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.
It feasts on the flesh of humans simply because our fears are easy to manifest and they make us taste better. According to It, when humans got scared, "all the chemicals of fear flooded the body and salted the meat".
That is, when Pennywise morphs into a werewolf, he is subject to the same weaknesses as a werewolf, including silver slugs. In both the original novel and made-for-television adaptation, Pennywise is weakened using silver bullets melted down from earrings.
You've also probably read all of King's horror novels, including The Dark Tower series, which reveals that Pennywise's archenemy is The Turtle.
So something that really sticks out about Pennywise as a character is that he has been on earth for millions, if not billions, of years, but he's a character who feeds entirely on humans and their sense of fear.
He is the oldest of the seven members of The Losers' Club, and the only member Pennywise is afraid of.
Down in the sewers, during their final encounter, it's much of the same. Mike brings the gun he uses to kill livestock, and the rest of the Losers come prepared with more rods. Beverly deals the final blow by putting one straight down It's throat.
A god of destruction, not just of our world, but of multiple worlds and even multiple universes. It originated in a vast cosmic void between worlds that has been called, at times, the Macroverse, and in King's Dark Tower series, the Todash Darkness, in a space It refers to only as the Deadlights.
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".
In their final battle, the Losers' Club was able to kill Pennywise by reducing him to a child-like form as they overcame their fears.
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. It author Stephen King.
Superhuman Strength: It can tear the heads and limbs of human bodies with extreme ease, either with arms or mouth (as Pennywise or any humanoid form). Superhuman Speed: Bill notes that It can move at extreme speeds, claiming that it was way faster than an "express train".
Georgie's Arm ('It')
After a creepy conversation with Pennywise, the killer clown chomps on Georgie's arm, leaving the boy to drag himself to safety as blood pours into the raindrops on the street before he's pulled into the drain by Pennywise, never to be seen again.
Throughout the summer and their trials against Pennywise and the school bullies, the Losers realize that none of the adults in Derry can actually see Pennywise or the horrors he is committing against the children of Derry.
They appear to be human, but not entirely. The features that we often define individuals by—their skin, their hair, their smile—with Pennywise and the Joker, these features are abnormal and disturbing. There's something twisted about them. They don't feel human.
Muschietti appears to be implying Pennywise was a human familiar who It corrupted and then enjoyed so much It incorporated his shape into its file cabinet of monsters.
This is one of the most interesting Hollywood couplings we learned about in quite some time. Apparently, Pennywise and the Babadook are dating. In fact, they're in a long term committed relationship.
While it's unclear if it was ever shot, a deleted scene from the IT 2017 script saw Pennywise actually eat a baby in front of its mother. There are lots of disturbing scenes in Stephen King's original IT novel. Anyone who's read that gargantuan tome can readily attest to that fact.
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.
Kersh is Pennywise's daughter.
As well as having his right arm bitten off, Georgie is trying to crawl away but he was dragged into the sewers and devoured by Pennywise, with an unnamed older woman and her cat being the sole witnesses of the horrific scene, including before Georgie lost his arm.
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.
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.
It has a low pain tolerance
Not many people can say that they have harmed Pennywise before. However, those that have may notice something very interesting about the dancing clown. It certainly does not have a very high pain tolerance for a frightening demon.