Audiences heading to see Annabelle: Creation this weekend (which is surprisingly good) will be treated to a sneak peek of the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s It. The preview consists of an entire scene, one of the most iconic moments of the book, and it sets the stage for what promises to be an unsettling adaptation of the classic horror novel.
For those of you who may not be into the scares of The Conjuring universe spin-off prequel (that’s a mouthful), we’ve already seen the scene in question, and provide a reaction to it below. Plus, if you’re looking for a new glimpse at Pennywise the Dancing Clown and the kids known as The Losers Club, you can see two new images from It down there as well. If you come with us, you’ll float too!
Before we get to the It sneak preview footage, check out a couple new photos from the movie from EW:
On the right, we get a shot of The Losers Club, played by Jaeden Lieberher, Jack Dylan Glazer, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Olef, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs and Sophia Lillis. They appear to be deep in Pennywise’s sewer layer, where surely some terror awaits them.
On the left, we see that terror with Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. But as Stephen King fans know, Pennywise isn’t really a clown, but rather an eternal, shapeshifting force of evil who has taken the form of a clown with influences from Medieval, Renaissance, Elizabethan, and Victorian eras. As director Andy Muschietti explains, this isn’t a monster who hides in the shadows all the time, “He is present. It’s not like one of those movies where you can hide the monster. He’s front and center, he does his show, and he has an act. He is a clown.”
Bill Skarsgard echoes those sentiments when he says, “It truly enjoys the shape of the clown Pennywise, and enjoys the game and the hunt. What’s funny to this evil entity might not be funny to everyone else. But he thinks it’s funny.” Indeed, we get to see Pennywise having some fun in the sneak preview playing with Annabelle: Creation this weekend, by way of one of the most famous scenes from the book.
Georgie Meets Pennywise
The scene playing in theaters this weekend is when little Georgie Denbrough encounters the creepy clown in the sewers of his neighborhood. After the flow of rain into the street drainage system sends his paper sailboat that his brother made him into the sewer, he’s met by a clown with glowing yellow eyes and sharp buckteeth.
Pennywise is creepy and friendly at the same time, like any monster trying to trap a kid would be, his eyes becoming a little less sinister by turning blue. He asks Georgie where his brother is, talks with the kid about the smells and sounds of the circus, and gets excited about popcorn. It’s all very unnerving knowing how monstrous Pennywise is at his core. There’s a lot of tension at work here, heightened by Bill Skarsgard’s outstanding performance.
Bill Skarsgard isn’t doing a performance like that of Tim Curry in the miniseries adaptation. Not only does his voice fluctuate between a higher pitched joyful tone to a deeper, more menacing sound, but the cadence of his dialogue adds a touch of uneasiness to the proceedings. Even creeper is how moist the clown’s lips are, occasionally dripping with a bit of slobber, presumably because he’s so hungry for the taste of children (which, as we learned during our set visit, was a happy accident after Skarsgard’s make-up ended up producing a lot of drool).
There’s one particular moment where Pennywise goes quiet, his eyes looking wonky, one slowly veering away from gazing at Georgie, before the clown regains his train of thought. It’s a very odd moment, but it makes for an even scarier exchange between the clown and this boy.
If you want to see more from the movie, watch the most recent It trailer right here, and be sure to check out our reaction to some extended clips that were shown at San Diego Comic-Con.
New Line Cinema’s horror thriller “IT,” is based on the hugely popular Stephen King novel of the same name, which has been terrifying readers for decades.
When children begin to disappear in the town of Derry, Maine, a group of young kids are faced with their biggest fears when they square off against an evil clown named Pennywise, whose history of murder and violence dates back for centuries.
It is coming for you in theaters on September 8, 2017.
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