Stephen King says the remake of It is ‘beyond expectations’ as audiences are left screaming

Paul Moore

Prepare to be terrified.

We all have traumas from those films and TV shows that we saw during our childhood years.

Hands up if the The Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Oompa Loompas from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory or the witch from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves still frighten the living shite out of you?

Remember the witch? She was bloody terrifying.

While there are countless characters that have caused us to experience some horrific flashbacks, no other character has been as memorable, ghoulish and creepy as Pennywise the Clown from the adaptation of Stephen King’s beloved novel It.

Tim Curry’s performance was superb because despite the makeup and OTT nature of the role, there was always a sense of dread and foreboding menace when he was on-screen.

As you may have heard, Andrés Muschietti is remaking the beloved mini-series and the trailer was recently screened at SxSw Festival.

It’s no secret that Stephen King is fiercely protective of his work and that he’s very vocal if he sees an adaptation that he doesn’t like.

For example, the author repeatedly talks about how much he hates Stanley Kubrick’s take on The Shining, so it’s fair to say that he’s a hard man to please.

This being said, King has fully endorsed the new version of It because he’s after giving it the highest praise possible.

Andy Muschietti's remake of IT (actually it's Part 1–The Losers' Club) succeeds beyond my expectations. Relax. Wait. And enjoy.

— Stephen King (@StephenKing) March 7, 2017

While the official teaser trailer hasn’t been released yet, renowned horror website Bloody Disgusting were in attendance and they provided a brief synopsis of it. Spoiler alert warning.

The trailer opens with footage of Bill Denbrough making a paper boat for his little brother Georgie. We then move outside, where Georgie is chasing his boat in a rainstorm as it floats next to the curb.

Suddenly, Georgie runs right into a street barrier, which knocks him down on the ground. He then watches as his boat sails into a gutter. He runs to the gutter and tries to see if he can see his boat.

As he looks deep into the sewers, Pennywise abruptly appears before the screen cuts to black.

Then we are shown the members of the Loser’s Club meeting each other and realizing that they’ve all been seeing the same entity, before one of them finally says ‘The Clown’.

Once that happens, the teaser then moves into its centre-piece, which shows the members of the Loser’s Club looking at pictures on a carousel slide projector that suddenly acquires a life of its own and begins moving through the slides at an increasingly alarming speed

The pictures are of Georgie and his parents, and each slide zooms in on Georgie’s face before cutting to his mother, whose hair is covering her face.

As the projector moves from slide to slide, the hair moves out of his mother’s face, and her face is revealed to be that of Pennywise himself.

The teaser ends with Bill walking down into his flooded basement, where Georgie’s ghost taunts him by repeatedly screaming… before Pennywise rises from the water and rushes at him in a moment that had the entire audience screaming.

Speaking with JoBlo, director Andres Muschietti says that he’s trying to tap into the sense of dread that he experienced after watching the original mini-series while taking the story in a new direction.

“My first instinct was to basically be true to my own emotional experience with the book. I read it when I was a kid, so it was all about me trying to hit the core and the heart of the story, and the characters, too. I don’t want to spoil the plot, but you will notice that the story swerves into different directions. The arc of the Losers’ Club is a bit wider in range, and you will notice there are things that happen to them in this movie that weren’t in the book or in the 1990 miniseries. So I think it’ll be a refreshing experience for fans, and a terrifying one, too,” he said.

Having seen the initial trailer, plenty of people at SxSW were absolutely terrified from the footage.

We can’t wait to see this in cinemas when it’s released on September 8th.

After the #ITTheMovie teaser (just shown at #SXSW) we can confirm that we'll all likely be terrified of sewer drains once again…

— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) March 12, 2017

I just got to watch the teaser trailer for #IT and it looks FANTASTIC. #SXSW

— Trace Thurman (@TracedThurman) March 12, 2017

So the IT teaser footage made me jump twice. Loved what I saw & I'm VERY excited about this one now. Look for more on it very soon! #SXSW 🎈

— Heatherface Wixson (@thehorrorchick) March 12, 2017