The character is an ancient, shape-shifting, trans-dimensional evil entity who preys upon the children (and sometimes adults) of Derry, Maine, roughly every 27 years, using a variety of powers that include the ability to shapeshift, manipulate reality, and go unnoticed by adults.
Originally Answered: Why is Pennywise mean? In reality, he is an alien energy life-form who 'eats' fear and terror and death. He kills humans, especially human children, because they taste good. He was created by dark forces to do so, and he enjoys his work.
While this version of It is currently Pure Evil just like the novel and the TV miniseries incarnations, there's a slight possibility that this may change once Welcome to Derry, an upcoming HBO Max prequel show about its origins set in the 1960s is released, as the series will delve into its backstory.
It is a horrific and malevolent cosmic entity who is billions of years old and preys on Derry's people, especially children, feeding on their fears and using the writhing bright orange lights that comprised his own life essence known as "Deadlights", a dangerous and eldritch form of energy (which is used as a dark ...
Pennywise may act like a silly, childish clown, but he is still a murderous, killing creature. He kills for a living because villainy is in his blood. He enjoys wreaking havoc in the city of Hometown, and he is smart enough to know about a child's fear.
It Analysis: Why Pennywise is Actually a Good Clown
Why does Pennywise eat humans?
In both the book and the films, It is an ancient alien creature, older than civilization, and in King's novel, older than our universe. It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better.
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.
Twenty-seven years after their first showdown with the murderous clown, the now-grown members of the Losers' Club converged on Derry to defeat Pennywise forever. 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.
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.
Ultimately, Stephen King's inspiration for Pennywise was derived from an array of sources ranging from real-life murders to far less sinister clowns. At the end of the day, his main reason for making the central creature of IT a clown was his own fear of them.
The Atlantic said of the character; "the scariest thing about Pennywise, though, is how he preys on children's deepest fears, manifesting the monsters they're most petrified by (something J. K. Rowling would later emulate with boggarts)." British scholar Mikita Brottman has also said of the miniseries version of ...
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.
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's primary goal is to feed on humans, generally preferring children over adults since they were easier to scare and manipulate. According to the creature, frightened flesh tastes better and uses fear to "salt the meat".
There are a lot of characters who can do kill him who are universal or higher, like Thanos w/ IG, Giratina, Dimentio, and Arceus, to name a few of the literal hundreds. Spawn is the first thing that comes to my mind.
Overall you should not let a 12 year old watch this unless you're absolutely sure your child will be fine with it but anywhere over 12 you're fine to watch it if you would like, but ask you're parent first, it's not my decision.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Pennywise's murders are cyclical; every 27 years, he returns to kill the children of Derry. This cycle is finally completed and forever closed when Pennywise is killed.
The Losers defeated IT at the end of the novel, but did the creature really die? Some details in later Stephen King novels suggest IT is still alive. The Losers managed to defeat IT at the end of Stephen King's IT novel, but clues in some of the author's other books suggest that Pennywise may actually still be alive.
It's possible that there really was a human version of Pennywise the Dancing Clown who lived in Derry and became possessed by the other-worldly entity, carrying out violence in the same way that Henry Bowers did.
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 describes that it prefers to kill and devour children, not by nature, rather because children's fears are easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children are easier to fill with terror, which It says is akin to marinating the meat.
