A Story of Derry Review: Pennywise Prequel Done Right

The premise is deceptively simple. Three youngsters - Necani, Kino, and Maneese, played by Kiawentiio, Isabel DeRoy-Olson, and Michael Podemski - venture into the Western Wood, a place the adults around them speak of only in hushed warnings. What they find there is an ancient spirit, something that predates the town, the settlers, and perhaps even the land itself.

Chavez, working from a script that trusts its audience, refuses to over-explain. We get fragments: a community living close to the earth, rituals half-understood, elders who know more than they say. Zahn McClarnon, always a welcome presence, lends the proceedings a gravitas that grounds the supernatural in something achingly human. Jennifer Podemski and Kimberly Guerrero, as Miko and Rose, sketch entire lives in a handful of scenes. The spirit itself is wisely kept at the edges of the frame for most of the runtime - a shape in the trees, a sound in the dark - until the film decides it's time to look directly at it. That restraint is the smartest choice the film makes.

Let's be clear about what this is: a thirty-minute short that functions as both standalone chiller and origin myth. That dual purpose creates some tension. On one hand, the tight runtime is a virtue. Chavez has no room for filler, and every scene earns its place. The Western Wood feels genuinely ancient, shot with a patience that most modern horror lacks - long takes, natural light, a sound design that makes the forest itself a character. By the time the three kids realize they aren't alone, we've been primed for twenty minutes of quiet unease, and the payoff lands.

On the other hand, the film's final act tries to cram a feature's worth of revelation into about eight minutes. The ancient spirit's nature - and its connection to the broader Derry mythology - gets gestured at rather than fully explored. There's a sense of a larger story being withheld, and while that's clearly intentional, it leaves the ending feeling slightly more like a trailer for a movie we don't get to see than a complete thought. The young cast is genuinely excellent; Kiawentiio, in particular, carries the film's emotional center with a stillness that's impressive, and DeRoy-Olson brings a restless energy that keeps the group dynamic alive. Brandon Oakes and MorningStar Angeline make the most of their smaller roles.

Technically, the film is immaculate. The period detail is lived-in rather than showy, and the horror imagery - when it finally arrives - is striking without tipping into grotesquerie. It's the kind of short that could easily be expanded, but works just fine as a nasty little morsel on its own.

Pros:

• Superb atmosphere and cinematography; the Western Wood is a fully realized character
• Excellent young leads, especially Kiawentiio, who anchors the film with quiet intensity
• Restrained, patient horror that trusts the audience to lean in
• A fresh angle on a familiar mythology, told with cultural specificity and care
• Tight thirty-minute runtime - no wasted scenes

Cons:

• The finale rushes its own mythology, leaving key questions dangling
• Supporting characters get shortchanged by the runtime
• The spirit's design, while striking, feels slightly underdeveloped
• Viewers hoping for a self-contained story may find it more of a prologue

"A Story of Derry" is a smart, atmospheric piece of folklore horror that proves you don't need a two-hour runtime to conjure something genuinely unsettling. Chavez directs with confidence, her young cast delivers, and the film's restraint is its greatest weapon. Yes, the ending comes in hot, and yes, you'll leave wanting a feature-length version. But a short that leaves you hungry is a short doing its job. For horror fans, this is essential Halloween-week viewing - and a tantalizing glimpse of a mythology with plenty more darkness left to explore.