Stephen King's IT: First trailer shows scariest clown in the world, Pennywise, is back

Do you think clowns are fun? Think again. Perhaps more than any other work, Stephen King’s IT is responsible for the rise in coulrophobia — the fear of clowns — in today’s world. [caption id=“attachment_3359528” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  IT trailer. Image via Twitter[/caption] Inspired by Ronald McDonald and John Williams Gacy (aka The Killer Clown) Stephen King concocted Pennywise: a shape-shifting clown who is among the most evil antagonists that King has created. The 1990 IT TV miniseries was about Pennywise the clown or the titular ‘It’ — a shape-shifting monster from a different dimension which disguises itself as a clown to attract its preferred prey (young children). When the clown starts terrorising a small town, a group of young friends — Richie Tozier, Eddie Kasbrak, Stan Uris, Beverly Marsh, Mike Hanlon, Ben Hanscom, and Bill Denbrough, who call themselves ‘The Losers Club’ — take it upon themselves to fight this menace. They fail, but return to the town 20 years later to take on Pennywise and hopefully defeat him forever. The film and the miniseries also inspired a Hindi TV show:titled Woh, Ashutosh Gowariker plays the protagonist who deals with ‘The Joker.’ Here’s the equally scary title track of Woh:

And now, we have a remake of IT, as a two-part film which stars Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs and Jack Dylan Grazer. The film is directed by Andrés Muschietti and the first part will be out on 8 September 2017. It is speculated that the first part will concentrate on the kids, and part two will focus on the story after two decades. As for the trailer, Muschietti does a great job of transporting the audience to the 80s. One scene that has made an impact in the trailer on fans is at the very end. A group of kids are gathered in an attic and watching home movies. At some point, the projector encounters a glitch and as the video continues, the terrifying clown who haunts the town, Pennywise, appears on screen. In the original book, Bill and Richie are looking at Georgie’s old photo album, and the same ordeal occurs, but the change is being seen as a positive thing by most fans. Though Pennywise hardly makes an appearance in the trailer, it is a great way to build up the expectations of seeing the world’s scariest clown again. But without him, what a non-fan can glean is that this film might be inspired from Netflix’s Stranger Things because it is set in the ’80s, and the kids are saving the day. Here’s the trailer: