It: Welcome To Derry Just Delivered Its Biggest Scare Yet, And It Had Nothing To Do With Pennywise

It: Welcome To Derry Just Delivered Its Biggest Scare Yet, And It Had Nothing To Do With Pennywise The masked mob arrives at the Black Spot in It Welcome to Derry By  Ben Sherlock Published 40 minutes ago Ben Sherlock is a Tomatometer-approved film and TV critic who runs the massively underrated YouTube channel I Got Touched at the Cinema. Before working at Screen Rant, Ben wrote for Game Rant, Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop. He's also an indie filmmaker, a standup comedian, and an alumnus of the School of Rock. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

Warning! Spoilers ahead for It: Welcome to Derry episode 6.

It: Welcome to Derry has given us a lot of elaborate horror set-pieces, but the scariest thing to happen in the show so far had nothing to do with Pennywise. At the end of Welcome to Derry episode 6, when a group of angry white folks hear that Air Force soldiers are harboring fugitive Hank Grogan at a speakeasy outside the base, they quickly grab their guns.

As the soldiers and the new Losers’ Club have a great time dancing to the live music at the Black Spot, the posse arrives, armed to the teeth, wearing Purge-style murder masks. This cliffhanger ending is the most terrifying moment in Welcome to Derry to date, and it has nothing to do with the ghost story.

The All-White Vigilante Squad Descending On The Black Spot Is Welcome To Derry's Scariest Moment Yet

The mob arrives at the Black Spot in It Welcome to Derry

There have been plenty of complicated, VFX-laden horror sequences in Welcome to Derry. The kids were chased out of a foggy cemetery by an army of ghouls, a la Scooby-Doo. Lilly was attacked by a pickle monster in the grocery store. Ronnie was rebirthed and then terrorized by her own dead mother. It’s all been classic It, but it hasn’t been truly scary.

The only time I’ve felt genuinely scared throughout this first season is when that all-white vigilante squad descended on the Black Spot at the end of Welcome to Derry episode 6. The ghosts and specters and demons are all make-believe (and the cartoonish CGI effects hammer that home), but white-supremacist mobs are, unfortunately, very real.

Welcome To Derry Is Masterfully Contrasting Its Supernatural Horror With The Very Real Horrors Of Racism

Charlotte hugs Will in It Welcome to Derry episode 4

This cliffhanger ending at the Black Spot encapsulates what Welcome to Derry has been doing so well: contrasting the supernatural horrors of its ghost story with the very real horrors of early-‘60s racism. When the show takes place in 1962, the civil rights movement is taking off and President Kennedy is striving toward racial equality, but there’s still a long, long way to go.

Telling the story through the Hanlons’ eyes was a genius move. They just moved to Derry, so they have an outsiders’ perspective of this strange little town, but they also have an outsiders’ perspective of their predominantly white suburban neighborhood. Leroy and Charlotte have to deal with threats of violence long before Pennywise comes into their lives.

Charlotte faces backlash for providing a wrongfully accused Black man with legal advice. When Will tells Leroy he saw a ghost outside the house, he assumes it’s a disgruntled local racist stalking the family. It doesn’t even cross his mind that it could be a demon clown, because he has real monsters to worry about. It: Welcome to Derry is conveying its social commentary through horror masterfully.

• It: Welcome to Derry

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