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Stephen King’s ‘IT’ Trailer No. 2 Was Just Released, And It’s Terrifying [Video]

By Patricia Ramirez
Published on: 10:22 PST, Jul 29, 2017

This week, the second trailer for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s IT was finally released, and it’s absolutely terrifying. With IT slated for release later this year, fans of the original, made-for-TV flick and iconic Stephen King novel have been eagerly anticipating every tightly-guarded detail of the upcoming movie.

Early on, the soon-to-be released adaptation of Stephen King’s IT found itself the target of criticism as fans of the original realized that the role of Pennywise, the Dancing Clown, played by the iconic and incomparable Tim Curry back in 1990, was going to be filled by someone else. Few thought that Curry’s shoes could be adequately filled by anyone, but the first images of Bill Skarsgård in full Pennywise regalia convinced many doubters that director Andrés Muschietti was going to be able to pull off his vision of Stephen King’s IT in a way that will leave few disappointed.

The first trailer for IT was released earlier in 2016, and left little doubt that horror fans would be in for a treat. When it was later announced that the film had scored a “hard R” rating,” die hard fans of the novel were given new hope that the 2017 adaptation would be all that it’s been hyped to be. After all, it’s being released 27 years after the original, and Pennywise himself returns to terrorize every 27 years, too. Coincidence? Probably not.

As Nerdist reports, this year’s adaptation of Stephen King’sIT is not just another remake, something the film’s creators want to make clear. Director Muschietti and his sister/producer, Barbara, say that IT 2017 is not a revamped version of the 1990 TV miniseries, but more of an homage to and adaptation of the original Stephen King novel.

The siblings even spent a few weeks in the real town in Maine that was the basis for the fictional Derry (where IT is set) to get ready for production.

“To just hang and really get a taste of Derry. You’ll find that King’s style is all over the place. I’m hoping he’ll feel respected and honored.”

Bill Skarsgård also closely mirrored the book’s “flavor” of Pennywise when channeling the evil monster, who is not really a clown at all, but something much darker. According to the IT cast and creators, Skarsgård’s Pennywise will be much scarier than Tim Curry’s, something the second trailer illustrates clearly and horrifyingly.

“What was in the script was not much at all about who this character is. It’s a 120-page script and there’s a point to not having too much Pennywise in it. There’s a line in the original book where it goes something like ‘the clown was It’s favorite form.’ It really enjoyed being the clown. He preferred to take the shape of the clown. Obviously, that opened ways of thinking.”

The new IT adaptation will also deviate from the 1990 version in another critical way: the perspective of the key characters. The made-for-TV IT miniseries told the story of Pennywise when his targets were children, and then again 27 years later when they were all grown up. This time around, Stephen King’s IT will focus solely on the members of the “Loser’s Club” during their collective childhoods.

What’s more, director Andrés Muschietti did a little bit of tinkering with the IT timeline. In both the book and 1990 miniseries, Pennywise terrorized children in the 1950s. In this year’s adaptation of Stephen King’s IT, the story will be told in the 1980s.

The film’s creators also knew from the get go that they were aiming for an R rating from the MPAA, and decided to embrace it rather than shy away from it. According to Barbara Muschietti, it would be difficult and watered down to pursue a PG-13 Pennywise, the evil, child-eating clown.

“It’s good to know that you’re starting with an R — we would have gone an R regardless just out of intensity… There are a lot of bloody moments, that’s for sure.”

Check out the terrifying second trailer for Stephen King’s IT below — if you dare.

It’s obvious that the cast and crew of IT are paying homage to the legendary Stephen King and the history of the story with the new adaptation. Director Andrés Muschietti even featured a Tim Curry Easter egg in trailer No. 2. Did you see it?

As ScreenRant reports, Curry himself actually made it into the new flick (albeit in a small way). In the latest IT trailer, Richie (Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things) finds himself entering a horrifying room full of monstrous clown dolls. Just before the new Pennywise attacks, a small Tim Curry Pennywise doll is visible.

The new adaptation of Stephen King’s IT is set to hit theaters on September 8.

[Featured Image by Warner Bros.]

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