Gaze upon the horrific new Pennywise the clown from the It remake

The adaptation of Stephen King’s It has aged horribly over the years. Terrifying to watch when you managed to sneak a VHS of it out of your local video shop, some of the effects are laughably terribad when you revisit it. One aspect of the film that is still utterly unnerving and creepy decades later however? Tim Curry as Pennywise the clown, a sadistic immortal predator that feeds on fear.

After all, there’s nothing more terrifying than a clown, especially one that featured Tim Curry sporting a Brooklyn accent. For the remake however, Bill Skarsgárd looks like he might give Curry a run for his money in the reboot of that cult classic. Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, here’s Skarsgárd in all his mentally traumatising glory suited up as Pennywise:

Is it safe to come out yet? Because that Pennywise is truly terrifying stuff. For It, director Andy “Mama” Muschietti roped in costume designer Janie Bryant to breathe new life into the walking circus nightmare to create a costume that references previous eras in human history. “The costume definitely incorporates all these otherworldly past lives, if you will,” Bryant said to EW.

He is definitely a clown from a different time.

According to Bryant and EW, the Pennywise costume incorporates numerous qualities to help give Skarsgárd an otherworldly feel, such as a puffy collar that helps create a doll-like quality for this creature thinks a clown should look like. “That pleating is actually Fortuny pleating, which gives it almost a crepe-like effect,” Bryant said.

It’s a different technique than what the Elizabethans would do. It’s more organic, it’s more sheer. It has a whimsical, floppy quality to it. It’s not a direct translation of a ruff or a whisk, which were two of the collars popular during the Elizabethan period. There is almost a doll-like quality to the costume. The pants being short, the high waistline of the jacket, and the fit of the costume is a very important element. It gives the character a child-like quality.

If you look at the sleeves, there are the two puffs off the shoulder and biceps and again on the bloomers, I wanted it to have an organic, gourd or pumpkin kind of effect. It helps exaggerate certain parts of the body. The costume is very nipped in the waist and with the peplum and bloomers it has an expansive silhouette.

It makes him almost like a shadow,

It is properly scary stuff. I’m not the biggest fan of reboots, especially horror movie reboots, but this is one stab at the genre that I think is really headed in the right direction, that builds on what that 1990 TV movie accomplished. Also, I just want to stop typing right now because every time I glance at my screen I look directly into absolute terror. For the love of the Langoliers, make it stop already.

Last Updated: August 17, 2016