Pennywise shows up every 27 years.
This is, of course, the mythology of Stephen King’s seminal horror tome It, in which the child-eating, interdimensional nightmare clown emerges roughly four times a century to terrorize the citizens of Derry, Maine. But it seems true enough in real life, as well: exactly 27 years before the blockbuster movie adaptation by Andy Muschietti, Pennywise graced our small screens in the landmark two-part It miniseries, in the form of the legendary Tim Curry. The 1990 It may not be quite as slick as the 2010s films, but it is no less iconic, and Curry’s Pennywise is burned into the psyches of an entire generation of hapless children who stumbled across him while channel-surfing.
Is there a non-supernatural explanation for this? Perhaps; it doesn’t take a sociologist to observe that clowns are, inherently, fucking creepy, their grease-painted rictus-smiles placing them among the first flesh-and-blood inhabitants of the Uncanny Valley. And once you take a clown out of its natural habitat– the circus, the rodeo, the paint-by-numbers velvet paintings of a thousand thrift stores– you have to wonder just what it is they’re up to; as Lon Chaney, Hollywood’s very first horror star (and occasional creepy clown), astutely put it, “Terror is a clown at midnight.” But there is something distinctly unnerving about the cyclical pattern of sinister clown sightings– both on screen and off. In the early 1980s (shortly before the publication of It), a spate of “phantom clown” sightings were reported by children in the greater Boston area; authorities eventually labeled the phenomenon a hysteria, but not before the Brookline school board sent urgent warnings home to parents. Likewise, in the summer of 2016, there was a wave of videos and reports of pernicious Pagliacci’s terrorizing unsuspecting passers-by; this wave can possibly be explained by the viral nature of the internet (or, more conspiratorially, early hype for the Muschietti film). But even the most skeptical Scully has to wonder: does that explain all of the sightings?
Regardless, it is probable that a good percentage of latter-day coulrophobes can trace their fear back to that 1990 miniseries– the subject of the latest documentary by filmmakers Christopher Griffiths and (friend of the Hassle) John Campopiano. In Pennywise: The Story of It, Griffiths and Campopiano tackle the nuts and bolts that brought Pennywise to the small screen, showcasing rarely seen behind-the-scenes footage and new interviews with much of the principal talent (including Seth Green, director Tommy Lee Wallace, and, of course, Curry himself). Pennywise makes its local debut tonight as part of the Coolidge’s “Carnage at the Carnival” series (also featuring such insane clown classics as Killer Klowns from Outer Space and Santa Sangre), with a special introduction from Campopiano himself. Even after you see how the magic is made, you may find yourself avoiding storm drains on the way home– you know, just in case.
Pennywise: The Story of It
2021
dir. Christopher Griffiths & John Campopiano
105 min.
Screens Saturday, 7/9, 11:00pm @ Coolidge Corner Theatre
Special introduction by co-director John Campopiano!
Part of the ongoing series: Carnage at the Carnival
