If the mere sight of American Horror Story's Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch) gave you nightmares for days, allow me to introduce you to a certain circus creature that will provide you with bad dreams for weeks. The brand-new film adaptation of Stephen King's It has finally dropped a trailer, and Pennywise the Dancing Clown is hardly as creepily whimsical as he was in 1990 miniseries. Here, Tim Curry is swapped out for Bill Skarsgård, who plays the clown in a far more monstrous manner. If you didn't consider yourself coulrophobic (a.k.a. afraid of clowns), you just might after witnessing this iteration of the famous villain.
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Pennywise's appearance isn't the only major difference between the miniseries and the new movie. King's original novel initially follows a group of children as they fight the shape-shifting monster that has already murdered many people in their town of Derry. The novel then jumps ahead 30 years to the reunited group as they return to their haunted home to confront the reemerged creature. 2017's It will follow the children's initial quest to kill the monster, while a planned (though not yet confirmed) sequel to the film will jump ahead to their second battle.
Kids battling a monster while cruising around a small town on bikes? Sounds a lot like Netflix's Stranger Things. It certainly looks a lot like the streaming sci-fi series — especially when you realize that Mike (Finn Wolfhard) plays Richie in the upcoming film. Any chance that this gang could send Pennywise to the Upside Down? The Netflix series may not have been able to get #Justice4Barb, but let's hope that the kids of It can get revenge on the monster who killed poor Georgie.
The new film hits theaters on September 8, 2017. Zero shade if you watch most of it with your hands over your eyes: if the trailer's this creepy, I can only imagine what the new film has in store.