From print to film, ‘It’ villain is pure terror

TORONTO — Maybe it’s the recent announcement of a new Joker origin story, or perhaps just 2017’s general specter of clownish grotesquerie, but something feels perfectly timely about Pennywise.

The villain from Stephen King’s “It” terrified when he was left to childhood imaginations in the author’s 1986 doorstopper. And he is likely to send similar shudders after appearing, in the form of young Swedish actor Bill Skarsgard, in the new Warner Bros. release opening today.

One of the great fixtures of modern literary evil, Pennywise, with the help of the 27-year-old Skarsgard, is attempting to jump mediums and give a new generation an injection of fear.

Though he appears only intermittently before the film’s climax, Skarsgard’s Pennywise makes a deep impression.

As the embodiment of evil — or is it a manifestation of our fears? — Pennywise terrorizes a small Maine town every 27 years. He’s at it again in the 1989 edition of the film, in events that particularly affect a group of nerdish pre-adolescents known as the Losers Club.

Lurking in the town’s sewer system, Pennywise’s face often clenches into a malevolent smile, and his eyes pop with evil curiosity. His voice can be jolly, almost inquisitive, until it gives way to a crushing wickedness — witness how he courts, then consumes a young boy who lost his toy in the film’s first section.

On the other hand, such lack of definition also gives him a certain elasticity. Pennywise might be a fear of mortality, or a representation of childhood anxieties, or — yes — a concern about certain political figures.

“There’s a quote in the book that goes something like, ‘although a great mocker of emotions, he never felt one of his own,” Skarsgard said.

“It’s a little like a destructive relationship, the force of the character. You don’t even know you’re in it. But when it’s off you, you feel it.”

Pennywise’s face often clenches into a malevolent smile, and his eyes pop with evil curiosity.