Why Pennywise the Clown Fails So Hard
One of the biggest icons in horror is Pennywise the Clown from It. That doesn’t mean he’s a good character. In fact, anyone who watched It and It: Chapter Two closely will notice he fails so hard as a villain that it’s embarrassing.
Why Pennywise the Clown scares people even though he’s a terrible character
Some people are terrified of clowns, whether they’re regular clowns, horror movie clowns, well-written clowns, or poorly written clowns. Moviegoers with hardcore coulrophobia were going to hate Pennywise no matter what. For better or worse, some people are so frightened by the image of a clown that they cannot notice that Pennywise is a bad character.
While the first film plays him up as a force to be reckoned with, he’s ultimately defeated by a bunch of kids who aren’t even old enough to get a learner’s permit. Some villain. By the end of the film, he’s about as threatening as Disney’s Captain Hook.
Pennywise is even less scary the second time around. The Loser’s Club defeated him as kids. Seeing them battle the same monster as adults in It: Chapter Two isn’t suspenseful because these characters have all been there and done that.
Bill Skarsgård was a terrible choice to play Pennywise
Of course, Pennywise might have been spooky if Bill Skarsgård knew what he was doing. Instead, he’s about as frightening as a Gothic Winnie-the-Pooh. He’s so over-the-top he might as well be a drag queen. The character’s voice, motions, and dialogue feel more tailored for a horror comedy than straightforward horror.
If Pennywise was just a regular movie killer, he might be considered camp. However, the image of a man in white face paint is just too much for some people. Pennywise inspired more screams than he should have.
Stephen King thinks that the ‘f****** clown is going to live forever’
During a 2022 interview with Bloody Disgusting, author Stephen King revealed that he viewed Pennywise as his sturdiest creation. “I think that when I die I will kind of disappear from the paperback racks. But that f****** clown is going to live forever. That’s one thing I’ve got going for me.”
While King has written several sequels over the years, he won’t write a sequel to It. “Well, I don’t have a relationship to Pennywise now,” King said. “Because I have no intention of going back to It… it’s in the hands of people who are doing this. [Filmmakers] Andy and Barbara [Muschietti] are going to do Welcome to Derry, they’re talking about it anyway. And they’ve got sort of a handshake deal, I think, with HBO Max.”
King had no issue with the Muschiettis taking the character in their own direction. “It’s an interesting possibility to do that,” he said. “They talked about a prequel. Which struck me as an OK idea. I’d love to see what Pennywise was up to 27 years before the ’50s. Or, I guess it would be the ’80s, because they updated the [setting]. So it would be, you know, before World War II or something. It’ll be interesting to see what will happen with that.”
King thinks that Pennywise will last until kingdom come. Only time will tell.
