SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers from the series premiere of “ It: Welcome to Derry ,” now streaming on HBO Max.

It doesn’t take long for “It: Welcome to Derry” to remind audiences that they’re back in Stephen King’s eponymous cursed town. The first episode alone features enough blood, guts and gore to rival either of the Andy Muschietti -directed “It” films — and much of that pours out within the first 10 minutes .

The HBO series opens with an 11-year-old boy named Mattie (Miles Ekhardt) hitchhiking his way out of the Maine town circa 1962. He’s picked up by a family — a bespectacled father (Mark MacRae), pregnant mother (Zoë Barrett-Wood), teenaged daughter (Audrey Wellington) and boyish son (Lochlan Ray Miller). At first they seem safe and friendly, but such descri

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