Editorials
8 Things You Should Probably Know About Pennywise from ‘It’!
Earlier this week, the world was given its first glimpse of Bill Skarsgård in full costume as Pennywise the Clown, otherwise known as It. There was quite a bit of negative backlash over his look, with many lamenting the fact that he looks too evil as opposed to an everyday clown like Tim Curry’s Pennywise. Not that it matters, but my opinion on the subject is that these criticisms are unfounded. You have to understand, this is a publicity shot. He is meant to look frightening in this particular shot. He very well may have an alternate appearance where he looks more like a friendly clown (he is a shapeshifter, after all). Also, it’s not like ABC didn’t release promotional images of Tim Curry looking scary back in 1990.
That being said, the negative backlash seems to validate the theory that horror fans will never be happy. We have created a culture of dissatisfaction that is never content with anything that is given to us. In all honesty, we should all be grateful we are getting a new adaptation at all. It is understandable to be wary. It’s not like we haven’t been burned by remakes many times before, but the latest image that was released is a solid image of Pennywise. My point is: we shouldn’t be too quick to judge. It’s one photo. Wait until you see the movie. And for the love of God go see it in theaters, otherwise studios won’t take any more risks on multi-film Stephen King adaptations.
That is the end of my rant. Time for the listicle portion of this article. Below are 8 basic facts about Pennywise that you should know before going to see the new film, which will be released next September. I’ve tried to keep it as light on spoilers as possible (spider climax aside), so many of these facts will be known by seasoned veterans of the novel or even the 1990 ABC miniseries, but newbies may find a few things pretty interesting.
1. It originated before the universe itself in an alternate dimension known as the “Deadlights.”
Not much is known about the Deadlights, but that is where Pennywise claims to be from, sometimes going so far as to claim that he is the Deadlights. Anyone who sees the Deadlights goes instantly insane, and only one person has ever seen them and survived (those who have read the novel or seen the 1990 mini-series will know who that is).
2. It’s true form exists solely in the “Deadlights.”
No one has ever seen Pennywise’s true form. While the giant pregnant female spider that appears in the climax of the novel is considered as close a representation to its true form as anyone will ever see, as it the Deadlights is a realm beyond the physical and thus unable to be contemplated by the human mind.
3. It terrorizes the town of Derry, Maine every three decades(ish).
It came to Earth in an asteroid during prehistory but didn’t wake up until the year 1715. From there, it hibernates for roughly 30 years (the shortest hibernation being 24 years) and wakes up again to feed on the fear of the citizens of Derry. It’s awakening is usually spurred by an act of extreme violence in the town.
4. It takes the shape of the thing its victim fears most.
What better way to feed on fear than to actually scare your victim? The miniseries played with this idea a bit, but Stephen King’s novel takes it a lot further. Pennywise actually takes the form of the shark from Jaws in one memorable scene. This is one aspect of the novel that I really hope the filmmakers behind the remake really take advantage of.
5. However, It must surrender the the laws of whatever shape It takes.
Pennywise’s strength is also his weakness. For example, if he were to take the shape of a werewolf (as he does in the novel), silver bullets would harm him.
6. It can be invisible to whoever It doesn’t want to see It.
Most of the time it’s just the kids who are able to see Pennywise and no one else. It only shows itself to the person (or persons) it is targeting. So while one person in a crowded room may be able to see It, no one else will. It’s enough to drive you crazy!
7. It prefers killing children because they are easier to fill with terror.
This one is an no-brainer. If It lives off of the fear of humans, who better to scare than those of us who are most easily scared?
8. It’s weaknesses are courage and heart.
For the sake of spoilers, I won’t go too much into the Ritual of Chüd, but suffice it to say that if you want to defeat It, you’ve got to have the two traits listed above.
Steven Spielberg has always been conversant in the cinematic language of the horror genre, despite relatively few credits in the genre. His contributions as a writer and producer on things like Poltergeist are legendary, and films like Duel and Jaws certainly wield the horror genre in remarkable, often chilling ways. He may not be a horror filmmaker, but he knows when he needs to scare us, and he has the tools to make that happen.
I didn’t go into Disclosure Day, Spielberg’s alien epic, expecting outright horror, and indeed the film leans much more into thrilling than frightening. This is not a horror film, but for a few minutes in the middle, much to my surprise, it became one.
Spielberg has filmed more than his fair share of scary scenes over the years, but with Disclosure Day, he directed a new contender for the scariest scene of his entire career.
SPOILERS AHEAD for Disclosure Day!
Josh O’Connor in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Among the various alien secrets laced throughout Disclosure Day are a trio of palm-sized rods, the color of pencil graphite. These rods, originating from another planet, can be used for a number of things, but for the purposes of this scene, the most important is “diving,” gripping the rod in one bare hand and using its power to “dive” into the mind of another person.
The person holding the rod in this scene is Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth), head of shadowy cybersecurity firm Wordex, who is hellbent on keeping human knowledge of extraterrestrials secret from the general public. Scanlon’s trying to find whistleblower Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor), who’s got all of those alien secrets tucked in a backpack while he’s on the run, and while Daniel’s more experienced mind is protected from diving, his girlfriend Jane’s (Eve Hewson) is not. So, monitored by medical personnel at Wordex headquarters (diving is dangerous), Scanlon pushes his way into Jane’s mind to find the location of Daniel’s safe house.
A telepathic invasion is scary enough on its own, but Spielberg doesn’t stop there. When Scanlon dives into Eve’s mind, he appears to her to be sitting across the kitchen table, like he’s in the room. Her bright blue eyes turn Scanlon’s dark brown, and she loses much of her control over her own body, not to mention her mind. Moments before, Daniel finally shared with her the secrets in his backpack, so Jane is shocked, conflicted, deeply vulnerable when Scanlon slips inside her head. This is not just telepathy. This is possession.
Spielberg underscores this not just through the visual language of the scene, as Jane breaks out in a sweat and struggles to sit upright as Scanlon invades her mind, but through Jane’s background. As she revealed to Daniel earlier in the film, Jane is a former novitiate nun who left her convent when she began to question her calling. She still believes firmly in God and, more importantly, believes that perhaps proof of alien life should be kept secret from the public because, in her eyes, it would upset the entire balance of faith in the world. God is a defining factor for humankind, Jane argues, and showing humanity proof of creatures from the stars would undercut that in dangerous ways.
This context, combined with the crucifix necklace Jane’s holding in her hand at the time of the dive, makes this scene the closest thing Spielberg will ever shoot to something out of The Exorcist. It’s not just a battle of wills, but a battle of faith. As an amoral technocrat worms his way into her memories, her beliefs, her faith, Jane turns the crucifix into a weapon, squeezing it until her hand bleeds when she discovers that a pain response can momentarily push Scanlon out of her head.
Of course, when you put a crucifix and a bloody hand together, it conjures images of stigmata. Screenwriter David Koepp pushes the allusion further by having Scanlon quote Christ on the cross to Jane by way of convincing her that she must be the one to stop Daniel by any means necessary.
It’s easy to see why this is scary, right?
On a very basic level, you have a powerful, wealthy man subduing and assaulting an innocent young woman, which is frightening enough. Then, the layers of the scene kick in. Scanlon doesn’t just assault Jane, but possesses her, seizes her memories, her knowledge, and finally her own free will, all while Jane literally clings to her faith in an effort to fight back. Disclosure Day is, among other things, a story about who has a right to the truth, and Scanlon believes that he should be the arbiter of that truth. Not just the truth as he sees it, but the truth as Jane sees it as well. If they don’t see eye to eye, he’ll make her.
But the possession, as it turns out, cuts both ways. Using the rod to dive is, for a normal human being, an intensely strenuous process. Scanlon admits that previous attempts almost killed him, and for some members of his time, so much as touching the rod results in a near-death experience. Even accessing an unprepared mind like Jane’s takes a lot of Scanlon, and when she kicks him out by squeezing the crucifix – again, so much meaning embedded in the details here – his team holds him back and tries to offer medical intervention. But Scanlon persists, pushing them away, and keeps diving back in.
This means that Jane can’t escape him because he just won’t stop pushing back through her defenses, but it also means that each time Scanlon enters her mind, and thus the safe house, he looks more monstrous. By the end, through a combination of lighting and makeup, Firth barely looks human, conjuring up images of the possessed Father Karras at the end of The Exorcist.
Colin Firth (center, standing) in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
On a pure, visceral craft level, all of this is quite frightening, but the real trick to making this scene into Spielberg’s most terrifying lies in the more existential horror surrounding all of this. Disclosure Day is a film about the battle for the truth over extraterrestrials, but it’s also about a fight against an impossibly powerful surveillance state, the devaluing of human and alien lives in favor of some nebulous collection of assets, and the value of the individual in a world that increasingly lumps people into demographic boxes and writes them off.
In this scene, the surveillance state becomes supernatural, a human life is worth less than a piece of information, and an extragovernmental technocrat would rather sacrifice his own humanity than see reason. In 2026, few things could be more terrifying than that. Spielberg knows this and wields it mightily, proving once again that, while he’s not a strictly horror filmmaker, he can direct horror with the best of them.
Disclosure Day is in theaters now.
Eve Hewson (second from left) in DISCLOSURE DAY, directed by Steven Spielberg.
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