Pennywise the Dancing Clown, the eponymous monster at the center of Stephen King's multigenerational 1989 novel IT, is everyone's childhood fear of clowns writ large. The sewer-dwelling clown has undergone key changes as the source material was adapted, first for a television miniseries and then for a two-part movie.
Pennywise, also known as "It", is primarily in a clown form. It is a shapeshifting entity from a dimension outside of known time and space who arrived on earth sometime in the early eighteenth century. It exists in its true form as three glowing orange lights of supernatural energy, known as The Deadlights, and It/Pennywise's presence is felt across King's fictional universe.
It's nature is as simple as its origin is complicated. It needs to feed on human flesh in order to survive, and It prefers the flesh of those whom it has terrified, though whether this is necessity or preference is vague. It feeds on children because children are easier to scare. A cyclical creature, It emerges once every 27 years to terrorize the town of Derry, Maine before returning to hibernation. In between its generational reigns of terror, It uses psychic abilities of mass mind control to manipulate the people of Derry into forgetting that it exists.
Pennywise In Stephen King's IT Novel
As created by King for his original novel, It is the living embodiment of childhood fears centered around the baby boomer generation. King was heavily influenced by the media, which fed his own childhood fears through his consumption of movies, television, and horror comic books like E.C. Comics' Tales From The Crypt. At various times throughout the novel It takes the form of a werewolf, a mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and even Gill-Man. This is King's tribute to the classic Universal horror monsters of Hollywood's Golden Age. At another point in the novel, It assumes the shape of a fairy tale witch, so the influences are broad and seemingly infinite.
Pennywise In The IT TV Miniseries
In the the first adaptation of the novel, a 1990 network miniseries, It was played by Tim Curry of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame. Curry's Pennywise is a true clown: a bombastic, friendly goofball with a wide smile on his face. This made it easier to disarm and manipulate its gullible young victims into letting their guards down until the very moment Pennywise switched from goofball to flesh-eating nightmare.
The silliness of Curry's portrayal is likely due to network television standards of the time, which kept on-screen violence at a minimum and limited the series' ability to delve too deep into Pennywise's more horrific and gruesome nature. Budgetary restraints and available technology at the time also factored into miniseries' portrayal of Pennywise.
Pennywise In IT Chapter 1 & 2
The Pennywise seen in It: Chapter One and It: Chapter Two as portrayed by Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard is a far more sinister figure. This Pennywise is an evil nightmare clown to the highest degree. In director Andy Muschietti's vision, there is nothing silly or menacing about his visibly predatory visage. Pennywise's transformations are usually far more personal, such as It taking the shape of a strange woman in a painting depicted in Stanley's father's office, or an infected leper that plays to Eddie Kaspbrack's fear of diseases.
One major change in the feature film adaptations of IT is that It/Pennywise has been given a fatal vulnerability. Just as It feeds on fear and weakness, this Pennywise can be countered with courage and inner strength. The of the Losers Club are able to turn the tables on Pennywise, ridiculing and insulting him, which in turn causes him to wither in size and strength, leaving them an opening to rip his heart out and crush it, killing him.
