It is the first of a two-part adaptation of the 1986 novel of the same name by Stephen King, primarily covering the first chronological half of the book.
The 2017 IT movie is indeed based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King that was published in 1986. In the book, the main plot takes place during 1957 and 1958.
Publishers Weekly listed It as the best-selling hardcover fiction book in the United States in 1986. It has been adapted into a 1990 two-part miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace, a Hindi 1998 television series directed by Glen Baretto & Ankush Mohla, and a film duology directed by Andy Muschietti.
It also more closely adheres to character arcs and the spirit of togetherness that allowed the Losers' Club to defeat Pennywise in the first place. The 2017 movie, understandably, introduces some updates and adjustments, but overall captures the tone of the novel better.
The Cast of "IT" Talk About Life on the Set of A King Movie
Is Pennywise a girl in the book?
Throughout the novel, It is generally referred to as male. However, late in the novel, the characters come to realize that It is most likely female, due to its true form in the physical realm being that of a giant pregnant female spider.
The 1990 mini-series hews much more closely to details of the book, in terms of specific events (e.g. the forms Pennywise takes for each of the kids) and the dialog, which is often lifted verbatim.
In IT, is Pennywise the clown a demon from hell? No, Pennywise is just a form that 'It' takes. 'It' is actually an ancient being that's been around since the creation of the Universe/Universes. These beings are mentioned in Stephen Kings 'The Dark Tower' series.
The Deadlights are the true form of Pennywise/IT. The Deadlights are orange writhing lights that exist in Todash Darkness. Pennywise uses the Deadlights to break a person's mind because one look at the Deadlights will make a person go insane due to it not being able to be comprehended by a human mind.
Almost certainly the most well-known evil clown (save for Batman¹s archnemesis, the Joker; more on him later), Pennywise is modeled after real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy, aka Pogo the Clown, a.k.a. "The Clown Killer." Gacy was convicted of sexually assaulting and killing 33 boys in 1980; he posed as a clown ...
With 1153 pages, "The Stand" is Stephen King's longest novel, followed by "It". This first edition copy, in pristine condition, has been recently sold on BIBLIO! 👉 Search for more copies and share with us in comments which of King's novels you like the most!
In Stephen King's novel "IT," the members of The Losers' Club defeat Pennywise for the first time when they are children, specifically in 1958. The characters are around 11-12 years old at that time. Later in the novel, the story jumps forward to 1985, when the characters have grown up and are in their 40s.
The IT character Pennywise may have been based on the serial killer. While there is some debate on whether Gacy truly influenced the creation of Pennywise, the two are eerily similar, as both dress as clowns and target children. When Gacy was convicted of his murders in 1980, King must have begun writing IT.
He is also a mentioned character in 11/22/63. He was the youngest of the seven members of The Losers' Club, and the only member Pennywise is afraid of.
Pennywise slumbered beneath the Earth for millions of years, awaiting the arrival of humankind. When the town of Derry was built in 1715, IT awoke and began a cycle of feeding on the fears of the people of Derry and then resuming hibernation for cycles of 27 to 30 years.
Being such a powerful being, Pennywise clearly sensed that the yellow coloring was unsettling to Georgie, so he changed his eyes to blue on the fly as a way to make Georgie associate him with family and safety. This made Georgie all the easier to lure in to his bloody demise.
The prosthetic teeth that Bill Skarsgård wears made him drool. Bill Skarsgård wears prosthetic teeth to get that big, bucktoothed grin of Pennywise. 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.
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.
At some point in the novel, King explained part of IT's backstory but left enough of it untold to raise many questions about it, and everything about Pennywise's origins is a bit confusing, as it's connected to the macroverse and the turtle Maturin, who's the only being IT is afraid of.
Pennywise is female. In Stephen King's book, in the end, Pennywise's true form is a spider that lays eggs to reproduce itself. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male due to usually appearing as Pennywise.
When the Losers Club finally encounter the “true” form of Pennywise in its lair beneath the town of Derry, it comes in the shape of a gigantic, alien-like spider. Pennywise the Clown's most famous phrase, “they all float down here,” encapsulated by the bodies of its victims hanging by spider webs within its lair.
I thought it was a strange idea but it really worked and it scared a whole generation of young people and made them scared of clowns, but clowns are scary for children to start with.” King's decision to delve into the primordial fears of children led to the creation of a horror mainstay.
The old version specifically use music so it is easy to predict when something will jump out on the screen. It is meant to make the moment suspenseful, but it comes off as cheesy. Both movies share the same theme song. The lack of music in the new movie is what makes it even scarier.
