A Story of Derry Review: Folk Horror Prequel

We're going way back - centuries before a certain dancing clown set up shop. Three youngsters (Kiawentiio, Isabel DeRoy-Olson, and Michael Podemski) wander into the Western Wood, and, as kids in horror movies are legally obligated to do, they stumble onto something they absolutely should have left alone: a terrifying ancient spirit that has been chilling in those woods since long before anyone thought to build a town on top of it.

That's the setup, and it's a smart one. By stripping away the clown iconography and the 1950s nostalgia, the film gets to remind you that Derry's evil didn't start with IT - it started with the land itself. The spirit our young heroes encounter feels less like a movie monster and more like something that was already here, waiting, the way the best folk horror always does. For a half-hour runtime, the flick wastes almost no time on setup before the dread starts piling up, and it knows exactly when to pull the ripcord.

Let's talk about the craft first, because this thing looks and sounds like a full feature squeezed into 30 minutes. Chavez has an incredible eye for the eerie - the Western Wood feels alive in the worst possible way, all shifting shadows, whispering trees, and that specific "we are not welcome here" energy. The pacing is deliberate without ever dragging; the runtime is short enough that the tension never gets a chance to sag. And that ancient spirit? Restraint is the name of the game here. What you don't see does way more heavy lifting than what you do, and the film trusts its audience enough to leave some things just out of frame.

The young trio carrying the story is genuinely excellent. Kiawentiio anchors the group with a quiet watchfulness that sells every uneasy glance, and the chemistry between the three feels lived-in rather than scripted - these kids feel like they've known each other their whole lives, which makes the danger land harder. And then there's the supporting cast, which is stacked beyond what a 30-minute film has any right to boast. Zahn McClarnon could read a grocery list and make it feel mythic, and the presence of veterans like Jennifer Podemski, Kimberly Guerrero, and MorningStar Angeline gives the whole thing a sense of history and weight that most short-form horror simply can't buy.

Is it perfect? Not quite. Thirty minutes is a tantalizing taste, and the film leaves you with more questions than answers - some of which feel like intentional mystery, others like simply not enough runway. If you go in craving a full mythology dump, you'll walk away hungry. But honestly? Hunger might be the point. This is a mood piece, a campfire tale, a warning whispered in the dark, and it nails that register hard. That 8.3/10 audience rating isn't an accident - people are connecting with this thing.

Pros

• Gorgeous, genuinely unsettling atmosphere that maximizes every second of its runtime
• Kiawentiio leads a young trio with real chemistry and quiet intensity
• A stacked veteran supporting cast that adds mythic weight
• The ancient spirit is scarier for what it withholds than what it shows
• Tight pacing - no filler, all dread

Cons

• 30 minutes leaves you craving way more story and resolution
• Some mythology threads are dangled but never pulled
• Viewers expecting classic Pennywise-adjacent horror may be thrown by the folk-horror shift

A Story of Derry is a deliciously creepy appetizer that proves the Derry universe has way more dark corners to explore than anyone realized. Chavez delivers a gorgeous, confident slice of folk horror with a killer young cast and an ancient spirit that'll linger in your head long after the credits roll. It's short, it's sharp, and it's absolutely worth your half hour. Here's hoping this is a taste of something bigger - because if this is what a 30-minute trip to the Western Wood looks like, I want the full tour.