Advice on preparing new players for Curse of Strahd

I'm running a campaign for my girlfriend ("Esme") as well as my brother ("John") and his girlfriend ("Cristina"). I gave them brief descriptions for some of the pre-written adventures including Descent into Avernus, Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, and Icewind Dale. Both Esme and Cristina both voted for Strahd so that's what I'm going to be running. Esme has watched a lot of Critical Role (pressures on for me lol) and knows a little about D&D but has never played before. Cristina on the other hand has not played or watched D&D. John has been playing D&D with me since elementary school so its pretty safe to say he knows what he's doing.

I've heard that Ravensloft is not a beginner friendly setting but I don't want to change campaigns if I can avoid it. I'm also not the biggest fan of Death House in this context because I don't think it's the best introduction to D&D because I want to give the players some breathing room to develop in character bonds as well as learn how to play the game without being punished too severely for making mistakes. Along with being hesitant to run Death house I would also like to start at level one for the aforementioned reasons.

Should I trust my gut and run something other than Death House? If so what should I run? Any additional advice on running this game?