Many of Stephen King’s stories are set in the fictional town of Derry, in Maine, and due to all the horrible events that have taken place there, Derry is said to be cursed – but what made it into a cursed town? Stephen King has rightfully earned the title of the “King of Horror” thanks to his novels and short stories from this genre, though he has also explored different ones such as drama, sci-fi, and even western. King has also built his own universe and mythology, and there are certain cities and places that have become key in its stories, even becoming characters, as is the case of Derry.
Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, and he has used Maine as the setting for many of his stories, building fictional towns that fit his vision, such as Castle Rock (or The Rock) and Derry. The latter first appeared in the 1981 short story “The Bird and the Album” and has since been the main setting of some of King’s most famous novels, such as IT and 11/22/63, and it has been mentioned in many others as well as the events that have taken place there, as happened in books like Gerald’s Game, Pet Sematary, Misery, The Body, Lisey’s Story, Under the Dome, and more.
King has shared that Derry is based in the town of Bangor, Maine, where he and his wife Tabitha now reside. King has even said that he took inspiration from the sewers of Bangor, which were poorly built and extremely difficult to map, which translated into the sewers in Derry where IT used to hide. What also made King use Bangor as inspiration is the town’s history of violence, and one particular case was used as the basis for the murder of Adrian Mellom in IT, one of the most brutal scenes in the book. Derry in King’s universe has seen many deaths, supernatural events, and is home to some of this universe’s most famous places, such as the Barrens and the house on 29 Neibolt Street. Derry is the main setting in IT, and as such, it was witness to some truly terrifying scenes, but is Derry cursed because of IT or did the creature arrive at this particular town because it’s cursed?
There are points in Stephen King’s universe called “thinnies”, a weak spot in reality where the fabric of the worlds has been worn thin, allowing some creatures to slip through from other dimensions. In The Dark Tower, Derry is mentioned to exist in a thin spot, which would explain why the town seems to be cursed and thus doomed to all types of tragedies. However, IT’s history also adds to why Derry is a cursed town, as the creature arrived on Earth as a result of a massive cataclysmic event, landing in what would become Derry, Maine. IT, then, had been living in Derry since before the town was built, which is why Derry had been plagued with tragedy from the beginning – literally the beginning, as about 340 original settlers suddenly disappeared. The answer to whether Derry is cursed because of IT or IT settled there because the town is cursed is a bit both, as Derry being in a thin spot and IT crashing there have contributed to the town’s curse.
Given its cursed history and the many strange and tragic events that have happened there (like hundreds of people being killed during an explosion, a whole club being burned down, and kids mysteriously disappearing every 27 years), it’s not surprising that Derry has been mentioned in other stories, and it will surely continue being a key location in the universe of Stephen King.