Real talk: I’m still petrified of Tim Curry’s Pennywise. That 1990 miniseries messed me up early, and the trauma stuck. Storm drains, red balloons, a wicked clown with razor-sharp teeth and dead eyes. SHI-VER.

So when Max dropped the teaser for It: Welcome to Derry this morning, I watched it like someone cracking open a cursed book. And yep. Pure dread. Pure excitement.

This is the prequel to Andy Muschietti’s It and It Chapter Two, and it’s already looking like a deep, dark dive into the origin of Derry’s evilest serial-killing spirit. The trailer doesn’t show much, but what it does? Creepy adults. Ominous shots of kids outside. And finally, that laugh. Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise slowly creeping through a sewer, smiling like he knows something I don’t. I felt my soul leave the room momentarily.

According to Entertainment Weekly, the story centers on the 1960s and the burning of the Black Spot, a tragic event in Derry’s twisted timeline. It was a nightclub for Black patrons, destroyed in one of It’s catastrophic cycles. “Every 27 years when It appears, It’s cycle is marked by two catastrophic events, one at the beginning and one in the end,” Andy and Barbara Muschietti told EW. “We are using the Black Spot as an event in which many stories are built around.”

They’re pulling from the novel’s interludes, which are those eerie side stories Mike Hanlon collected from Derry’s past. Those were some of the scariest parts of the thousand-page book that I read at way too young an age. The first interlude starts with a chilling question: Can an entire city be haunted? (Gulp.)

It looks like the timeline is sticking to the film universe. In this version, the Black Spot is burned down in 1962. Based on the trailer, it looks like Jovan Adepo may be playing Will Hanlon (Mike’s father), and Taylour Paige appears to be his wife, Jessica, but character details are scant. Also on board: Chris Chalk, James Remar, Madeleine Stowe (my fave from Revenge!), Stephen Rider and Rudy Mancuso.

But what’s got me really nervous? It’s a weekly Pennywise series. That means slow-burn horror with that cursed clown whispering terrifying nothings from bathtub drains and sewers every week (likely on Sundays). And it’s on HBO, where they don’t have to pull punches and things can get extra dark with the quickness.

Am I ready for that? Nope, not even close. But I’ll be there, lights on, with my weighted blanket at the ready. Because even though I’m still scarred by Curry’s clown, I can’t look away. This is the kind of horror that sticks with you. Check out the teaser below.