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| Derry | |
|---|---|
| Stephen King location | |
 The town as pictured inIt | |
| First appearance | "The Bird and the Album" (1981) |
| Created by | Stephen King |
| Genre | Horror fiction |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | Town |
| Location | Maine |
Derry is afictional town in theU.S. state ofMaine that has served as the setting for a number ofStephen King's novels, novellas, and short stories, notablyIt. Derry first appeared in King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album" and has reappeared as recently as his 2011 novel11/22/63.
Derry is said to be nearBangor, but King explicitly told his biographer,Tony Magistrale, that Derry is actually his portrayal of Bangor.[1] A map on King's official website, though, places Derry in the vicinity of the town ofEtna.[2]
King, a native ofDurham, Maine, created a trinity of fictional Maine towns—Derry,Castle Rock andJerusalem's Lot—as central settings in more than one work.
The town of Derry was first mentioned in Stephen King's 1981 short story "The Bird and the Album".[3] While the town would be mentioned in various other stories, it was not until King's 1986 novelIt when the town was used as a fully rendered setting.[4]
Besides the oft-used trinity of Derry, Castle Rock, and Jerusalem's Lot, King has created other fictional Maine towns, including Haven inThe Tommyknockers, Little Tall Island inDolores Claiborne andStorm of the Century, Chester's Mill inUnder the Dome, and Tarker's Mills inCycle of the Werewolf.
In 2016, it was announced that a new adaptation ofIt would split the novel into a two-part motion picture.[5] During production, the producers ofthe 2017 film adaptation and its2019 sequel needed a small town in which to film, andPort Hope, Ontario, was used for much of the exterior work for both movies.[6] Some scenes said to be in Derry were shot elsewhere.[7] Thesynagogue appearing inIt Chapter Two was actually theCongregation Knesseth Israel inToronto, while the Derry High school exteriors were filmed at the Mount Mary Retreat Centre inAncaster, Ontario. OtherChapter 2 filming locations included the Scottish Rite Club inHamilton, Ontario, Audley Park inAjax, Ontario, and Rouge Park inScarborough, Toronto (as The Barrens).[8][9] So-called "horror house" exteriors were built for the movies; both were located on the same property inOshawa, Ontario.[10]
On several occasions inIt, "the Losers Club" find themselves at 29 Neibolt Street, a run-down, abandoned house near thetrainyard. It is here whereEddie Kaspbrak first encountersIt, which shows itself as a mix between a homeless leper and its familiar Pennywise form. Later, after Eddie tells them his story, Bill and Richie go to investigate the house and are chased off by It, the creature having taken the form of awerewolf in Richie's mind, and Pennywise in Bill's mind.
Soon after these incidents, the Losers Club goes back to the house in hopes of confronting It. However, soon after they confront It, the creature disappears into the sewers through a toilet pipe. They, therefore, decide to enter the sewers for their first showdown with It.
During Its 1985 killing spree, the bodies of two children are discovered at the house. One is found across the street from the house, and the other is found underneath the porch with no legs.
In the2017 adaptation and itssequel, 29 Neibolt Street acts as the primary entrance to It's lair and the scene of the Losers Club's first real confrontation with It. The house is built on the location of Derry's old well house where 91 settlers disappeared when Derry was first settled, as well as a central hub for the town's sewer system. At the end of the second movie, the house collapses along with It's lair when the Losers Club kills It.
The Barrens are a small tract of land still heavily covered in trees and plant life. Derry'slandfill is located here, as is a gravel pit and several sewer pump stations. The Barrens play the most prominent role inIt, as the Losers adopt them as their home away from home, even building an undergroundclubhouse there. Most of the Losers have their first meeting here while trying to build a small dam in theKenduskeag Stream, which runs through the Barrens, and next to Derry.
InIt Chapter Two, after being thrown into a well, Henry Bowers is washed out of the sewer system into the Barrens by aflash flood.
In11/22/63, Jake Epping has a conversation with young Richie Tozier and Beverly Marsh from the novelIt near the Barrens in September 1958, shortly after The Losers defeated It for the first time.[11]
A section of the Kenduskeag that runs through downtown Derry. The Canal goes through a tunnel under the streets for a short way and comes out in Bassey Park. In January 1958, a young Ben Hanscom first encounters It walking on top of the frozen surface. A few months later, Eddie Corcoran is decapitated here by It in the form of theGill-man.
The Derry Civic Center is a recent structure built after the old civic center was destroyed in the 1985 flood. It was designed by famed architect (and one-time Derry resident) Ben Hanscom. It plays an important role in the events of the novelInsomnia. TheCrimson King, the supervillain of King'sDark Tower series, planned to use Ed Deepneau to fly into the Civic Center on akamikaze mission, using a small plane armed withC4 explosives. The aim of this mission was not to kill the people inside the Center but to kill a child namedPatrick Danville, who plays a key role in theDark Tower story. Following an encounter with the Crimson King himself, Ralph Roberts and Lois Chasse force Deepneau to crash the plane in the Center's parking lot. Several people are killed, but Danville is ultimately saved.
The Kitchener Ironworks was anironworks outside of Derry. In 1906, despite every machine in the works having been shut completely down, the Ironworks inexplicably exploded, killing a group of 88 children and 102 total people who were participating in anEaster egg hunt. The tragedy was caused by It sabotaging the equipment, presumed to be responsible for eight missing bodies. This marked the beginning of the creature's 27-year hibernation period. It is at the ruins of the Kitchener Ironworks where a young Mike Hanlon first encounters It in the form of a giant bird in 1958.
In the 2017 adaptation,Ben Hanscom first encounters It in the form of a headless child that was among the victims of the Kitchener Ironworks incident.
In11/22/63, at the Kitchener Works in October 1958, Jake Epping encounters the monstrousIt from the novelIt. Jake finds a pile of gnawed bones and a tiny chewed collar with a bell on it inside a fallen chimney. From deep inside a large pipe, something moved and shuffled. It whispered in Jake's head, attempting to lure him inside.[12]
The Standpipe was a large water tower in Derry. In its earlier days, it remained unlocked so that patrons of an adjoining park could climb aspiral staircase around the tank to look out over Derry from the top. The Standpipe was closed to the public after several children drowned in the tank, most likely the fault of It. The Standpipe is where Stan Uris first encounters It, which takes the form of drowned children.
After the grown-up Losers Club kills It in the second Ritual Of Chüd in 1985, a huge storm ensues, destroying many buildings and landmarks in Derry, including the Standpipe. InDreamcatcher, Mr. Gray drives to Derry to find the Standpipe, only to discover a memorial featuring a cast-bronze statue of two children and a plaque underneath, dedicated to the victims of the 1985 flood and of It. The plaque has been vandalized withgraffiti reading "PENNYWISE LIVES". In11/22/63, Jake Epping buys a pillow with a picture of the Standpipe on it. He hides a gun in it, the gun he uses to kill Frank Dunning.
According toIt, the Tracker Brothers were two men who owned a trucking depot on Kansas Street during It's 1958 killing spree. The brothers maintained abaseball field behind the depot for children to play on. InDreamcatcher, Jonesy, the Beav, Henry, and Pete first meet Duddits in the depot's parking lot in 1978 (at which time the depot has closed), saving him from a gang of bullies. In 1985, while visiting the abandoned depot, Eddie Kaspbrak encounters Pennywise for the first time since his childhood. The depot was destroyed in the same 1985 storm that destroyed the Standpipe.
InThe Running Man, aRichard Bachman novella set in adystopian future, Derry is home to a large airport consisting of acres of parking lots, a huge "Northern States Terminal", several runways with the capacity to support large widebody aircraft, and a large fuel tank farm. Ben Richards, the novella's protagonist, arrives here by car and is allowed to board a "Lockheed GA/Superbird" by bluffing that he has enoughplastic explosive with him to blow up the entire complex.
In a 2002 interview with Tony Magistrale, the author spun a yarn about an urban legend that the sewer system in Bangor was so hastily built in the 1930s—while the WPA was throwing money at public works projects—that the town's engineers "lost track of what they were building under there." As a result, King says, nobody has a truly reliable map of the Bangor sewer system and "it's easy to get lost down there." True or not, it's a good setup for a horror story. Bill Denbrough essentially repeats this urban legend in IT, right before he and his friends embark on their underworld journey into Pennywise's labyrinth.
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