Deadlights, a Macroverse, and an insatiable taste for fear.
Pennywise is so much more than a dancing clown.
Here's the chilling explanation of all of Pennywise's powers in Stephen King's "IT."
Pennywise's presence can be felt throughout Derry, and the terrifying monster has a knack
for appearing in the strangest places.
Though the novel's opening chapter is known for the awful death of Georgie Denbrough,
his horrific end is preceded by a much quieter but equally ominous scare.
Georgie goes into his basement for paraffin wax, needed to waterproof his paper sailboat.
While making his way through the dark cellar, he notices a pair of glowing eyes watching
him patiently as if preparing to strike.
Pennywise frequently lurks in shadows and dark corners, making his presence known and
then quickly withdrawing again.
Derry is It's sandbox; you get the feeling that It could be literally anywhere, at any time.
When Mike makes a delivery to Derry Quality Meats, he first sees what appears to be a
clown dangling from a meathook, obscuring what is likely just an animal carcass.
This deceptive practice has several benefits for a monster who feasts on fear.
It causes his victims to doubt their perception, making them more vulnerable to his direct attacks.
These subtle appearances also create a general feeling of unease, leaving the residents of
Derry constantly on edge.
It's a tactic Pennywise has been employing for decades.
As Ben's research shows, Pennywise has been hiding in plain sight, frequently lurking
within images from Derry's past and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
One of Pennywise's more disturbing characteristics is his ability to transcend the laws of physics.
He can bend and contort his body at will, fitting into tiny spaces or expanding to dominate a room.
A spectacular demonstration of this power occurs in the decrepit house on Neibolt Street,
when the clown slowly unfolds himself from the inside of a refrigerator
The effect was accomplished almost entirely through CGI, and provides a nightmarish glimpse
into the depths of his powers.
This ghastly ability is also the clincher for one of the most heartbreaking deaths in the series.
After losing his arm, Georgie attempts to crawl away to safety, but can't out-crawl
Pennywise's supernatural reach.
Director Andy Muschietti has said this was one of the most difficult scenes to shoot,
but it perfectly sets the deadly tone and presents a monster from which there is no escape.
While the ability to freakishly contort his clown-shaped body leads to some unforgettable
moments, Pennywise's real signature power is the ability to shift into any shape the
mind can imagine.
It is actually an entity from another world with a true form that is too complex for the
human mind, a massive spider-like beast being the closest option.
His default persona during the Losers Club era is the iconic clown, but he originally
took the form of an eagle to menace the people indigenous to the land on which Derry now sits.
Pennywise appears as many things throughout the story, including a werewolf, a leper,
a mummy, an old woman, and a giant statue of Paul Bunyan.
During the conclusion of "It," Pennywise rapidly changes into a succession of faces all designed
to intimidate the person directly attacking him at any given moment.
In the conclusion of "It Chapter Two," he sprouts long tentacles and spider-like legs,
a nod to the novel's original conclusion.
One of the most frightening forms appears in "It" and even managed to scare Stephen King.
Preparing for his bar mitzvah, Stan finds himself alone in his father's office with
a creepy painting of an elongated woman holding a flute.
The portrait falls face down on the floor and Stan rehangs it, only to find an empty
frame and the woman playing her haunting melody in the shadows behind him.
Inspired by an incident from his childhood, director Andy Muschietti incorporated this
nightmare into the story, exponentially upping the fear factor.
"Sharp teeth" isn't exactly a power, but you can't ignore Pennywise's most terrifying physical feature.
Hidden within his sinister smile are rows upon rows of needle-like teeth.
In his introductory scene in "It," the clown grabs Georgie's arm and then distends his
jaw to reveal several rows of dagger-sharp teeth.
These fangs can also be seen under the Kissing Bridge in "It Chapter Two" as Pennywise claims
a dying Adrian Mellon.
The distended mouth and glittering rows of pointed teeth seen in the films are a product
of CGI, but the smile that surrounds them is frighteningly real.
Actor Bill Skarsgård spent considerable time creating the sinister grin, combining imagery
from hyenas and grizzly bears with an ability to point his lower lip honed as a child.
Skarsgård remembers using this face to scare his younger brother, an ironic training ground
for the predator he would eventually portray.
The response of most children, when confronted with a monster, is to find safety with an adult.
That's not a luxury the children of Derry can afford.
The adult citizens are rarely of help and are often dangerous themselves.
Ben's research confirms an extraordinarily high rate of disappearances within the town,
but these crimes rarely phase the adult citizens.
This is likely due to It's lair, located in the bowels of the town.
His evil pervades the thoughts and actions of its older residents.
This ambivalence is present in the opening scene of "It" as an old woman turns away from
Georgie talking to a sewer drain.
She then returns to find the boy missing and the street filled with blood.
She apparently does not report the incident and Georgie is considered missing.
Later, when local bully Henry Bowers attempts to carve his name into Ben's stomach, a car
passes by, a red balloon in the backseat signaling their indifference.
Perhaps the most egregious example of these awful adults, though, is Beverly's father Alvin Marsh.
He cruelly blames her for her mother's death and constantly makes inappropriate comments
that suggest a lot more than the films show.
One of Pennywise's most visually arresting talents is his ability to manipulate red balloons.
Often appearing as a harbinger of his presence, they are seemingly unbound by the laws of
physics and can float against the wind, grow to massive size, and appear out of thin air.
These balloons are usually only visible to his intended victims, imperceptible to those around them.
Ben notices a balloon dragged horizontally across the library as if with invisible hands
minutes before he is attacked by Pennywise.
These balloons often serve a practical purpose to the malevolent clown.
Henry Bowers finds the knife he uses to kill his father in his mailbox marked with the signature orb.
In one memorable scene from "It Chapter Two," Pennywise uses a cluster of balloons to glide
through the air toward Richie.
Pennywise has other tricks up his ruffled sleeves, too – like supernatural messages.
After capturing Beverly in "It," Pennywise leaves a message written in blood on her bathroom
wall: "You die if you try."
The cheeky phrase is intended both to intimidate Bill and warn him away from trying to rescue his friend.
Or, perhaps his intention is to challenge the group's de facto leader and cause him
to bring the rest of the Losers Club to fight the clown on his home turf.
Most of these messages occur in the sequel film "It Chapter Two."
Having been defeated by the seven friends in a previous cycle, Pennywise has been nursing
a grudge and is anxious for another chance to destroy them.
The second film opens with an ominous command.
"Come Home" is written in blood on the side of a bridge after the tragic death of Adrian Mellon.
But perhaps the most memorable message occurs during dessert at the Losers' reunion dinner.
Nightmarish fortune cookies each contain slips of paper each with a single word.
Combined, they read, "Guess Stan couldn't cut it," a heartbreaking statement referring
to the decision their childhood friend made to avoid coming back to face the devious monster.
Not content to only appear in person or leave grim messages, Pennywise has an unsettling
habit of haunting books, flyers, and other forms of physical media.
Ben's library book about the history of Derry contains a series of pages with increasingly
enhanced images that slowly reveal the severed head of a little boy killed in an explosion.
Even more ominous is the children's TV show many kids – and adults – of Derry can
be seen watching in "It."
Delivering unsettling messages, the female host informs her viewers about the joys of
playing in the sewers and later directly commands Henry Bowers to kill his father.
These examples are often designed to intimidate It's potential victims, like the missing poster
Richie finds featuring a picture of himself apparently taken that same day.
This power manifests in one memorable scene from "It."
After the kids look at slides of Derry to plan their attack, the projector malfunctions
and rapidly displays a series of Bill's family photos.
Seeming to freeze on one image, the hair covering Mrs. Denbrough's face slowly blows back to
reveal Pennywise, and audiences everywhere get the jumpscare of their lives.
Hoping to capture authentic reactions, this scene marked the first time the child actors
as a group actually saw Bill Skarsgård in his full Pennywise costume, adding oomph to
what is already the most effective sequence of the movie.
One of Pennywise's most devastating powers is a variation of his shapeshifting.
He is able to conjure the dead, adding emotional turmoil to an already frightening scene.
Once a person dies in Derry, they seemingly become fair game for the flamboyant monster.
Patrick Hockstetter finds this out firsthand while chasing Ben through the sewers in the first film.
Hearing whispers, he lights his makeshift flamethrower to reveal the decomposing corpses
of the Derry kids who've recently gone missing.
They chase him into a dead-end of the sewer where he is devoured by Pennywise.
Hockstetter's own reanimated corpse is featured in "It Chapter Two."
Beverly also hears the voices of these children in the drain of her bathroom sink before the
tendrils of hair emerge and try to drag her in.
This power takes a devastating turn as Pennywise also conjures the image of Georgie to further torture Bill.
He appears as the ill-fated little brother several times throughout the story, intentionally
amplifying Bill's guilt and grief.
In another emotional tactic, Pennywise takes the form of Stan's severed head.
Emerging through the floorboards of the sinister house on Neibolt Street, he first blames Bill
for his death then sprouts spider legs from his face before skittering toward the group.
One might think that simply avoiding Pennywise would be enough to stay safe in Derry, but
the clown has a number of tricks up his sleeves, some involving the town's citizens.
It is capable of manipulating the people of Derry, often causing them to do his bidding.
The most notable example of this manipulation is Henry Bowers, who serves as a kind of henchman
for It, constantly attacking the Losers.
Henry is more than an average bully.
Guided by Pennywise, he kills his abusive father.
As an adult, he breaks out of a mental health facility determined to finally kill the Losers Club.
Pennywise essentially orchestrates his escape, sending the corpse of Patrick Hockstetter
to wait outside with a getaway car.
Pennywise's evil has an indirect effect on the citizens of Derry as a whole, a cursed
town full of angry and violent people, as seen with the death of Adrian Mellon.
"It Chapter Two" opens with a brutal hate crime as a group of teens hurl homophobic
slurs at Adrian and his boyfriend before beating him and then throwing him off a bridge into
the water below.
Though never explicitly stated, it is implied that unspeakable violence like this happens
as a result of the underlying hatred in Derry itself.
Red balloons and lurking monsters are not the only devious creatures Pennywise is capable of conjuring.
His presence is occasionally signaled by a thick black goo with mysterious properties.
The slimy substance first appears in the house on Neibolt Street.
An image of Eddie's decapitated head bursts through a dirty mattress and then spews the
disgusting liquid all over the floor.
The goo is also a presence in one of the most disgusting scenes in "It Chapter Two."
After a reunion dinner at Jade of the Orient in which the old friends reconnect and bond
over happy memories, they're treated to a nightmarish dessert.
The dark slime slowly begins to spread across the table as their fortune cookies burst open
with tiny monsters.
The goo isn't always part of Pennywise's manifestations, but when it is, it seems to act as sort of
a primordial ooze from which other horrors are born.
Though its evil pervades the town of Derry, creating a distinctly unpleasant environment,
the residents occasionally catch a bit of a break.
Pennywise functions on a cycle spanning roughly 27 years that has been presumably repeating
itself for centuries.
Each new cycle is born with a shocking act of violence.
The death of Georgie Denbrough begins the 1989 cycle and Adrian Mellon's murder is the
instigator of the modern cycle.
Once in full swing, Derry is beset with a series of deaths and disappearances culminating
in a large-scale tragedy.
Finally full, It retreats into his lair for another long slumber.
Though Andy Muschietti's films cast Ben as the original Derry historian, Stephen King's
original novel gives Mike the task of chronicling town events.
Not sure they've definitely killed the nightmarish clown, he is wary of another cycle beginning
and dreads having to call in the promise they made as children to come back and finish the job.
King's novel contains an extensive exploration of previous cycles in sections called Interludes.
In preparation for a new round, Mike has collected stories about mass murders, vanishing settlements,
a racially motivated fire, and a deadly explosion during a children's Easter egg hunt all occurring
within the Derry town limits.
The HBO prequel series "Welcome to Derry," will reportedly be set in the 1960s, placing
it roughly one cycle ahead of the one featured in "It," teasing more of the town's dark history.
Pennywise's most insidious faculty is also the most difficult to explain.
Though he often appears as a clown, his true form is a source of eldritch power known as
the Deadlights.
Depicted as three glowing lights in director Andy Muschietti's film "It," the Deadlights
are a nebulous source of energy connected to a larger dimension called the Macroverse.
Also referred to as Todash in Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" series, this is a sort of
liminal space between worlds filled with lurking monsters waiting for their chance to break
free that connects many of Stephen King's works.
Pennywise uses the Deadlights as a sort of hypnosis, meant to incapacitate his prey for
later consumption.
Unhinging his jaws, he opens his face to reveal a long, tooth-lined tunnel surrounding the
glowing orange lights.
Beverly is the first of the Losers to become trapped in the Deadlights, which hypnotize
her and put her into a state of suspended animation.
Richie is also caught in the Deadlights in the conclusion of "It Chapter Two."
The Losers combat the Deadlights with the Ritual of Chud, a metaphysical way of matching
wits with the centuries-old demon.
While Muschietti's ritual differs dramatically from King's, both involve overpowering the
monster by forming a cosmic connection both with It and with each other.
Pennywise's most upsetting power lies in his ability to manipulate the emotions of his
intended victims.
This innate ability to identify someone's deepest fears also allows him to access and
exploit their internal feelings of guilt, shame, and loss.
Mike first encounters It as badly burning hands, reminiscent of the house fire that
killed his parents when he was a child.
Bill is manipulated by the ghost of Georgie several times throughout the series.
In "It Chapter Two," Pennywise tries to disarm Bill by accusing him of causing Georgie's
death by lying about how sick he was on the day of his brother's death.
Once again, Beverly's father provides the most chilling manifestation of this power.
Still grieving the death of his wife, he constantly makes inappropriate advances and is seemingly
days away from escalating to physical abuse.
The blood Pennywise sends to her through the drain in her bathroom is a representation
of her upcoming menstruation, signaling a dangerous phase of maturity while her father is around.
Pennywise occasionally appears to Beverly disguised as her father, most notably in the
climactic sewer battles that conclude both films.
But in a dramatic twist, it's Beverly's fearlessness that allows her to strike the decisive blow,
giving the Losers the confidence they need to force It back into his lair for the next 27 years.
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