IT’s coming … new Stephen King movie trailer terrifies
Film & TV
The trailer for the modern adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel, IT, has arrived – and some fans of the original are already refusing to see it.
The film, directed by Argentine filmmaker Andrés Muschietti, retells King’s harrowing tales of a small town in Maine, USA, where a clown terrorises the local children using their biggest fears as ammunition.
The clown, Pennywise, is one of the most iconic figures in horror film or TV history and regularly tops lists of most terrifying movie villains of all time.
In this iteration of the classic story, Pennywise is portrayed by Swedish actor Bill Skarsgård, who joins an ensemble of young actors playing the cast of outcasts squaring off against him.
This will be the first time King’s story hits the big screen. In 1990 the novel was adapted into a television mini-series in which Tim Curry played Pennywise. It instantly became a cult classic.
The movie version has been in development since 2009, when Warner Bros first announced an adaptation was in the works. However, the production struggled to find the right actor to play Pennywise and a director.
Those familiar with the 1990 series and the book have already ruled out going to see the 2017 version, which bears a striking resemblance to Netflix series Stranger Things.
The comments section on the Facebook post sharing the official trailer features plenty of unadulterated terror and flat-out refusals to see the movie in cinemas.
“There is no way in hell I would ever watch this,” one user commented. “I made that mistake once 20 years ago and I will never make it again.”
“NOPE the original is the reason I’m afraid of clowns!” another added.
Of course, there are also the added concerns the film won’t do justice to its original source material.
“I’ll give it a try … but I’m not holding my breath or expecting anything from this,” one commenter said.
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“The original will always be the part of my growing up, that made me enjoy horror films … But modern horror relies on too much CGI half the time and it ruins the scare factor.”
The pressure is high – IT remains one of King’s most beloved works in his 50-year career, with King himself describing it as “the summation of everything I have learned and done in my whole life to this point”.
IT arrives in Australian cinemas on September 7, 2017.
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