. As a matter of fact, in the first three days since premiering, it garnered 5.7 million cross-platform viewers. Tremendous —it has become the third-largest series debut in HBO’s history, behind House of the Dragon in 2022 and The Last of Us in 2023. Clearly, striking a lot of interest, HBO opted to release the second episode, The Thing in the Dark, two days early to coincide with Halloween on October 31, 2025. Just like the pilot episode, The Thing in the Dark is sure to challenge your respect for gore and fear.
Directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Austin Guzman, The Thing in the Dark takes off where the pilot left off at the Capital Theatre, where all the carnage and bloodshed had taken place, and left Lilly (Clara Stack: Madam Secretary series, The Naughty Nine 2023) and Ronnie (Amanda Christine: Black Box 2020, Ada Twist, Scientist series) to pick up the pieces of the tragic and devastating night at the movie theatre. Air Force Major Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo: Fences 2016, Overlord 2018) moves his wife, Charlotte (Taylour Paige: Zola 2020, The Toxic Avenger 2023), and son, Will (Blake Cameron James: Found series, We Grown Now 2023), into their new home in the seemingly quiet, quaint town of Derry. While Charlotte is getting used to her surroundings, her son Will is trying to fit in at school.
As the audience gets to know the families of Derry, you realize there are ties between the kids in the first episode and the Losers Club. The family ties make It: Welcome to Derry a lot more authentic. Not only are there family ties that make the It universe complete, but a crossover with another Stephen King cinematic masterpiece. Dick Hallorann (Chris Chalk: Perry Mason series, Our Deadly Vows 2023) is introduced at the Derry Air Force Base as a military cook who happens to be helping the military look for none other than Pennywise himself.
With that in mind, The Thing in the Dark changes the way Pennywise is looked at, not only through different character representations and exquisite effects that reflect his ire and his being reliant on the fear from the children of Derry. This episode also shows that Pennywise is not a random phantom of the night, not even the alien species that was shown in the previous films, but something of a more relevant nature. The military looks to Pennywise as a necessity for fighting the ongoing Cold War. Their means to an end.
Furthermore, the writing for The Thing in the Dark is an absolute vision. It took not only a gruesome, chilly turn but also a sudden shift into Sci-Fi. The series begins to show the raw, grim reality of the ’60s with the racism running rampant through the county and its small communities, the Nuclear Arms Race that would take over the white house and its people, and the way a united nation was dividing and severing at the very seams. The most unhinged part of the story was that something as monstrous as Pennywise was bringing people together, even early in the story.
Bringing it all together, the make effects are crafted by Emmy award-winning Justin Raleigh and his team at Fractured FX. They single-handedly designed and executed the trauma effects and prosthetics, not to mention the creature featured in the series. Altogether, this makes episode 2 of It: Welcome to Derry a great table setter for the future of the series, which continues on November 9, 2025, with Now You See It. Until then, Cryptic Rock gives It: Welcome to Derry’s The Thing in the Dark 5 out of 5 stars.
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