Another explanation is connected to the Turtle and the cosmic side of IT and Stephen King's Macroverse, suggesting the Losers as the “chosen ones” that were guided and thus protected to an extent by Maturin, the only creature IT is afraid of.
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.
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.
In the opening scene, viewers are treated to Pennywise's (Bill Skarsgård) first kill, which is as devastating as it is terrifying. Little Georgie Denbrough (Jackson Robert Scott) is out innocently playing on a rainy day when the evil clown sinks his teeth into him.
The evil hibernates for approximately 27 years before awakening, upon which time he begins stalking and killing victims, usually children. Each cycle is seemingly triggered by a significant tragedy or act of violence and ends the same way.
Film Theory: IT - Pennywise's Greatest Fear (IT Movie 2017)
Why did Pennywise only kill Georgie?
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.
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.
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.
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.
One of the themes addressed in IT is trauma, and how the mind tends to lock those painful memories away as defense, which is what happened to the Losers when they left Derry for the first time.
In the Pennywise the clown origin story, Pennywise arrived on Earth in a cataclysmic event millions of years ago. He landed in the section of what would become North America, specifically where the town of Derry, Maine, eventually comes to be built.
IT (2017)- Pennywise is seeing drooling many times throughout the movie. This was not an effect. Bill Skarsgård had to have prosthetic teeth in that made him drool excessively in many scenes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Kersh tells Beverly she's the daughter of a carnival worker who happens to look just like Pennywise. As explained in Stephen King's IT, this man is Bob Gray — and IT, that pesky inter-dimensional force of evil, stole his likeness. For 85-year-old Gregson, the character of Mrs. Kersh was initially even more mystifying.
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.
“It” didn't bite off Georgie's arm, It tore the arm off at the shoulder trying to yank him in to the sewer though the small opening. Pennywise wanted to get all of Georgie since he had him by the hand as he'd reached for a balloon, but couldn't quite get him through the sewer grate, and ended up ripping the arm away.
Pictures] In King's book, Georgie Denbrough apparently dies from complications due to having his arm ripped off by a reptile-toothed clown. As he reaches into the sewer to retrieve his boat, Pennywise grabs Georgie's arm and the boy starts flopping around and screaming.
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.
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.
