10 Creepy Details You Probably Forgot About Stephen King’s IT
That said, Pennywise isn’t the only source of creepiness in Stephen King’s original novel or its movie adaptations. As exemplified by the ongoing TV series, the town of Derry has its own fair share of ominous features. Even more interesting is the fact that certain details can be creepy without being scary in the slightest. As such, even the most hardcore fans of It and Pennywise may have forgotten some of the story’s most unnerving events.
The Deadlights and Pennywise’s Evil God Status
Delving deeper into the novel and its associated lore reveals that It is actually a divine force of nature far beyond the powerhouses of King’s fiction. In fact, Pennywise is arguably the second-strongest entity with a range of terrifying abilities in addition to what fans see on screen. It is not a killer clown or the undead spirit of a serial killer; It’s not even close to human, which only makes the cosmic creature that much more unnerving.
Beverly’s Father Displays a Creepy Obsession with Her
While most of the Losers’ Club come from individually difficult backgrounds, Beverly’s house is easily one of the scariest locations in Derry. The 2017 adaptation perfectly captures the asphyxiating terror that she experiences in Alvin’s presence, as every word and gesture betrays the truth: Beverly’s father doesn’t love her nearly as much as he lusts after her. In contrast to Pennywise’s supernatural evil, Alvin Marsh highlights something both realistic and ominous.
Fans Were Glad the Movies Removed the Sewer Scene
In a shocking twist, Beverly Marsh has sex with each of the other five boys — individually — as a metaphor for restoring the crew’s unity and transitioning them into grown-ups. There is certainly a lot of subtextual symbolism that can be extracted from such a scene, but the text itself doesn’t play well. It’s a disturbing addition to a story featuring a group of children in their narrative Hero’s Journeys, especially given its jarringly unexpected nature.
Pennywise’s Spider Form Had Actually Laid Eggs
The recent It films vaguely alluded to Pennywise’s arachnid form through the clown-spider hybrid, which performs a last-ditch attempt to defeat the Losers’ Club, only for the heroes to mock the monster and save the day. There are no more references to Pennywise’s creepiest guise in the movies or the miniseries, for that matter. On the other hand, Stephen King’s novel revealed a long-kept secret — Pennywise may subscribe to male gender norms, but It bears far more commonalities with its otherworldly spider form.
Few Remember Patrick Hockstetter’s Creepiness
Like Alvin Marsh, Patrick Hockstetter serves as a source of human evil, albeit in the form of a child. He’s slightly older — and, therefore, bigger — than the Losers’ Club, which gives him the only excuse he needs to bully them. However, Patrick’s depravities extended to far more horrifying events than breaking Eddie’s arm. When he was five years old, he murdered his baby brother to gain attention from his mother. Although Patrick’s father suspected his involvement, he never really wanted to think of his son as a killer.
Pennywise Takes on a Variety of Morbid Forms
Tailoring a person’s inner terrors with such flawless precision is one of the major reasons why Pennywise remains a haunting villain long after the credits roll. There aren’t many things scarier than weaponizing the human imagination against itself, as each illusion feels like a violation of each character’s most personal feelings. Pennywise enjoys “seasoning” his victims with fear before ultimately devouring them, a testament to this monster’s enduring malevolence.
Georgie’s Death Is Much More Gory in the Novel
As soon as Pennywise exposed its true nature, “It held George’s arm in its thick and wormy grip… George craned his neck away from that final blackness and began to scream into the rain.” The book further explains how the child “was screaming and writhing in the gutter” until “there was a ripping noise and a flaring sheet of agony, and George Denbrough knew no more.” Instead of taking him away forever, Pennywise leaves George to bleed out on the street.
Adult Characters Are Largely Unable to Perceive IT
While it may be common knowledge, the fact that Derry’s adults are completely unable to perceive its horrors makes the town so much more foreboding. Countless children have vanished over hundreds of years, numerous disasters have shaken Derry to its core, but the adult inhabitants seem to collectively shrug off the horror. It’s a common horror trope that older characters are less open to experiencing the supernatural than children, and It transforms it into something akin to mass denial.
It almost feels as though the adults of Derry have been cursed with apathy, perhaps an extension of Pennywise’s still-inscrutable powers. Refusing to acknowledge the paranormal leaves these adults immunized against the nightmares inflicted by It, consequently protecting the creature’s own existence. At the same time, this apathy is also a painful allegory for real-world incidents of abuse and bullying that go unheeded.
The Ritual of Chüd Remains an Ominous Mystery
Stephen King’s works feature several enigmas, although few of them are as strange as the Ritual of Chüd. The novel introduces the concept as Himalayan in origin, vaguely hinting at a mystical background that’s never fully come to light. Bill Denborough performs this ceremony with advice from the turtle Maturin, and the combined emotional power of the Losers’ Club forces It to acknowledge its weakness. Eventually, the heroes overwhelm Pennywise with optimism and love.
The Town of Derry Feels Complicit in IT’s Crimes
It: Welcome to Derry has finally started to reveal the many rotting aspects of the town, while simultaneously emphasizing the triumph of human connection. Stephen King framed Derry as a microcosm of small-town America, but it also reflects the coldness of bureaucracy. In addition to adults seemingly losing their empathy, Derry comprises a host of nightmares and terrors. The evils that lurk in Derry aren’t just supernatural; they are systemic.
