The Shining. While King has written a variety of novels, all with his own style of narrative and horror elements, one of his most popular books is the 1986 novel IT, which introduced a very peculiar and dangerous monster.
IT follows a group of friends self-named “Derry, Maine). This creature takes the shape of its target’s biggest fears, which is why it usually goes after children, as their fears are less complex than those of adults. However, and as mentioned above, IT usually takes the shape of a clown named Pennywise, who haunted the Losers Club when they were kids and when they were adults and returned to Derry, 27 years after their first encounter with IT. But of all monsters and creatures IT could choose to transform into, why is a clown its favorite disguise?
In the novel, IT takes many shapes, such as a werewolf and a leper, but none of the Losers has a fear of clowns, unlike in the 2017 movie version, where referencing Tim Curry’s version from the 1990 miniseries adaptation. Making Pennywise IT’s go-to form wasn’t a random decision from King, who initially envisioned the creature as a troll like the one in the story “Three Billy Goats Gruff”, but later changed it to a clown as he realized that children hate clowns more than trolls.
Speaking to an audience in Hamburg back in 2013 (via Tim Curry as Pennywise, he thought it was a “strange idea”, though very effective as he scared generations of viewers who are now truly afraid of clowns, but “clowns are scary for children to start with”.
Changing IT from being a troll to a clown was a very smart decision, and the creature is now associated with the image of clowns. Of course, this had consequences outside the book pages, with real-life clowns blaming King and the novel (and later the TV miniseries and the movies, too) for affecting their job, while others took it a bit too seriously and began to dress up as “evil clowns” to terrorize people in different parts of the U.S. Stephen King was right about clowns being scary for children, and thanks to IT, they are now scary for adults as well.
