After years of development hell, one of the most frightening books ever written is finally getting a reboot in theaters, and Stephen King's most notorious villain will be creepier than ever in the upcoming movie. I've got your first look at Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise in It below, so stay floaty. ... I mean frosty.
King's 1986 novel centers on a group of seven friends — the Losers' Club — who fight to stop a recurring evil that devours their hometown of Derry, Maine every 27 years. Bill, Ben, Beverly, Eddie, Richie, Mike, and Stan were best friends once, but the others don't remember their childhoods at all until Mike — who remained in Derry as an adult — calls to tell them they need to make good on their promise and come home, because It is back. Reunited, the Losers' Club must put an end to the flesh-eating villain, once and for all.
Wait, "recurring evil"? "Flesh-eating villain"? I thought It was about a clown! Well, It is and It isn't. (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.)
The terror that plagues Derry must feed every 27 years. To hunt Its prey, It takes on the form of something they fear or love. Fear, evidently, makes children taste better. It appears to various members of the Losers' Club as a werewolf, a mummy, and a giant bird, among other things. But It takes on the role of Bob Gray A.K.A. Pennywise the Dancing Clown specifically because children will trust It. From the novel:
It had always fed well on children. Many adults could be used without knowing they had been used, and It had even fed on a few of the older ones over the years — adults had their own terrors, and their glands could be tapped, opened so that all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat. But their fears were mostly too complex. The fears of children were simpler and usually more powerful. The fears of children could often be summoned up in a single face...and if bait were needed, why, what child did not love a clown?
Nightmare fuel for days.
Check out the first part of Andrés Muschietti's film duology when It hits theaters on September 8, 2017.
