Stephen King’s It: Welcome to Derry Sets The Stage For Blumhouse's Something Is Killing The Children

Stephen King’s It: Welcome to Derry Sets The Stage For Blumhouse's Upcoming Horror Series

Published Sep 7, 2026, 8:30 AM EDT

Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.

Dani is also part of ScreenRant's books team, using their fiction writing and literature studies as the backbone for their book analyses.

They have covered events, such as the Denver Fan Expo. Professionals in the field, such as Damien Leone and Lucy Hale, have shared their articles. Their review of Ponies was quoted in the show's TV trailer.

In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.

Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity.

Stephen King has a major hit with It: Welcome to Derry, and the HBO Max show perfectly sets the stage for Blumhouse’s upcoming horror series. IT is one of King’s most popular books, so it’s no surprise that Muschiettis’ movie duology was expanded. Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise returned to the screen in 2025. Once again, audiences watched the shapeshifting cosmic entity wreaking havoc on the twisted small town of Derry. The new Losers Club has direct connections to the original characters. Plus, It: Welcome to Derry shows again how IT preys on existing bigotry and hatred, except this time around there’s a peculiar time-travel twist.

HBO’s prequel show had mostly positive reactions from both critics and audiences. ScreenRant’s Zach Moser praised It: Welcome to Derry’s “unrelenting amount of horror and carnage,” a sentiment repeated by other critics. The level of brutality is not only great for horror fans but also lays a foundation for Blumhouse’s upcoming live-action film and animated TV show adaptation of Something Is Killing the Children.

The Eisner-winning BOOM! Comics comic book series follows the town of Archer’s Peak, Ohio, which has a streak of children going missing and getting murdered. Kids who survive return with terrifying stories of monsters ripping others to shreds, which isn’t believed by adults. However, an outsider named Erica Slaughter can see the monsters, and she’s ready to take them down. Something Is Killing the Children feels like the spiritual successor to Stephen King's IT and It: Welcome to Derry.

Warning: Everything from this point on includes spoilers for Something Is Killing The Children!

Something Is Killing The Children’s Monsters Feed On Fears & Misery Like IT

Something Is Killing the Children feels like the perfect spiritual successor to the IT movies and It: Welcome to Derry. In the comics, fear is vital to Something Is Killing the Children’s monsters, similar to the shapeshifting cosmic being. The monsters are formed from human fears, especially those of children, so they take various forms. Nine named categories of monsters exist in the comics, with each having subcategories. Plus, there are also unknown types of monsters, which are rare but occasionally show up in the Slaughterverse.

Types Of Monsters In The Slaughterverse
Category	Subcategories	Description
Obscuratype	N/A	Shadowy monsters with a vaguely spidery appearance
Animatype	Animatype Normalis (typical of the area) and Animatype Anomalia (not common in the region)	Animals with a monstrous appearance
Duplicitype	Duplicitype Oculus (appearance of a known individual), Duplicitype Doppelgänger (appearance of the scared individual), Changeling (appearance of a child)	Monsters that take on the appearance of human beings
Phantasmatype	N/A	Ghost or spirit that can possess an individual, location, or object
Chimeratype	Werebeast (human to creature), Chimeratype Deviants (can take on any animal or human)	A monster that transforms from a human to a creature and back
Nosferatype	Common Vampire (bloodsucker), Succubus and Incubus (sexual energy and fluids), Psychic Vampire (human emotions)	A monster that looks humanoid and doesn't feed on human flesh
Necrotype	Common Necrotype (appearance of undead), Phantasma-Necrotype (possesses dead body)	Dead bodies reanimated
Mythotype	Too many to list	A mythological creature or cryptid
Dracotype	N/A	Dragons

Obscuratypes are the most common creatures in Something Is Killing the Children, with shadowy appearances. They only solidify when attacking and feeding, making them nearly impossible to defeat. However, the monsters can also take other appearances. Much like IT, the monsters can take the form of dead people, movie monsters, or abusers. They can change from one form to another within the same category. Occasionally, they even shift categories altogether.

Another important similarity is the fact that it feeds on both fear and human bodies. Ambient fear from the victims and nearby people makes the monsters stronger. The more people who know about it, the more fear there is, and the more powerful they become. Meanwhile, human flesh sustains them, with Nosferatypes being the one exception.

Both IT and the monsters have an unbelievably high kill count. Another aspect of IT and the monsters that will feel parallel to viewers is that the monsters’ weaknesses are determined by their physical container. For instance, a werewolf can be killed with silver. Exorcisms can disconnect a cursed spirit from an object. All those similarities aside, IT is a cosmic being from outside our universe, while the monsters are from our Earth. Plus, the monsters kill both adults and children, taking out the adults first and then the young citizens of Archer’s Peak, while IT focuses more frequently on children.

Archer’s Peak, Ohio Has A Similar Ambiance As Derry, Maine

Besides the villains feeling the same, the dynamics of Archer’s Peak, Ohio will be familiar to those in Derry, Maine. Both are small towns where terrible things are occurring. They are picturesque at first glance but get more disturbing the longer you look at them. Horrible, horrible things are occurring, yet adults are ignoring the problem. They cannot see the monsters, except in very rare cases. Their brains can rationalize the scary things they see. It takes a colossal and strong monster to break through that ability.

When children reveal that monsters exist, the adults don’t believe them. They become apathetic to the massacres, reasoning them away with mundane explanations. Some think the disappearances and injuries are hoaxes. Others think the deaths are animal attacks. Pretty much everyone thinks that children have wild imaginations.

The only reason why Erica Slaughter can see them is that she had a dragon’s gold spike driven into her skull by her secret organization. Plus, Erica has a personal connection to the monsters in the same way the adult Losers Club has a personal vendetta against Pennywise.

Something Is Killing The Children & It: Welcome To Derry’s Feature Ruthless Child Massacre

One of the most shocking and divisive moments of It: Welcome to Derry occurs in the first episode. In the final moments, IT brutally slaughters a group of children in a movie theater. The show doesn’t cut away or fade to black. There’s no obstructed view. Instead, the violence happens onscreen for audiences to watch in horror. This part of It: Welcome to Derry is a good litmus test for those who may be interested in watching either of the on-screen adaptations of Something Is Killing the Children.

Question 1 of 3

​​​​​​If you couldn’t stomach It: Welcome to Derry’s child massacre, you need to skip the Blumhouse show. Something Is Killing the Children is unbelievably violent and gory. Within the first ten pages, we see three children getting brutally killed. When Erica Slaughter arrives in Archer’s Peak, about half a dozen children are dead, and 25 more are missing.

The number only grows throughout the series, with monsters massacring more and more kids. Children are pulled apart, dismembered, bisected, bitten, torn, shredded, devoured, and there are panels with piles of children's body parts. I’d be shocked if the show toned down this graphic content, since the Something Is Killing the Children adaptation will be intended for adults and the gore is integral to the story.

Currently, Blumhouse’s Something Is Killing the Children onscreen franchise is still in development, but a July 23, 2026 update from co-creator James Tynion IV (via Dread Central) provides confidence that things are headed in the right direction. According to Tynion, the live-action feature film has a fully written script. They are working on the TV show bible—a comprehensive document detailing story, characters, tone, and long-term plans.

The team wants to complete Something Is Killing the Children’s bible before shopping it out to studios and streamers. Ideally, they will both go to the same partner, creating a unified franchise. However, Tynion confirmed that they’re open to splitting the live-action movie and animated TV show if necessary. Ultimately, it will most likely be a little while before we see Something Is Killing the Children on the screen, but it will be worth the wait if the TV show and movie are even half as good as the comic books.

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