Pennywise is a shapeshifter that takes the form of whatever its victim fears the most. Pennywise the Clown, offering children balloons as it did to little Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) at the start of the first IT movie, is just the preferred physical form though.
IT is a shape-shifting creature known as a Glamour who is billions of years old. Although it lived on planet Earth for many years, Pennywise originated in a void/dimension outside the regions of space known as the Macroverse.
In Its true form (or as close to Its true form as King shows us), we see It laying eggs in the sewer system under the city of Derry. So although the particular manifestation of Pennywise is male, “It” can be said to be female.
The creature's real body is composed of the “deadlights” or glowing orbs that overwhelm the mind of anyone who sees them. The deadlights made a cameo in 2017's “It” when Beverly looked into Pennywise's open mouth and saw three, small white lights deep inside her throat.
[Stephen King's IT] Why doesn't Pennywise go after adults the way he goes after kids? Pennywise's deal is that he strikes fear into the hearts of others before devouring them, as essentially fattening them up before he feasts.
Pennywise offers Georgie his boat back, but when Georgie attempts to reach out to it, Pennywise grabs Georgie's arm and bites it off, leaving Georgie to bleed to death in the rain.
Stephen King's IT introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
But, the film makes clear, It (sometimes written as “IT”) isn't just a clown. Oh no. As detailed in King's novel, he's an ancient, cosmic being, described in the novel as an “Eater of Worlds”, who is able to adopt a variety of nasty guises.
In the novel, It's origins are nebulous. He took the form of a clown most frequently, Mr. Bob Gray or Pennywise, but his true form is an ancient eldritch entity from another universe who landed in the town that would become Derry by way of an asteroid and first awoke in 1715.
Martin Morgan Pennwise is (biologically) asexual and has the ability to reproduce. Therefore even though King describes pennywise as a female further into the book, 'IT' is (technically) neither male nor female.
It can manipulate weak-willed people, making them indifferent to the horrific events that unfold, or even serve as accomplices. In the novel, It claims that its true name is Robert "Bob" Gray, but decided to be named “It”. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male, usually appearing as Pennywise.
IT arrived on Earth through an event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in what would later become Derry, Maine. Once there, IT adopted its usual pattern of hibernation that lasted between 27 and 30 years, awakening to kill and eat and then going back to sleep.
They reach the conclusion that Pennywise has all of the adults under some sort of spell that prohibits them from seeing him. The adults of Derry are shown to be villainous in their own right as well. The adults of Derry are shown to be true villains of the story in the same way as Pennywise.
Answer and Explanation: No, Stephen King's It is not based on a true story. King had the idea for It when looking at an old wooden walking bridge in 1978 near his home in Boulder, Colorado.
Pennywise was always evil - or, more accurately, he never really existed. He was just a creation of IT to lure in children so they could be terrified and then eaten. Or so that IT could create chaos, incite riots and spread fear.
Pennywise pretty much made Derry the perfect place for a creature like itself to live, and with the whole town under its control and with a lot of children (and adults) to feed from, IT didn't really have reasons to leave Derry.
He scares them and then kills them. This process seems to capture them in some fashion, presumably in his deadlights, which are closer to his true form. It seems like he doesn't enjoy killing those who aren't afraid of him, or perhaps he only has power over those who are afraid of him.
In the novel, It's origins are nebulous. He took the form of a clown most frequently, Mr. Bob Gray or Pennywise, but his true form is an ancient eldritch entity from another universe who landed in the town that would become Derry by way of an asteroid and first awoke in 1715.
It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better. According to It, when humans got scared, "all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat".
In contrast, negative portrayals of clowns in popular culture was a much stronger contributing factor towards coulrophobia. This is understandable since some of the most prominent clowns in books and films are designed to be scary – such as Pennywise, the creepy clown from Stephen King's 1986 novel It.
The novel explains that IT landed on Earth during an asteroid impact and established itself under the land Derry would be later built on, and initially preyed on indigenous tribes. From that point of view, IT/Pennywise would be billions of years old, but his clown shape wouldn't be that old.
A neighbor witnesses his disappearance, but the fact his body is never found gives Bill hope Georgie somehow survived. Pennywise prays on this in the film, using that hope to lure Bill in the finale. Bill later finds the tatters of Georgie's coat and finally accepts his brother is gone.
And if his victim believes him to be powerless, he will become powerless. And so the group figures out that their best bet is, essentially, to bully the bully: They mock Pennywise, telling him he isn't scary. Humiliated, Pennywise begins to shrink, transforming into an almost Benjamin Button–like, melted clown-baby.
Throughout Stephen King's It, Pennywise is referred to as a male, but author Stephen King pulled a fast one on readers in the It book ending by revealing the creature's true form was a pregnant spider, implying that it is, in fact, biologically female.
