Why Does Pennywise Kill Kids? Welcome to Derry Reveals a New Piece of IT Lore

by

Welcome to Derry (2025) is a new series that tells the story leading up to the events of the films IT (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019). While IT appeared in the late 1980s in those movies, it only resurfaces roughly every 27 years. This series is set in the early 1960s, beginning with the disappearance of its first victim in the winter of 1962. But it’s not just about IT’s past attacks; it also expands on the history of the town of Derry and reveals more about where Pennywise came from.

Welcome to Derry! The series plans to delve deeper into the patterns of when and how IT hunts in future seasons. As the show goes on, viewers will uncover more about this famous monster. We’ve already learned a lot – including IT’s beginnings and its greatest fear – and some of the details are even more unsettling than you might think.

Everyone Knows That Pennywise’s Favorite Meal is a Terrified Child

The entity known as IT – and famously appearing as Pennywise – is a terrifying being that thrives on fear. Roughly every 27 years, it awakens and preys on the children of Derry. While Pennywise is well-known for targeting kids, the story also shows it kills and feeds on adults, as detailed in the novel Welcome to Derry. This raises the question: why does Pennywise seem to prefer children as victims?

The simplest explanation is that children are more easily frightened. They’re also more prone to believing in the supernatural and things that aren’t real, which allows their imaginations to run wild – unlike most adults. This makes it much easier for Pennywise to trick them with illusions and convince them of things that aren’t true, compared to adults who understand what’s real and what isn’t. It’s similar to how children readily believe in figures like Santa Claus.

This also provides Pennywise with excellent camouflage. Children frequently claim monsters live under their beds or in closets, and many have imaginary friends they interact with. Because these kinds of claims are common in childhood, adults often dismiss them. So, if parents don’t believe their child about a closet monster, why would they believe something is actually attacking them – especially if the child is the only one who seems to notice?

Ultimately, Pennywise gets its nourishment by frightening children, as this is the quickest way to gather enough energy to sleep for decades. While it could feed on adults, it would require much more work for a smaller return. Therefore, terrorizing children and harvesting their fear is the most effective strategy for building up resources during its waking periods.

Welcome to Derry Gives Fans a Logical Reason Pennywise Likes the Taste of Fear

In Season 1, Episode 4, titled “The Great Swirling Apparatus of Our Planet’s Function,” the story focuses on Will Hanlon (Blake Cameron James) and his family, who are new to Derry, Maine. Will’s father, Leroy Hanlon (Jovan Adepo), is a Major in the US Air Force, and has been stationed in Derry for a classified mission. He believes he’s working on something vital for national security, but doesn’t know the full truth about the government’s intentions.

In the first episode, Will meets Lilly Bainbridge (Clara Stack) and Ronnie Grogan (Amanda Christine), the only other people who survived the attack. Initially, Will is skeptical of their story about the creature pursuing them. He understands they genuinely believe what they experienced, but as a logical and scientifically-minded kid, he needs to see proof for himself before accepting it. It’s only when he witnesses the creature’s power firsthand that he finally believes Lilly and Ronnie.

In the fourth episode, Pennywise really zeroes in on Will. It was awful to watch – Pennywise disguised himself as Will’s dad during a fishing trip. We learned Will’s dad was badly burned in a plane crash, and Pennywise used that to scare him. He even turned into him and tried to drown Will in the river! Thankfully, Will’s dad, Leroy, jumped in and saved him, but he noticed all these terrible bruises and cuts on Will’s arm where IT had grabbed him. As they were trying to process everything, they both spotted a single, creepy red balloon floating down the river – it was so unsettling.

After a while, Pennywise shows up near Will’s home. He hides behind a tree, watching Will’s window. When Leroy goes outside to investigate, he finds a red balloon caught in the tree, but the clown is gone. Will started to believe in IT’s abilities after what happened at the graveyard in the previous episode, but the events of this episode make it clear that IT is specifically targeting him.

When Will tells his friends what happened, he shares a theory about why the clown is trying to frighten them. He believes some predators intentionally scare their prey, causing a biological change that makes them more appealing to eat. Will thinks Pennywise is trying to scare them not just to terrorize them, but to make them taste better before he attacks.

This approach makes the IT story feel more grounded in science and, as a result, more believable. As a top-level predator, it’s logical that IT would behave in ways similar to real-world predators on a basic, instinctive level. However, Welcome to Derry reveals other fascinating details about how IT hunts.

The Adults In Derry Help Pennywise Hunt

A key idea in Welcome to Derry is that the adults aren’t helping the situation – they’re actually part of the problem. Many IT fans are aware of a strange fog that affects the town. This fog prevents the adults from seeing or responding to the terrible events happening around them, such as children disappearing without a trace.

This phenomenon means most grown-ups in Derry don’t notice Pennywise or anything he does. Even if someone encounters him and survives, a strange fog causes them to forget all about it.

The strange atmosphere in Derry makes it difficult for adults to recognize the dangers their children face. Pennywise subtly controls the town, preventing people from acknowledging the unsettling events. However, this isn’t the only reason the adults of Derry are so passive – there’s more to the story than just this unsettling influence.

The adults in the series often unknowingly assist Pennywise in his hunt. Children depend on adults for everything – guidance, care, and protection – and naturally trust what they say. However, not all adults have the children’s well-being at heart, making them vulnerable to manipulation.

As a film buff, I’ve noticed a disturbing pattern: the villains often target kids who are already vulnerable, and it almost always ties back to something happening with a parent or caregiver. These kids are living with fear already, which makes them easy targets. Take Lilly, for instance. After witnessing her father’s horrific death, she had a complete breakdown and ended up at Juniper Hill Psychiatric Hospital, which, sadly, only made things worse for her. It’s a bleak but common thread in these stories.

People around Lilly frequently threaten to send her back to the mental institution as a way to control her. Viewers see Lilly’s mother do this, and at one point, she actually abandons Lilly at Juniper Hill. Chief Bowers also uses this threat multiple times, even when Lilly is trying to convince him that Ronnie’s father is innocent.

Ronnie is deeply frightened by how the police treat her father. Because he’s a Black man without a solid defense, he becomes an easy suspect. Ronnie struggles with the knowledge that her father is in prison and could be executed for something he didn’t do. She fears she may never see him again, and as a young woman of color, she feels powerless to help him.

As a horror fan, one thing that always struck me about IT is how much the adults in Derry unintentionally help Pennywise. So many kids are already dealing with tough home lives and feeling powerless, and the adults just seem to reinforce that. Plus, the constant fog messes with their heads too, making the kids feel like there’s no one to turn to when things go bump in the night. It’s a recipe for disaster, honestly. With all that fear and lack of support, it’s no surprise that Pennywise often gets them after just one scare. It’s a really unsettling thought – the adults are basically paving the way for IT to prey on their kids.

Read More

2025-11-18 19:10