Thanks to Internet sleuths, we now have more details regarding a cut scene It star Bill Skarsgård recently discussed.
While speaking to Variety‘s Playback podcast, the actor said, “There was a scene we shot that was a flashback from the 1600s, before Pennywise [was Pennywise] The scene turned out really, really disturbing. And I’m not the clown. I look more like myself. It’s very disturbing, and sort of a backstory for what It is, or where Pennywise came from.”
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While we already knew this involved a mother offering her daughter to Pennywise in exchange for her own safety, we now know that the daughter was an infant, and why Skarsgård found it “really, really disturbing.”
When Veep star Timothy Simons admitted he auditioned for Pennywise for the 2017 adaption of the classic Stephen King epic on the podcast Throwing Shade, it prompted host Bryan Safi to read an excerpt from the script. Bloody Disgusting then did some Reddit deep-diving, and discovered the scene in its entirety:
1637: INT. WELLHOUSE – NIGHT ABIGAIL, 19. Rushes in and SLAMS the door. As if trying to keep Satan himself out. She clutches her BABY to her breast. Kneels by DYING EMBERS in the hearth. She blows on ‘em but a flame never catches. Her Baby starts to fuss… ABIGAIL: Hush now, shhhh… it’ll be — She stops.
Realizes that the SMALL CANDLE CHANDELIER slowly spins above her. As if some unnatural force has caused its light to rotate around the room, like tiny primitive searchlights. She hears something slithering in the gray shadows by the Well. Occasionally we catch glimpses of a BLACK SILHOUETTE. Shifting its shape. As if trying to decide on a form.
ABIGAIL (CONT’D): Please, Devil… leave us be… Shape shifts again. A beam of light passes, revealing PENNYWISE, naked, lithe, flesh pale and translucent, a half- formed imitation of a human, opens his maw full of large razor sharp teeth, dripping with saliva. As the Tin Can spins clockwise, Pennywise moves counter around the room. Each time the light hits his face — It’s different. A Man. A Woman. A Beast. A Monster.
PENNYWISE: You mistake me woman. No mere devil, I am the Eater of Worlds. His voice is guttural, unnatural. ABIGAIL: But my child, not my child… He is innocent…
PENNYWISE: So you say. The Baby SCREAMS. Pennywise smiles. PENNYWISE (CONT’D): Beautiful fear… ABIGAIL: I pray Thee, take me. Abigail shuffles back. PENNYWISE: I will. And then, him. And thy husband and the rest of thy children, and all the savages who brought you here. And when you all rot in the earth, I will pick thy bones dry until no meat is left to pick. And then I will seek out thy bones and consume thy souls until nothing is left but the weeds! (beat) Or you will occupy yourself otherwise and not interfere. I will take her and you will live, and those of thy other children — in whom I take no interest. And you will thank ME fever and frost did not damn you to the soil. Abigail looks down at her baby again.
“She’s shaking, doesn’t want to let go. Behind her, the Door OPENS. A Little Boy, 6, asks — BOY: Mama? ABIGAIL: NO! OUT! NOW! Frightened by his mother, the Boy runs. Abigail turns back to Pennywise. Wherever he may be now in the room. The light somehow seems to spin faster now. She kisses her baby and sets it down. It BAWLS. ABIGAIL: I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…
She turns away from the baby. Faces those dying embers. We keep on her face as they seem to begin GLOWING BRIGHTER AS — OVER HER SHOULDER — OUT OF FOCUS — Pennywise crawls over to the Baby and starts to feast. SHARP CRY FROM THE BABY CUT OFF as we hear a CRUNCH. Abigail continues to look into the BRIGHT ORANGE GLOW of not the flickering fire… …but the DEADLIGHTS. Her expression changing. Fear. Denial. Grief. Acceptance. And then nothing. Just a glazed look. AS IF NOTHING HORRIFIC IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING BEHIND HER.”
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There’s no telling just how much of the scene was actually filmed, nor whether it surfaces as a special feature on the home video release of the film. THere’s also a chance that it could be used in the next It film, which will delve deeper into Pennywise’s origin story.
Based on Stephen King’s classic novel of the same name, director Andy Muschietti’s It stars Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, Nicholas Hamilton, Owen Teague and Logan Thompson. It is currently playing in theaters.