It slept for millions of years, then, when humans appeared in the area, It awoke and began a feeding cycle lasting about a year, feeding on people's fears and frequently assuming the shape of whatever its prey feared the most. After feeding, It would resume hibernation for approximately 30 years before reappearing.
As there's no absolute time frame when it comes to IT's hibernation, the IT miniseries chose to let it sleep for 30 years, and the film went with 27, just like the novel.
IT can also be awakened by an act of violence on top of Pennywise's 27-30 year cycle. The 1986 Stephen King's IT novel begins with a boy named Dorcey Corcoran being beaten to death by his stepfather, Richard Macklin, in 1957, which awakens Pennywise.
A powerful and centuries old being in the form of a clown, Pennywise would awaken in many 27 year cycles of terror, feasting on the residents of Derry, Maine until going back into hibernation deep beneath Derry.
This fierce fear demon gorges itself upon that which terrorizes its victims, using said fear as a weapon before killing them. Of course, the entity's most common form is that of Pennywise, the Dancing Clown. Due to this preferred diet of adolescents, It comes back every 27 after feeding to consume a new generation.
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.
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.
Though there are some IT characters just as scary as Pennywise, the film's main villain proves to be its deadliest, with a kill count that actually reaches into the tens of thousands. Reddit user u/angelholme estimates that Pennywise actually took the lives of between 12,117 and 18,011 people.
Pennywise had targeted Georgie when the boy was too young to know any better or fight back. In the clown's most contemptible murders, Pennywise did not rely on visions or fears to lure Georgie in; instead, Pennywise exploited Georgie's trust and turned it into a fatal weakness.
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.
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.
Georgie Elmer Denbrough is a fictional character created by Stephen King from his 1986 epic horror novel It. Georgie is the younger brother of Bill Denbrough, and falls prey to Pennywise the Clown. He is used by Pennywise to taunt Bill throughout the novel.
While playing Pennywise in IT and IT Chapter Two, Bill Skarsgard wears a set of prosthetic teeth, for times when the dancing clown really needs to show off his razor-sharp chompers. The problem is, these teeth caused Skarsgard to drool, and not just a little. The teeth caused full-on torrents of slobber from the actor.
Basically, children are delicious. That hunger for tasty, tasty, beautiful fear is pretty much the sole reason It returns to Derry, Maine every 27 years to torment and feed on the townsfolk before retreating into a new cycle of slumber.
The prosthetics made him drool excessively but they leave a lot of that in the movie as director Andy Muschietti felt it nicely fit into the ravenous nature of Pennywise. The drooling around children was worked into the story. 12.
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.
In their final battle, the Losers' Club was able to kill Pennywise by reducing him to a child-like form as they overcame their fears. In the moments before Pennywise died, his fear is reminiscent of Georgie's own, therefore closing the cyclical nature of Pennywise's murders.
Kersh is Pennywise's daughter. Or at least the daughter of the man who originally had Pennywise's face. Additionally, the trailer offers a first glimpse of Bill (James McAvoy), Ben (Jay Ryan), Richie (Bill Hader), Eddie (James Ransone), and Mike (Isaiah Mustafa) back together.
The Child's Play franchise is known for its brutal, high kill counts. Racking up the kills together from all seven movies, Chucky has killed a total of 67 people.
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.
Why Art The Clown Is The Scarier Than Pennywise. First and foremost, Art the Clown is a human serial killer, unlike Pennywise. Though he does possess supernatural abilities, his kills are marked through very brutal — and very human — means.
A common interpretation of this phrase is that it refers to where the souls of IT's victims go after they die, as they wouldn't go to heaven nor hell, staying instead in the “deadlights”, which would be a sort of limbo, thus “floating” in that middle point for eternity.
Pennywise targets children instead of adults because they are easier to scare and manipulate. Their fears are often simpler, more direct, and easier for Pennywise to exploit.
