Pennywise’s True Form, Explained

Image via New Line Cinema

If Pennywise’s true form was the clown IT has come to be associated with, that would be horrific enough for most people, especially coulrophobes. To understand the monster, it’s important to consider its origins. According to book-accurate lore established in Stephen King’s novel, It was an ancient, shapeshifting alien entity that existed for billions of years before making Earth its hunting grounds.

It nested in the ground beneath what would later become Derry and slept for millions of years. Waking when settlers began to populate the area, the alien began a 27-year feeding cycle to sustain itself. It preferred feeding on children because the taste of their fear was the greatest satisfaction, with It describing it as “salting the meat.” That didn’t mean adults were entirely off the table. During the first awakening, It devoured over 300 Derry settlers.

Stephen King is a master of horror fiction for a lot of reasons, but first and foremost, he knows exactly how to get under the skin of his readers. As if Pennywise the Dancing Clown wasn’t horrifying enough, King’s description of the monster’s actual form draws from another common fear: arachnophobia. When the Losers Club goes up against the monster for the second time as adults, they get a firsthand look at exactly what they were dealing with: a giant, pregnant spider-like entity with glowing orange lights at its core.

Pennywise and The Deadlights Are One

Image via Warner Bros.

The concept of the Deadlights appears in many of King’s works. From The Dark Tower and It, the Deadlights even show up in The Regulators, which was written under King’s pseudonym, Richard Bachman. But what are the Deadlights, and why are they so dangerous? Described as writhing, orange cosmic lights, one of the simplest explanations is to compare them to the eldritch horrors that flowed straight from the pen of madness wielded by H.P. Lovecraft in the early 20th century.

Pennywise is a manifestation of the Deadlights that the entity uses to lure in prey, much like an anglerfish. These Lovecraftian eldritch horrors are indescribable in their appearance because those who look upon the Deadlights either die or go insane. As the victim goes catatonic, their consciousness transcends space and time to arrive at the edge of the universe, in the void known as the Macroverse, where it is then feasted on until its essence becomes nothing.

In the end, the ultimate message in the Deadlights is the cruel insignificance of humanity in the wake of the cosmos. An underlying theme in Lovecraft’s work, King executes this expertly with the Deadlights. It feeds on children with no thoughts of their hopes or dreams, and doesn’t care about their existence beyond their status as food. It’s a jarring concept for humanity to stand face to face with the cosmic void of the universe and realize it means nothing to be alive. That is the most exploitable fear for the adults who come face to face with It and the Deadlights.

Pennywise Doesn’t Need to Be Menacing to Be Scary

Image via Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Anyone who’s ever been afraid of clowns can easily attest that a clown doesn’t need to be menacing to be scary. In Andy Muschietti’s film adaptations of Stephen King’s It, Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise is downright creepy. From his menacing makeup to that needle-toothed grin, everything about the modern Pennywise screams terror at every turn. Tim Curry as Pennywise in the 1990s miniseries adaptation took an approach much closer to King’s description in the novel.

Curry’s Pennywise had a more human appearance, which makes the audience question reality itself. Anyone in a clown suit could be an indescribable eldritch horror, and with that in mind, relaxing becomes impossible. Both are equally terrifying, but for different reasons. Skarsgård’s Pennywise is not the kind of clown anyone would expect to see outside of a Halloween haunt or scary movie, which in itself is terrifying in its own right. Seeing something like that in person is more than enough to drive even non-coulrophobes to fear.

With Muschietti’s IT: Welcome to Derry prequel series, fans see a lot more range from Pennywise’s ability to shapeshift and draw on the dread and fears of children. In the wake of her fears that her father will be arrested for murders he didn’t commit, It takes on the form of Ronnie Grogan’s mother, who died in childbirth, in one of the most horrific displays of modern horror TV. Likewise, Lily Bainbridge’s encounter with It in the grocery store pickle aisle picks at her most horrific memory and fear like a scab, driving a girl who is already struggling with her mental health into a tailspin that lands her back in the mental hospital.

King provided a concept, and the creators who adapted his vision to the screen interpreted that concept in their own ways. Whether one is closer to the original than the others doesn’t matter because the true horror of Pennywise is in what he represents: primal fear beyond human understanding and description.