As in the 1990 ABC miniseries, which starred Tim Curry as the terrifying clown, Pennywise takes the form of a giant spider for the final battle. (According to King's book, Pennywise actually is a spider—sort of.
Literature. In the novel, It is a shapeshifting monster who usually takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, originating in a void containing and surrounding the Universe—a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse".
Its final form in the physical realm is that of a giant female spider, and it's the closest to the real shape that the human mind can comprehend, as the deadlights come with a big price. Those who face the deadlights go immediately insane, and only a few have survived this encounter.
The Losers moulded it into the form of a spider because that was all their puny human minds could perceive it as, but it wasn't really the spider. In the same way that a spider cannot truly understand what a human being is.
In the book, young Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher) glimpsed IT's true form in the Deadlights for a moment and he described it as an endless, crawling, hairy creature made of orange light - the giant spider shape is merely an approximation of IT's native shape that humans can understand.
Soon enough, Pennywise appears, and the fight begins in earnest. As in the 1990 ABC miniseries, which starred Tim Curry as the terrifying clown, Pennywise takes the form of a giant spider for the final battle. (According to King's book, Pennywise actually is a spider—sort of.
Stephen King's 'IT' introduced readers to a one-of-a-kind creature that can take any form, the most common one being Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and as menacing as it is, this creature has one big enemy it's truly scared of: Maturin, the turtle.
According to It, when humans got scared, "all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat". This is why he prefers to feast on children -- their fears are simple, pure, and powerful compared to the complex, pathological fears of adults.
There was a human Pennywise the Dancing Clown, but IT just takes his form. In the movie canon, Pennywise the Dancing Clown was a real person whose image IT decided was a terrifying enough basis for his child-scaring campaign.
Related: What Does Pennywise Really Look Like In IT? IT arrived on Earth through an event similar to an asteroid impact, landing in what would later become Derry, Maine. Once there, IT adopted its usual pattern of hibernation that lasted between 27 and 30 years, awakening to kill and eat and then going back to sleep.
Red balloons are Pennywise's calling cards, and he often uses them as bait to kidnap children.
Image via Warner Bros. Finally, Pennywise is beaten into submission. He scurries away, utters the word "fear," and partially disintegrates before falling into the void. It's a powerful defeat of a powerful monster, and it's satisfaction enough were IT to remain a single film.
Throughout Stephen King's It, Pennywise is referred to as a male, but author Stephen King pulled a fast one on readers in the It book ending by revealing the creature's true form was a pregnant spider, implying that it is, in fact, biologically female.
The creature's real body is composed of the "deadlights," or glowing orbs that overwhelm the mind of anyone who sees them. The deadlights made a cameo in 2017's It when Beverly looked into Pennywise's open mouth and saw three small, white lights rotating deep inside Pennywise's throat.
It was said on page 1361 that the Spider being both female and pregnant was a symbolic interperetation. Its not literal, but a representation of whatever equivalent but inconceivable reproductive capability It actually has. Pennywise didn't become pregnant.
In the novel, It's origins are nebulous. He took the form of a clown most frequently, Mr. Bob Gray or Pennywise, but his true form is an ancient eldritch entity from another universe who landed in the town that would become Derry by way of an asteroid and first awoke in 1715.
Every 27 years, a shape-shifting entity known as IT crawls out of the sewers to prey on the children of Derry, Maine. IT plasters himself with an unnatural grin, takes on the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and wreaks havoc.
Though it is just before the next twenty-seven year IT cycle, this is our first glimpse of Pennywise in IT Chapter One. In the opening scene of the film, young Georgie Denbrough playing with a paper boat made for him by his brother Bill. He loses the boat down the sewer and faces Pennywise when he tries to get it back.
In the movie, Pennywise says “They all float down here. You'll float, too”, referring to the floating bodies of the many victims that have been dragged to the sewers and… well, you know the rest. And as always, people get really creative around Halloween, this poster is 2021's IT celebration of the year in my opinion.
The spider-clown shrinks as the Losers hurl taunts at It, until it's tiny and weak enough that they pluck out its heart and squash it into nothingness. In the end, they defeat Pennywise by, uh, making him feel really bad about himself.
The simplest and most obvious interpretation is that all the talk of floating is a reference to the fact that Pennywise (aka the titular "It") murders his victims and drags them down to the town's sewer system where he dwells, which is full of water. And what do dead bodies do in water? That's right — they float.
It's weaknesses are courage and heart. For the sake of spoilers, I won't go too much into the Ritual of Chüd, but suffice it to say that if you want to defeat It, you've got to have the two traits listed above.
Pennywise's Kills Add Up Over Time
The number is then multiplied by the number of times Pennywise has awakened -- once every 27 years throughout the 270-year history of Derry, equaling ten times -- to come up with a final tally of between 12,000 and 18,000 dead.
Young kids fear "pretend" things.
They fear what might be under their bed or in the closet. Many are afraid of the dark and at bedtime. Some are afraid of scary dreams. Young kids may also be afraid of loud noises, like thunder or fireworks.