Stephen King's 1986 novel "It," for its overwhelming length and chronological sprawl, centers on a very simple and basic horror premise: clowns are terrifying. Perhaps there was a time in his planet's history when pale-faced, blue-haired ghouls with painted-on smiles and gin blossom encrusted noses were considered charming and delightful, but anyone who recalls that time died over a century ago. In 2022, many might readily agree that clumsy, "comedic" traditional circus buffoons are now merely greasy, manic, and threatening.
The monster in King's novel was an impossibly ancient shape-shifting Lovecraftian space deity that fed on human fear, with the ability to read human minds and manifest what they were most afraid of. Perhaps instinctually, the universal fear shape that this creature elected to take was that of a clown. It gave itself the name of Pennywise, and would hibernate in the sewers under Derry, Me, awakening every 27 years to frighten and eat children.
The monster in King's novel was an impossibly ancient shape-shifting Lovecraftian space deity that fed on human fear, with the ability to read human minds and manifest what they were most afraid of. Perhaps instinctually, the universal fear shape that this creature elected to take was that of a clown. It gave itself the name of Pennywise, and would hibernate in the sewers under Derry, Me, awakening every 27 years to frighten and eat children.
- 10/28/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Jim Knipfel Sep 29, 2019
You can't escape the clown epidemic brought on by Stephen King's It, Joker, and other works of fiction.
Despite what the media has told us whenever the phenomenon has come up, creepy clowns have been lurking among us for a very long time.
In September 2014, the residents of Northampton, England began reporting a deeply disturbing stranger in their midst. The Northampton Clown, as he came to be known, was said to resemble Pennywise from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, complete with baggy one-piece suit, white face, big red nose, and wild flame red wig. He didn’t frolic or make balloon animals. He didn’t have a seltzer bottle or do pie gags. At the same time he did not hurt people, never spoke a word, and that may have been part of the problem. All he did during his sporadic and unexpected appearances was stand...
You can't escape the clown epidemic brought on by Stephen King's It, Joker, and other works of fiction.
Despite what the media has told us whenever the phenomenon has come up, creepy clowns have been lurking among us for a very long time.
In September 2014, the residents of Northampton, England began reporting a deeply disturbing stranger in their midst. The Northampton Clown, as he came to be known, was said to resemble Pennywise from Stephen King’s 1986 novel It, complete with baggy one-piece suit, white face, big red nose, and wild flame red wig. He didn’t frolic or make balloon animals. He didn’t have a seltzer bottle or do pie gags. At the same time he did not hurt people, never spoke a word, and that may have been part of the problem. All he did during his sporadic and unexpected appearances was stand...
- 10/11/2016
- Den of Geek
Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
- 11/27/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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