Horror fans have been waiting in bated breath for the first It teaser trailer, not only to revisit the Stephen King classic, but also to see if Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard’s take on Pennywise the killer clown is anywhere near as bone-chilling as Tim Curry’s from the 1990 TV miniseries.
At last, the very first teaser has dropped, at a solid 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and what it reveals of Pennywise 2.0 is absolutely, ridiculously terrifying.
The teaser opens to the most famous scene from the 1990 version, when poor Georgie’s paper boat floats down a storm drain. Once he goes to recollect his boat, Pennywise pops out, as he does in the original, but this time with a far darker and sleeker look.
Director Andrés Muschietti told Entertainment Weekly in July 2016 that his film would not feature the same crazed, foaming-at-the-mouth Pennywise that Tim Curry gave, but rather a more “elegant” and “precise” one. But this did not mean Pennywise has been dialed down by any measure.
The teaser only offers flashes of Pennywise, like one creepy scene in which Pennywise appears on a projector screen. There is also no dialogue from the famously wordy clown, but instead a terrifying clip of him silently rising from a puddle and then rushing towards his prey.
Also, he has motherfucking CLAWS this time!
We will have to wait to see the terrifying new incarnation of Pennywise until September 8, when the It reboot hits theaters.
That is, unless our hands are covering our faces the whole time.