Warning! This review contains spoilers for It: Welcome to Derry episode 1.

Although it shows signs of promise, It: Welcome to Derry is off to a shaky start with an overstuffed ensemble, an unfocused plot, and a disappointing dearth of genuine scares. Andy Muschietti, the director of both It movies, is back in the director’s chair for the pilot episode, but he fails to recapture what made It Chapter One so great, and he doesn’t seem to have learned from the mistakes of It Chapter Two . Instead, he’s doubling down on them in a middling series premiere that doesn’t inspire much hope.

The cold open of this pilot episode sets the mood beautifully. It starts with an innocent setup that quickly turns sinister. A seemingly nice, ordinary family picks up a little boy wandering at th

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