The latest adaptation of Stephen King‘s IT featured plenty of horrifying visuals, but Pennywise actor Bill Skarsgard explained to Variety that one of the film’s most disturbing scenes was a flashback to the character’s origins back in the 1600s.
“There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise [was Pennywise],” Skarsgard revealed earlier this year. “The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I’m not the clown. I look more like myself. It’s very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for what IT is, or where Pennywise came from.”
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It was actor Tim Stevens’ appearance on the Throwing Shade podcast, however, that led to details being revealed about what the scene really contained.
The actor claimed to have auditioned for the part of Pennywise and hinted at some of the details he read in the script, leading the host to go on to scour the internet for the script, reportedly stumbling across this scene that was posted to Reddit.
In the story, an evil entity, often referred to merely as “It,” plagues the town of Derry, ME, taking on various forms to most effectively strike fear into anyone it comes into contact with. Much of the time, this means Pennywise the clown, but it also manifests as a leper and macabre figure from a painting, among other things.
The scene seemingly unfolds shortly after this entity has landed on earth and terrorizes a woman in the New England community. The creature makes its intentions of feeding on fear quite apparent, with the woman hoping to protect her newborn from the monster.
While this scene was cut from this year’s adaptation, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be cut from the narrative completely.
Stephen King’s original novel is nearly 1,200 pages, with director Andy Muschietti opting to tell only a portion of the story with the first film. This first adaptation focused on a group of friends confronting the monster as kids, while the complete novel also explores these friends coming together 27 years later to face the threat again.
Given how horrifying this scene plays out, we could potentially see it in the next film.
The next installment of IT hits theaters on September 6, 2019.
[H/T Bloody Disgusting]
