The remake of Stephen King’s It hit a significant roadblock in 2015 when writer/director Cary Fukunaga left the project due to differences regarding the film’s vision and budget. His departure delivered a major blow to those intrigued by his take on the story about a tightknit group of friends who take on an alien devourer as children — and then adults — in their small New England town. But New Line was determined to move ahead with the production. A couple of months later, they tapped director Andrés Muschietti, who made waves with his horror feature Mama, to take over the two-part film adaptation. This announcement was followed by the casting of Bill Skarsgård in the title role, a.k.a. Pennywise, which was originally played by Tim Curry. Recently, a series of disturbing photos featuring the otherworldly, evil clown were released. And now finally, the first trailer has arrived.
The first scene depicting Georgie and his paper boat is nearly identical to the one in the original film, which isn’t entirely surprising since they are based on the same source material. The introduction to The Losers, the group of young people at the centre of the movie, is somewhat undefined, though they’re clearly inseparable. Pennywise proceeds to appear in the most unlikely places and in the most terrifying ways, some of which are familiar and others that may have been reimagined for the film. For instance, it’s possible the scene with the carousel slide projector is an updated version of the scene in which the kids look at a photo album of Derry’s history, including impossibly animated pictures of Pennywise.
One thing is clear: the 1990 movie was scary; this one is aiming to be scarier. Pennywise’s initial appearance is already less inviting, having traded any resemblances to a birthday party clown for a creepier porcelain clown look. The one key element of the villain that does remain a mystery is the sound of his voice, since he is silent throughout the trailer. It also appears as if this first film will deal solely with the characters’ childhood experiences with the creature, leaving us to assume the second part will be the adults’ return to Derry to put a permanent stop to its feeding cycle. It will start to horrify theatre audiences in September 2017.
