IT (2017) is a film that doesn't shy away from real-life fears or mature topics.
So far in this series, we've explored a multitude of scares from the Stephen King film adaptation
as well as several specific phobias embodied in the fears of many members of The Losers Club.
But what about Bill?
What about, Pennywise?
Welcome to Part 3 of a 3-part miniseries exploring the different scare scenes for the characters
in the new 2017 IT film adaptation.
So far we’ve explored the fears of nearly every member of The Losers Club- all except
for one.
"WHERE'S BILL?!"
In this video, we’ll be exploring the fears of Bill Denbrough, and finally- Pennywise himself.
As usual, spoilers ahead.
Before Bill’s first encounter with IT in the film, it’s been established that he’s
become obsessed with locating his younger brother, Georgie, who mysteriously disappeared
the previous year.
Towards the beginning of the film, when Richie makes a joke about Betty Ripsom being dead
in a ditch somewhere, Bill sternly corrects him that she- just like Georgie, is simply
missing.
Seemingly everyone around Bill, even his parents, have grown to accept that Georgie is lost-
which only seems to fuel his obsession to find his brother even more.
And while this dilemma isn’t the cause of Bill’s stutter, it doesn’t do much in
the way of helping him overcome it.
To help with his speech impediment, Bill focuses on repeating the tongue twister: “He thrusts
his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.”
A practice that doubles as a confidence booster.
Glossophobia is the fear of speaking in public or trying to speak, and though Bill doesn’t
necessarily suffer from this, he does have a hard time forming complete sentences due
to his stutter.
An interesting note about stuttering by the way, it’s not entirely linked to anxiety
and stress.
Recent studies have pointed to the idea that a stutter may have something to do with alterations
in how blood flows to certain parts of the brain, specifically the areas responsible
for speech formation like the broca's area- which is specifically designated for
The words are there, they just struggle to come out.
And it seems to come down to a subtle difference in brain circuitry.
Since the areas of the brain involved with attention and speech formation work closely
with the areas that process emotion, stress and anxiety can take a toll on this effect.
This might explain why we see Bill stuttering so frequently, especially considering the
situations he and his friends go through in the film.
Before Georgie encounters IT, his dilemma is relatively straightforward.
We’ve all seen silhouettes of beings that probably weren’t really there in the shadows
of a creepy area like a cellar.
We’ve all had scary suspicions of being watched or having the demons of our imagination
following us.
Just like with Stan and his father’s dimly-lit office, Georgie is faced with a dilemma resembling
nyctophobia, the fear of darkness.
What could be waiting in the dark?
And in the film, this thought horrifically plays out into Georgie’s reality- in the
infamous opening scene by the storm drain.
But what about Bill?
On the night of Bill’s first encounter with IT, he’s woken up from a leak in the ceiling.
It’s storming again- bringing back a similar environment to the day his brother disappeared.
He goes to the closet to grab a bucket for the leak, when a light in Georgie’s room
turns on.
Bill cautiously enters his brother’s room, which turns out to be empty, and he soon begins
to grieve.
A shadow watches him from the doorway, then suddenly runs off- startling him.
The sound of stampering wet galoshes lures Bill out into the kitchen, where he stands
curious for a moment.
Bill is startled when Georgie suddenly runs past the room and down the cellar, wearing
the same yellow raincoat and the walkie-talkie Bill gave him on the day he went missing.
Bill tries to say his name, but begins to stutter softly as panic takes over.
Slowly pacing down the steps to the cellar, he finds that it has flooded from all the
rain.
He sees his brother standing in the far corner and after a moment, Georgie says:
“I lost it, Billy...
Don’t be mad...”
Whimpering, Bill stutters back that he isn’t mad as the camera zooms in closer to reveal
that “Georgie” is smiling sinisterly with a strange glimmer of light in his eye.
He continues, “It just floated off.
But Bill, if you’ll come with me- you’ll float too.”
Bill can only utter his brother’s name as “Georgie” grins widely and starts repeating
those last words over and over again maniacally.
With a tone of increasingly warped sadness and giddiness, “Georgie” begins to scream
“you’ll float too” as he starts to change into a waterlogged corpse.
A strange clown rises from the water behind Georgie and it becomes apparent that the voice
is really emanating from him.
Bill can only watch in horror, speechless as Pennywise thrusts the corpse puppet into
the water and violently jerks towards him at an alarming pace.
Fight or flight takes over and Bill flees back up the stairs, just in time.
So what fears does this play on?
Well similarly to Beverly, Bill represents nostophobia, the fear of returning home.
For him, his reasoning isn’t abuse but rather the purgatory of his brother’s mysterious
absence.
If he’s not out actively looking for him, he must feel a tremendous amount of guilt and anxiety.
Think about the closest person to you in your life.
Now imagine if they disappeared one day.
Would you go looking for them?
This might be a good place to talk about grief and the various proposed stages, you know-
denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
But the thing is- Bill isn’t exactly grieving.
Yes, he’s lost something- but he doesn’t know for sure that it’s lost forever.
In his eyes, there’s still a chance his brother could be out there, alive.
He holds on to hope, and just like a vengeful ghost, is unable to move on.
An interesting thing to note about complicated forms of grief however- it can lead to short-term
memory loss, regarding memories not involving the deceased loved one.
Could this perhaps be why Bill and the rest of The Losers Club have issues remembering
IT and Derry later on as adults?
Because they all suffered a loss in some way after leaving?
I mean, childhood memories wouldn’t really qualify as short-term, so would this even
make sense?
Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.
We’ve yet to see how this memory loss will be portrayed in Chapter 2.
But back to Bill:
Loss is something we all experience at some point or another.
You might feel it when a family member passes away.
Or when you're in a serious relationship that doesn't work out.
You might say Bill is suffering from a form of survivor’s guilt like his friend Mike
Hanlon, but unlike his book and miniseries counterparts, this Bill doesn't know for sure
that Georgie is dead.
Bill lives in a limbo.
A purgatory of not knowing.
A never-ending nightmare, haunting his every-waking moment.
Is Georgie safe?
Is he suffering?
Was he murdered?
This is what’s known as ambiguous loss- loss without an answer.
In this scenario, a person is unable to move on past the stages of grief because there
isn’t an explanation.
Karen Robinson, the head of Partnerships at Missing People says, “As human beings, we
emotionally need closure on things, and grief doesn’t start until we know for certain
that somebody has died.”
As we know, people going missing is a common occurrence in Derry- a perpetual cloud of
heavy uncertainty.
And this should mean that there are others who Bill can relate to.
Only, the strange thing about Derry- people seem to tiptoe around the subject, only acknowledging
it when a person initially goes missing.
Bill lives in a world where nobody understands the pain he must burden everyday- living with
questions that have no answers.
Statistically, the longer a person is missing, the less likely it is that they will be found.
So when Bill sees a glimpse of Georgie in the cellar, he’s overwhelmed with emotions
of sadness, excitement, and confusion.
When we think of the concept of fear in the context of IT, we tend to think in terms of
the more tangible.
To the other members of The Losers Club, IT manifests itself as various monsters.
A leper, a painting, a burn victim.
When it comes to Bill however, his fears aren't so traditional.
A boogeyman skinwalker of sorts, IT appears to Bill as a demon of something much heavier-
the demon of ambiguous loss that haunts him.
Bill is haunted, obsessed with the question of what happened to his brother- and IT knows
that, which is why it appears to him as Georgie- because of what it means to Bill.
IT uses this demon to try to manipulate Bill again when the kids later confront IT in the
sewers.
With the help of his friends however, Bill finds what remains of his brother, the yellow
raincoat, and in the face of the truth he finds the strength to confront this demon
of ambiguous loss and put it down for good, so that he may begin truly grieving.
When it comes to loss, everyone copes in their own way- but sharing the burden with others
who have faced similar experiences certainly can't hurt.
With the exception of Stan, the other members of the The Losers Club have experienced loss
in some way, whether through the death of a parent, alcoholism, or the death of innocence.
And when Bill is faced with overwhelming grief in the face of a sobering truth, his friends
are thankfully there to support him.
So to start off, I thought it’d be interesting to explore some scenes that made this Pennywise
stand out.
Did you find him scary?
If so, what was it about him?
Let me know in the comments below.
Like I said in the first part of this video series, I don’t think it’s fair to compare
the new 2017 adaptation of IT to the 90s miniseries since they’re from different times- though
I must say the new film did bring some rather fresh elements that stood out.
Pennywise tends to linger in the background pretty often throughout the 2017 film.
Just like IT's haunting influence on the town of Derry, Pennywise's literal presence lingers in
some scenes and sometimes- it’s more than subtle.
For example, when the Losers Club is gathered in Ben’s room talking about how 91 Derry
settlers mysteriously vanished, you might have noticed Pennywise peeking from the clipping’s
illustration.
It’s doubtful that someone drew the clown into print, especially since Ben would have
likely mentioned it.
No- it’s almost as if the clown in the picture isn’t supposed to be there- as if it’s
watching them.
As if- simply talking about IT and what it might be... gathered IT’s attention.
Or you may have noticed Pennywise’s mug peeking from within the mural on the brick
wall behind Ben and Stan in the alley.
Just like a fly on the wall.
Then of course there was his appearance on the children’s television program, which
was mysteriously playing in the background of any scene involving a parent and a television
at home- manipulating the message of the show’s host to words of sewers and floating.
First at Eddie’s house, then at Bev’s, and finally at Henry’s- where it became
clear that even the TV can be a two-way black mirror in this cursed town.
There’s even his short cameo appearance while Mike is under attack by Bowers’ gang,
where he’s chewing on a disembodied arm as if it were popcorn, only to vanish entirely
once The Losers Club arrives and a rock war starts.
These scenes are rather reminiscent of the sinister entity’s subtle, lingering presence
in the novel- an impressive directorial feat considering the challenge with translating
an atmosphere from one medium to another.
It's almost as if like a twisted version of Big Brother- IT is always monitoring the town
of Derry, and in a way- sort of is Derry.
Watching for moments of weakness, capitalizing on fears and opportunities to strike.
As if always asking, just how broken and afraid are the people of this town?
But perhaps IT isn’t omnipotent.
As mysterious as this cosmic entity is, it does seem to have limits.
If it were all-knowing and all-powerful, it’d be hard to imagine that it would sleep for
27 years or even have a hunger to feed on fear in the first place.
This brings me to propose two fears that the entity of IT might represent, based on its
behavior in the film.
The first is Athazagoraphobia- the fear of being ignored or forgotten.
When it comes to what IT is afraid of- it’s actually rather straightforward and even relatable.
What does the being behind Pennywise fear?
Well simply put, it’s starvation.
This brings me to the second fear: Thanatophobia- which is the proposed fear of death or dying.
As terrifying as IT’s manifestations might be, behind them all is an entity that seems
to be rather desperate to have something to eat before the next long sleep.
Looking at Pennywise’s encounter with Bev at the end, he's clearly frustrated at her
overcoming her struggle with her father, which was her greatest personal fear- something
that effectively serves to render other frights such as the silly clown as just that- a silly
clown, more of an annoyance if anything.
And even with IT’s powerful shapeshifting, illusion-creating, and mind-controlling abilities,
is it possible that IT really won’t gain sustenance if IT’s prey isn’t afraid?
Add to that the fact that Pennywise in this film behaves much more wild and feral.
Like a creature behaving on instinct.
We know that IT is a creature that awakens roughly every 27 years and somehow, must feed
on fear.
And we've all been in situations where we were hungry.
And like an animal out of a long hibernation, IT’s understandably famished.
In many scenes, Pennywise has a starved expression on his face.
You can see the hunger in his eyes.
The endless trickle of drool hanging from his mouth.
The carnivorous mess of blood on his chin and cowl.
IT probably imagines itself at the top of the food chain.
In a way, IT is similar to Henry Bowers- a bully.
And just like Henry’s father states after intimidating his son, there's nothing quite
like a little fear to make a paper man crumble.
Just like when we start to feel the effects of starvation, this motivation like many fears,
stems from the innate fear of dying.
Pennywise or IT is terrified of losing its grasp of fear over the children of Derry.
Of losing its hold- its power.
Because without it, IT’s unable to feed.
But perhaps the entity known as IT is effectively immortal from our tiny and limited perspective
of human comprehension.
What if for IT, starvation doesn’t lead to death but rather, an even more limited
existence?
If not for the fear of hunger and thereby death- perhaps IT simply represents the fear
of losing control.
The fear of losing power- it stems from the same motivator for why power is sought out
in the first place.
We don’t want to be in a place where we aren’t in control.
In the final act of the film, the concept of fear acts like a double-edged sword for
both Pennywise and The Losers Club.
While the kids must each face their own personal fears in the various manifestations that IT
takes on, they’re also placed in a position where they are forced to understand what those
fears are.
It’s been proposed that the reason we sometimes have nightmares when we dream, is because
they serve as simulations of our worst fears.
Simulations that serve to mentally prepare us for avoiding scenarios that might lead
to those fears, as well as surviving through those same fears should they ever become a
reality.
This is the “Threat-Simulation Theory”, proposed by Finnish cognitive neuroscientist,
psychologist, and philosopher, Antti Revonsuo.
It’s a theory that suggests dreams might be an evolutionary tool for survival- a response
to the perception of threats in real life.
In being forced to believe in the terrifying existence of IT, the members of The Losers
Club are at least for a time also made to believe in themselves.
And in greater numbers, this proves to challenge the influence IT has over them.
It becomes a struggle for power- a battle of wits, and this is where the shades of doubt
begin to manifest in Pennywise- perhaps for the first time.
During the final confrontation, this “Ritual of Chud”, IT sporadically shapeshifts from
the guise of Bill’s brother Georgie, to Pennywise the Clown, to the burning hands
of the Blackspot and Mike’s parents, to the flute woman of Stan’s nightmares, to
a mummy for Ben, to the leper for Eddie, to Bev’s abusive father, and even giant spider
legs not yet seen by our protagonists- perhaps a nod to IT’s true comprehensible form from
the story.
IT desperately pulls out all the stops.
But where there is understanding in facing fears, there comes courage.
And like an infection, that courage quickly spreads to all the members of The Losers Club,
turning the tables so that IT suddenly finds itself in a place of powerlessness.
IT realizes that as they are now, IT can’t frighten them anymore.
They’re not afraid.
IT starts to back away, stuttering and whimpering.
IT begins to recite “he thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees
the ghosts” because for perhaps the first time ever, IT is afraid.
It's almost as if it doesn't know this feeling which confuses IT into a state of extreme
vulnerability.
In a moment of fight or flight, IT chooses to retreat, perhaps to reflect on this new
predicament.
Perhaps this is reminiscent of the most basic, primal survival scenario.
In the wild, there are many dangerous creatures.
In a standoff, the outcome of an encounter might come down to the ability to display
fearlessness.
Regardless of actual ability, the perception of an opponent with a level-head in the face
of danger might be a deciding factor.
To be clear, this isn’t to say that if you meet a bear in the woods, you should attack
it to assert dominance- quite the contrary, provoking an animal that hasn't yet perceived
you as a threat is a terrible idea.
But when fight or flight takes over, perhaps it is beneficial to have an understanding
of the scenario at hand.
And the concept exists here in The Ritual of Chud.
Despite everything that IT throws at them, despite how scary it might be to each kid
individually, together, The Losers Club doesn’t falter- if anything, they become more ferocious,
overwhelming it.
Pennywise realizes that his efforts to scare are no longer working out well for him.
The fear he used against them suddenly becomes their strength.
IT has become the prey.
Seriously they beat the extra-dimensional shit out of him.
So IT’s last message, before disappearing into the abyss is the word “fear”.
It’s safe to say this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the cosmic entity, but for now- what
exactly did IT mean by that?
Could IT perhaps be reflecting on the irony of having its own weapon used against it?
Was it a parting message, a desperate last attempt to plant a seed of corruption?
What about you?
What do you think Pennywise was trying to say before sinking into the abyss for another
27 odd years?
Let me know in the comments below.
My name is Blue Lavasix, and as always- thanks for watching.
Hey! If you’ve been following along this miniseries, I just wanna say thank you.
It's been a blast exploring the various scares of IT 2017.
If you're new to this channel, and this is your first video- welcome!
I've done two other parts that you can watch right here.