If you want to know how Pennywise lived on
after the events of It, then stick around to the end of this video. Hello and welcome to Horror History. My name is Professor CZsWorld, also known
as Shaggy, also known as Emo Abraham Lincoln and in today’s lesson we’ll be discussing
one of Stephen King’s most iconic monsters: Pennywise, also known as It, also known as
The Deadlights also known as Robert Gray. Stephen King hasn’t really gone on the record
about his inspirations for It, causing some to believe that the events of the 1986 novel
actually happened. On the other hand, actual intelligent people
drew comparisons to a serial killer John Wayne Gacy, a birthday clown in Chicago during
the 1970s who did unspeakable things to more than thirty victims. He would later stash the kids in the crawlspace
of his basement, not so different than Pennywise’s penchant for dragging his victims corpses
into the sewers below Derry, Maine. Pennywise in the movies is depicted as one
of the forms of a shapeshifting creature known as It, who has resided in a lair at the bottom
Derry’s sewage system for hundreds of years. But in the novel, It is much more than that,
so let’s travel back to the inception of It, over 1 billion years ago. [Horror History] In the beginning there was an endless void
known as the macroverse, which was inhabited only by a celestial force referred to as “The
Other.” The Other created two additional inhabitants
of the macroverse, one protector called Maturin The Turtle, and one shapeshifting entity called
The Deadlights. The two would become natural enemies. The Turtle was kind and all knowing, but did
not like to involve itself in any conflicts, and so, stayed hidden in its shell most often. At some point, The Turtle came out of its
shell with a stomach-ache and vomited out our universe. Yeah, so everything you’re sitting in right
now? Yeah, that’s actually puke. Everything you’ve eaten today? I think you get the idea. Speaking of which, It’s main form of sustenance
is fear. “I’ll take him. I’ll take all of you. And I’ll feast on your flesh as I feed on
your fear.” Because of that fact, It traveled to our universe
to look for food, much like how I may travel to Taco Bell when I’m done filming this. A couple thousand or possibly even million
years ago, It discovered Earth. Earth was basically like a buffet for It,
because humans have much more complex imaginations than any species It had discovered before. Specifically, the imaginations of human children
were especially attractive to It, because they were capable of an unprecedented level
of fear. It arrived on Earth as a fiery meteoric object
that crashed into the land in North America that would one day become known as The Barrens
in Derry, Maine. The impact scared away the animal inhabitants,
such as antelope, fish, bats and others. The impact crater was devastating, but the
area would be taken back by trees and wildlife over the years. The impact also sent It into a deep sleep,
possibly aided by the fact that it became trapped in the ice age. In the year 1715, It would thaw out and arise
from this slumber, thus marking the beginning of the cycle that would repeat roughly every
27 years, where It would awaken to feed on the fear of Derry’s residents, not too different
than how some mammals may eat and then go into hibernation during the winter. These incidents would often go unrecorded
in Derry’s history books, but that hasn’t stopped locals from doing their own research. The earliest known victims of It, were a party
of 340 settlers called The Derry Company, named after the town in Ireland from which
they hailed. They started to create a civilization along
the Kenduskeag River, and Derry Township became a logging town. “Still is, am I right boys?” In 1743, every single settler disappeared
without trace or explanation. "The entire camp?" "There were rumors of Indians, but no sign of an attack." The town was left deserted, other than one
single house that burned down on the same spot where Georgie Denbrough would be killed
300 years later. I’m guessing all of these settlers were
eaten by It, because she had taken such a long nap after crashing on Earth, and probably
woke up especially hungry. Shortly after Derry Township was rediscovered,
the town was re-established and the canal was built for easy access to the Kenduskeag
river. It seems to be about this time that It starts
experimenting with using the form of a clown. A picture from Will Hanlon’s album dated
to the 1700s shows a funny looking man juggling bowling pins on the street near the canal. He wasn’t wearing makeup, but did have the
recognizable tufts of hair. The next known event is in 1851, which is
four 27-year cycles after the disappearance of the settlers. It targeted a man named John Markson, likely
using the power of the Deadlights to possess him and do his bidding. It seems that humans who look directly into
the deadlights are put into a trancelike state where they can be controlled by It. John poisoned his entire family, then killed
himself with a white nightshade mushroom. Keep in mind that having someone else do It’s
bidding doesn’t benefit It directly, but what it does do is instill fear into everyone
involved, making them more delicious meals for Pennywise. It’s basically the equivalent of putting
those little sauce packets on your taco. In 1856 -- the clown’s image appears in
a political cartoon amongst some drunken loggers at a bar. This illustration seems to predict the next
cycle, which begins in 1877 -- when four separate lynchings took place in town -- and carries
into 1879. Derry’s logging business was really booming
at that time, and a group of lumberjacks stumbled across another group, finding them completely
hacked to pieces. Like a bear coming out of hibernation, It
would continue to come out every 27 years or so to cause mayhem and feed on the fear
of the residents of Derry. The next cycle was especially bloody. Coming up next, we’ll go into the horrifying
archives produced by It in the early 1900s. I had a ton of people participate in the last
giveaway, and since you were all so excited about that one, I though, why not just do
another giveaway? This time, you’ll float too, because the
winner will be taking home this Float. Merchandise. To enter, make sure you’re following CZsWorld
on Instagram and like this post. Winner will be chosen at random. Full rules can be found in the video description. In 1891, an ironworks is built in Derry by
the Kitchener family, and an article about the opening of this facility is featured in
the paper. The frontpage photograph shows a crowd gathering
to celebrate the cutting of the ribbon, and off the left of the crowd, a clown can be
seen celebrating with a handspring. This would be a precursor to one of Derry’s
deadliest events that took place at the end of this cycle. But first, there was a major incident that
took place shortly after It’s reawakening in September of 1905. The logging business in Derry had become big
enough that people started to organize unions. One of these organizers was named Claude Heroux. He and three colleagues were staying in a
hotel in Derry, and during this stay, the colleagues turned up dead in the Kenduskeag
River with missing body parts and the word “union” pasted on each of their backs. It’s unclear if this was the result of Pennywise’s
actions or if it was legitimately just unhappy workers, but Heroux, in an act of revenge,
took an axe to a bar called The Silver Dollar and took out the loggers he thought were responsible. That night, the townspeople rioted. After Heroux’s arrest, they dragged him
out of his jail cell and lynched him on the side of town. One witness mentioned there was a guy there
doing tricks and flips, who he assumed was new in town, but noted that he seemed to stick
around after that. This highlights one of the major strengths
of Pennywise, other than fabulous gymnastics skills, It has the ability to divide people
and turn them against each other. It would later attempt to use this tactic
on the Loser’s Club after Eddie Kaspbrak suffers a broken arm, but their strong unity
ends up working as an advantage to them. But before we get there, there’s a lot more
of Pennywise’s history in Derry to cover. In 1906, an unexplained slew of animal mutilations
takes place. These are most likely also connected to It. Now sometimes when you’ve just eaten tacos,
you’re a little hungry still, and you say, “you know what, I’m gonna grab a big burrito,
maybe some nachos and a large soft drink for the road. And that’s basically what Pennywise did
before going back into hibernation. On Easter of 1906, the previously mentioned
Ironworks held an Easter egg hunt for all the kids in Derry during which, the place
exploded, leaving 102 dead, 88 of which were children. At this point, it’s very clear that, A:
there’s a problem plaguing Derry, and B: it’s occurring on a 27-year cycle, although
only a select number of Derry historians are aware of it because Pennywise has actively
used its power to ensure that these disasters stay out of the news. The disasters that took place from there on
out were largely ignored by the older townspeople, who were starting to become despondent, and
preferred to ignore the problems rather than acknowledge them. It starts to feel like Derry is just cursed
with random acts of violence, but there’s no doubt that It is behind them. In 1929, a huge group of citizens gun down
the notorious Bradley Gang, and several witnesses were said to have seen a clown participate
in the brutal shooting. Probably looked like something out of The
Dark Knight, minus the school bus…. Each of the witnesses to the Bradley Gang
execution claimed the clown had the same gun as their own, though none of them shared the
same gun. In 1930, was the first confirmed sighting
of one of the other recurring forms of It. The giant bird that would later attack Michael
Hanlon was first spotted 28 years beforehand by his father Will Hanlon. This happened the night of the horrible attack
on The Black Spot nightclub, in which a racist organisation called the legion of white decency
burned down the popular African American run jazz joint and the place collapsed before
dozens of people had the chance to escape. Just after narrowly making it out, Will looked
up and saw a giant bird with red balloons tied to its wings, a detail he kept to himself
until he was on his deathbed. From here on, Will knew that Derry was no
ordinary town, but he would never fully understand that It was responsible like his son would
one day find out. The following year, one of the worst floods
in town history occurred. This flood was almost as bad as the flood
that occurred in my comment section that one time when I had the wrinkly shirt, and this
flood uncoincidentally took place during one of Pennywise’s waking years. Stephen King doesn’t specifically note when
the sewer system that runs under Derry was built, but there’s a good chance, based
on when certain laws went into effect in real life, that it was around the time of this
big flood in the book. While these systems may have been implemented
to keep water levels from overflowing to prevent another disastrous flood, they would inadvertently
become the home of Pennywise, who built his lair deep within the sewers under Derry. From this point forward, future sightings
of Pennywise the Dancing Clown are all connected to the drain system, whether it be a creepy
voice echoing from a drain, a glowing yellow pair of eyes emanating in a sewer grate or
a mysterious red balloon floating around in a run-off pipe. “There’s been another murder. Little Velma Daniels.” “Velma Daniels?” “Her poor body was found this morning down
by the canal. So if you come down here to play, come together
like you are now, understand?” Another image in Will Hanlon’s photo-album
shows the celebration at Wally’s Spa in 1933 when the US alcohol prohibition ends. The group photo contains many men holding
up beer mugs, and Pennywise drinking champagne from a high heeled shoe in the corner. Pennywise continues to make appearances throughout
Derry’s history. For example, in 1945, when Japan surrendered
to end World War II, a parade is held in Derry to celebrate, and in one photograph, the clown
can be seen dancing in the background. In the 50s, Pennywise would bring this same
photo to life to terrorize the Loser’s Club, but that is just one of the many events that
took place after the tragic incident involving Georgie Denbrough in 1957. Coming up, we’ll be analysing one of the
darkest cycles of It’s history in Derry, and the reasons behind this particular spree
being cut short. It was a rainy October day in 1957. Naturally, as a 6-year old boy, Georgie Denbrough
wanted to go out and play in it. He suited up in his yellow rain jacket and
asked his big brother Bill to make him a paper boat. "There you go." The boat was pushed along the gutter in the
Derry Public Works drain system, which was managed by his father, Zack Denbrough. The boat began to pick up speed, and not wanting
to lose it, little Georgie raced after, not knowing that he was rushing into his own watery
tomb. He was unable to grab his boat before it was
washed into the sewer grate, where a man in clown makeup introduced himself as Mr. Robert
Gray, otherwise known as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Pennywise did not immediately become aggressive,
first, befriending Georgie and tempting him to reach into the grate and get his boat. This is the very reason that the shapeshifting
It so often opted to use the clown form: Pennywise, because most children love clowns… or at
least they did back then before THESE came out… Today he would probably take the form of some
Fortnite YouTuber or something. But he would use the Pennywise form to lure
the children, because children have the most active imaginations and so, make the richest
meals for It. Once he has them drawn in, he brings out his
pulsing eyes and razor sharp teeth and devours them while they are most afraid. Again, much like I do when I’m devouring
my tacos. That is the fate that meets young Georgie,
who is the first of a whole slew of deaths and disappearances at the hand of It. Next was Betty Ripsom in December of 1957. Pennywise spoke to her through the drain in
her home to make her afraid before attacking and leaving her body ripped apart near Outer
Jackson Street. “Don’t tell me that’s…” “Who’s sneaker is it?” “It’s Betty Ripsom’s.” Betty’s screams continued to echo through
the drains and haunt her parents for the rest of this waking cycle. The next month, when school is back in session,
Ben Hanscom sees the clown standing on the ice as he walks over the canal bridge and
Pennywise entices him to come down into the sewers with the prospect of balloons, the
promise of never growing up, and making it seem like the sewers are basically a fun fair. A hand reaches up onto the bridge, and Ben
recognizes it as the mummy from the horror movie, The Mummy, but wearing a clown suit. Ben is able to escape, but the same cannot
be said for Cheryl Lamonica, who falls victim to Pennywise that April. Then, towards late April, a three year old
named Matthew Clements is abducted by Pennywise while riding his tricycle around the house,
causing the police chief to put a curfew into effect. Before the end of that Spring, Mike Hanlon
rides his bike to the remains of the Ironworks that exploded in 1906, where he is attacked
by a giant bird, who rises out of the cellar hole and swoops in to try to pick him up. This is the same bird that his father saw
after the Black Spot fire, and combines Mike’s fear of birds from when he attacked in his
crib as a baby, and the fear instilled the night before by the movie Rodan. *RODAN SCREECH* Reminds me of the sound my 8th grade English
teacher used to use if you didn’t have proper MLA format. Mike is able to escape by cramming himself
into the remains of the smoke stack where the bird couldn’t fit, and pelting it with
the tiles that were laying around. Mike feels some kind of force “helping”
him throw the tiles harder, which I believe may have been the Turtle. It was also around this time that Stan Uris
had his encounter with It. He had been birdwatching in the park near
the Standpipe, a water reservoir that some kids had drowned in the 1930s. He hears a loud noise, and realizes that a
door at the base of the Standpipe had been blown open. He walks over to investigate when he hears
carnival music echoing through the dark. Squishy footsteps approach him. Stan calls out to ask who’s there, and gets
the response: “the dead ones.” Before he escapes, he sees the figures of
the drowned kids with purple-ish black jeans and orange pom-pom buttons. Stan’s friend Eddie Kaspbrak has a similar
experience with It. Eddie would sometimes play around the trainyard,
and one day a hobo with leprosy climbs out from under the porch of an abandoned old house
-- number 29 Neibolt Street. Eddie is a hypochondriac, so this has a major
effect on him. It uses this fact to her advantage when coming
up with a form to scare Eddie. One day Eddie decides to check under the porch
to make sure nobody’s waiting for him there and sees It in a form similar to the hobo,
but now crawling with disease and wearing the silvery clown suit. The Leper introduces itself as Bob Gray, and
crawls out from under the porch to chase Eddie away. Despite these four victims escaping, Pennywise
would continue to haunt them in their dreams. One night when Eddie is going to bed, he hears
the leper whisper, “it won’t do any good to run”. Then, at the beginning of the summer, Ben
has a dream where he’s playing baseball, and he hits a home run. As he’s rounding the bases, he sees a clown
waving to him in the trees. He doesn’t remember the rest of the dream,
but wakes up with a wet pillow, as if he’d been weeping through the night. It is doing everything in its power to instill
fear in these members of the Loser’s Club who escaped on the first attempt -- but what
would take place that summer would take things to a level never before seen in Derry’s
history. Ever since the death of his younger brother
Georgie, Bill Denbrough has been having a lot of disturbing thoughts. In June of 1958, Bill would go into Georgie’s
room to look at his photo album, and under the influence of It, Georgie's school photo
winks at Bill and tells him, “see you soon.” Bill drops the book and blood drips out of
the pages, but Bill’s parents would not be able to see the blood like the kids of
Derry can. This kicks off Pennywise’s busiest month
yet. Another boy goes missing, this one named Edward
Corcoran. Edward was fleeing his abusive father and
decided to sleep in the park by the canal, where someone grabs his ankle. It takes on the form of Edward’s dead brother
Dorsey. When Edward ran, It took the form of The Creature
from the Black Lagoon. The last thing he sees is the creature’s
eyes going white, and a light leaking through the fins on It’s head -- this was most likely
Edward attempting to process the Deadlights. Shortly after, Mike Hanlon finds Edward’s
knife near the spot he died. He hears a splash come from the canal, and
sees something move inside of a pipe. Mike runs away, but has the feeling that someone
is chasing him all the while. He would go on to share his experiences with
the rest of the Loser’s Club, who also explain their encounters. When Bill tells the story of his encounter
with Georgie’s photo book, Richie Tozier says he wants to see the album as well, so
Bill takes him over there, only to discover that Georgie’s school photo is missing from
the book. Instead, there’s a photo of old Derry, somewhere
near the canal, and Bill and Richie see themselves as a couple of sailors on the sidewalk. The picture begins to move, and Pennywise
pops up out of the canal, but he has the face of Georgie. See? These deepfakes are getting way too good --- oh
wait, wrong… century. At this point, the real Bill Denbrough reaches
into the photo, before Richie pulls his arm back out to safety and closes the book. Bill’s hand is bleeding. This scene foreshadows the final confrontation
with Pennywise. Bill and Richie have always been the ones
to directly confront Pennywise. An important distinction is that they aren’t
the only ones to fight back, but they are the two who are willing to take the fight
to It’s domain. This incident also marks the first time that
Richie starts to realize that It is a monster with supernatural properties rather than physical
ones. Bill and Richie would once again take the
fight to Pennywise’s domain when they decide to go to 29 Neibolt Street to investigate
Eddie’s story about the Leper. They climb into the basement, and this time
It takes the form of the Teenage Werewolf that Richie saw when he and a few others went
to the movie theater. I feel like I would just start laughing if
my worst fear just kept turning into these cheesy 50s horror movies. I can just imagine -- oh no, please don’t
kill me, and then the monster turns into… like, this guy. I’d just be cracking up, but I’m sure
it was pretty scary at the time. Bill brings his father’s gun, but what ends
up hurting Pennywise more than the gun, is Richie screaming at it in his Irish Cop voice
and throwing sneezing powder back at it. This is because It operates on belief. Just as their fear of it makes them juicier
targets, their confidence and childish humor can be used to fight back against It. By using the voice of an authority figure
and attacking the werewolf with something that he believed would work, he’s fighting
It with the strongest weapon he has: his imagination. "Imaaagination!" As they ride away on Bill’s bike, the clown
comes after them, wearing the same Derry High School jacket that the werewolf had on moments
before. It’s not really clear in the book if he’s
also wearing the clown suit, or if he’s just naked under the jacket… Actually I think I’ll just try not to think about
that. When they look back later, Pennywise has disappeared,
presumably taking refuge in a storm drain. As we get into late June, Pennywise claims
a new victim, Veronica Grogan, a fourth grader at the Neibolt Church Street School. Veronica would be one of the voices that Beverly
Marsh hears coming out of her drain later that week, along with the other victims like
Matthew Clements and Betty Ripsom. The drain spouts blood at her, but like the
blood from Georgie’s album, her father is unable to see it. It tells Beverly that she’ll die if she
tries to fight, then the sink erupts with blood once again. The last incident of June occurs when Richie
Tozier is fleeing from some bullies, and dips into the park at City Center, where there
is a statue of Paul Bunyan used to commemorate Derry’s beginnings as a logging town. The statue comes to to life and stares Richie
in the face, threatening to eat him. Moments after he runs for it, Paul Bunyan
destroys the bench that Richie had just been sitting on with his giant axe. At the time, Richie chalks this up to being
some kind of bizarre dream, but he would later realize this was one of the many forms of
It. Not much happens in the first couple days
of July, outside of Eddie Kaspbrak momentarily having a vision of a piranha wearing orange
pom-pom buttons while playing in the barrens. The slow period is likely because It is preparing
to feast on a day when Derry’s children would be out in droves: July 4th, also known
as American Independence Day. It’s kind of a shame It didn’t go with
Cinco de Mayo instead though, would have been perfect for this taco analogy I’ve got going. July 4th would be the first time Mike saw
it in the form of Pennywise. He was playing in the marching band where
he saw the clown handing out balloons to kids on the street. The sight of Pennywise waving at him gave
him a similar feeling to the encounter with the bird. Then, later on up the hill, he saw Pennywise
again, and wondered how he could have gotten there so quickly. This time, some of the kids he was handing
balloons to were crying, and again, Mike got a bad feeling as he recognized the same clown
from all those old photos in his father’s album. It was most likely on this day that It claimed
the life of young Jimmy Cullum, and the rain would push his body into the sunlight two
days later on July 6th. He was eventually found with peck wounds all
over his body, something that Mike would connect to his encounter with the bird. Jimmy would be the last random victim of It
that summer -- from this point on It would exclusively go after Bill Denbrough and his
gang of misfits or Henry Bowers and his gang of bullies. One of the most notorious bullies in all of
Derry, perhaps even more feared than Henry Bowers himself, was the 12-year old named
Patrick Hockstetter. Even a sociopath like Patrick had fears of
his own for It to take advantage of though -- Patrick developed a fear of leeches while
visiting Brewster Lake when he was 7. During the summer when Patrick was 12, It
ambushed him at the junkyard, where he would often go to deposit dogs and cats he had killed
around town in a discarded refrigerator. To his shock, these leeches were also able
to fly. Perhaps Patrick was so crazy that the leeches
were the only semblance of a true fear that It was able to find in him, because as he
was being attacked, he saw a figure standing there. It was described as having a face running
like wax, as if he didn’t know what he wanted to be. This is the only known instance that gives
any real insight about what it might look like while cycling among forms. Patrick would eventually pass out from blood
loss, only to wake up when it started devouring him. Beverly Marsh sees this incident with the
leeches as it’s happening, and after Patrick is taken away, she hears Pennywise’s laughter
reverberating from a pumping station underground. Four hours later, she brings all of her friends
to investigate, where they find a message written inside the fridge in blood reading:
‘Stop now, before I kill you all, a word to the wise from your friend, Pennywise.” Pennywise leaves The Losers a second warning,
because at this point each of them had survived at least once, and the slightest hint of self
doubt begins to manifest itself within the ancient creature. This time, Mike borrows his father’s Derry
photo album -- the one that he recognized the clown in the background of in all those
old photos . They stop at the photo of the World War 2 parade, and like the photo that
appeared in Georgie’s photo album, this one starts to move as well, only this time
instead of Bill reaching into the picture, Pennywise rushes up towards them and hangs
on a lamppost in the foreground, threatening once again to kill them all, his nose pressing
up on the plastic that the photo had been encased in. It rapidly changed forms to some of their
fears: Richie’s werewolf, Eddie’s leper, Ben’s mummy and Stan’s dead boys, at which
point Stan slams the album shut. That’s when Bill starts to realize the truth:
It is afraid of them. What Bill hasn’t figured out quite yet is
that It is especially afraid of the power of their unity -- and that’s why It’s
next move comes against Eddie, while he’s alone and at his weakest. On July 20th, 1958, Henry Bowers and his friends
chase down Eddie and break his arm. Eddie comes to during the ambulance ride and
briefly sees Pennywise behind the wheel. That night, Eddie has a dream about his overprotective
mother telling off his friends who come to visit him at the hospital, by telling them
he doesn’t want to be friends with them anymore, which parallels a conversation that
happens at the same time in real life. In the dream, Pennywise is also in the hospital
waiting room - wildly dancing to celebrate the breaking up of the losers club. The real life version of the conversation
is essentially the same, and It probably had some kind of influence over Mrs. Kaspbrak
to encourage her to try to remove Eddie’s friends from his life -- and this is further
suggested by the last image Eddie sees in the dream: It toggling among the many forms,
the last of which has his mother’s face. The incident does cause some turmoil inside
the friend group, but that doesn’t stop them from reuniting to take on it once again. On July 25th, the 7 Losers arrive at 29 Neibolt. Each of them react differently to the house
based on their own fears. Upon entering, they find a white clown glove. They go upstairs, where they come across a
dirty magazine that winks at Ben. The hallways they traverse shrink in on them
and eyes of the elves plastered on the wallpaper begin to bleed. It is doing everything It can to scare them
away without having to face them directly. They come across three doors. The first contains a bed, which explodes and
oozes out black liquid. The second sounds like it has a loud buzzing
insect behind it, but turns out only to be a mooseblower, which is essentially a can
that lets out a constant noise as sort of an audio scarecrow for farmers. The third door is just a bathroom, but the
toilet seems to have exploded, leaving white porcelain shards lying around the room. It quickly rushes up the pipe in what Ben
perceives to be It’s own form, which we know to be: the Deadlights. It explodes out of the pipe taking the form
of the werewolf and attacking Bill and Ben. Beverly fights back with the slingshot loaded
with silver ball bearings, which they believe to be effective based on the werewolf movies
they’ve seen. She hits the It on the snout with her last
shot, sending blood everywhere. However, the Losers are now defenseless. With no remaining ammo, Bev pulls back the
slingshot again and uses her belief to try to frighten It, sending It diving back into
the drain screaming, “I’ll kill you all!” “I’ll kill you all!” Not much happens in the next couple weeks
leading up to the big confrontation, but there is some activity from It, who is now more
afraid than ever of the Losers Club and their power. It decides decided to bring on a new ally,
one that won’t be limited by the power of fear alone. So It teams up with the next biggest enemy
of the Losers: Henry Bowers. After losing the switchblade that Henry had
attacked Ben with on the last day of school, Henry needed a new weapon. In early August, he saw some red balloons
tied to his mailbox with the faces of the Losers on each balloon. The balloons popped and the mailbox swung
down to show him the package. It was a knife. The return address simply said: Robert Grey. After this, Henry started hearing voices from
the moon, commanding him to kill his father, then telling him to get Victor and Belch to
help him go after Beverly Marsh. They end up chasing the Losers down into a
pumping station in the Barrens, which is connected to the sewer system where It lives. Victor and Belch reluctantly go down there
with Henry. I personally think that It senses their reluctance
and decides to take them out, first using the form of Frankenstein’s monster to decapitate
Victor, then tearing Belch’s face in half when he tries to fight back. Henry goes on after the losers, leaving Belch
to die at the hands of It. The Losers attempt to find It’s lair, letting
Eddie lead the way with his impeccable sense of direction. The are cut off, however, by It in the form
of a giant eye resembling the monster from a movie Richie had seen called The Crawling
Eye. Got to admit, that one actually sounds kind of scary. Each of them is grabbed by one of the eye’s
six tentacles besides Eddie, who pretends his asthma aspirator is battery acid and sprays
the eye with it to help drive it away. Next, they’re attacked by the giant bird
form, but Stan uses his extensive knowledge of birds to determine that it isn’t a real
bird, and the fact that Stan doesn’t believe in It weakens the monster once more. The seven make it to a door containing the
lair of It -- a cathedral like chamber covered in spider webs. It is here that they encounter the true form
of it, an endless hairy crawling form composed of light, that their human minds can only
interpret as a giant spider, so that’s what they all see It as -- much to the dismay of
television audiences of the 90s. It goes after their leader, Bill, launching
him out of his physical body for a mental confrontation on what Stephen King describes
as the ballroom floor of eternity. The Turtle catches Bill, but tells him he
takes no stand in the conflict, that Bill must fight on his own. Bill then uses his mind to engage in something
known as The Ritual of Chud, then cries out the line, “he thrusts his fists against
the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts,” a phrase that was supposed to help him overcome
his stutter. “He thrusts his fists against the posts
and still insists he sees the ghosts.” Bill uses his faith in all the childish things
he believes in to mentally grab onto It’s mind and push himself back towards the real
world. It screams at Bill to let go as he rejoins
the circle of his friends in the real world. The Spider flees into the depths of her lair
-- and Eddie tells them all he could hear It, and that It was dying. All they could do is hope that they had defeated
the monster that haunted Derry and killed it. They make a blood pact to return to finish
job if It should ever rise again. So the 1957-1958 cycle ends prematurely, with
It going into an early sleep after the defeat at the hands of the Losers Club. But as always -- 27 years after the awakening
in 1957 -- It would come back with a vengeance on the people of Derry and those who had beaten
It so many years before. In July of 1984 a festival is held to celebrate
the anniversary of Derry’s canal. At the festival, there’s a little dispute
between two parties. On one side are the three guys Steve Dubay,
John Garton and Christopher Unwin. They were harassing a homosexual couple: Don
Haggerty and Adrian Mellon. The initial dispute is broken up by police,
but they have another confrontation later, where Garton and Dubay throw Mellon off of
a bridge where Pennywise the Clown waits below. Mellon might have survived the fall, but Pennywise
drags him under the bridge and bites into his armpit with huge teeth. At this time thousands of I ❤️ Derry balloons
similar to the balloon Mellon had earlier at the Derry Canal Days Festival emerge and
hit the bottom of the bridge. Mellon’s body is found with stab wounds,
bite marks and a missing armpit. Pennywise’s return parallels many of the
other tragedies occurring in Derry for the past 300+ years in one major way -- the incident
is largely ignored by witnesses and news outlets. However, this time there’s one person taking
special interest -- the town librarian, Michael Hanlon, one of the Losers who stayed in Derry
all these years to keep an eye out for It, should the creature ever return. Mike wanted to be sure that It was back before
contacting his old friends. He stood by as Pennywise claimed the life
of Lisa Albrecht on October 18th, then Steven Johnson at Memorial Park near the end of the
year. On February 14th 1985, two more children disappeared
-- Dennis Torio and Lori Anne Winterbarger. Dennis’s body was found in The Barrens with
a photo of Georgie Denbrough. This is the same photo that disappeared from
the photo album when Bill and Richie went to look in 1958. By March, Mike is pretty convinced that It
has come back, but wants to have proof before alerting the others. The bodies continue to pile up. Dawn Roy, a 13 year old girl, is found decapitated
in McCairn Park. On April 24th, 16-year-old Adam Terrault is
killed and mutilated by Pennywise. Two weeks later on May 6th, Pennywise emerges
through the pipes as 2 year old Frederick Cowan uses the restroom and drowns him in
the toilet bowl. His mother was outside and she heard screaming,
repeated flushing of the toilet and laughter that didn’t sound human. When she found her son, she had to be taken
to a mental hospital in Bangor. It was only one week after that when Jeffrey
Hollie was found torn open in Bassie Park near the canal. John Fury and Jerry Bellwood, two fifth grade
classmates, were killed before the end of May. Fury was found with his legs torn off under
the porch at 29 Neibolt Street and Bellwood turned up near a cement retaining wall on
Kansas Street with the words “come home” written over and over in blood -- a direct
message to Mike, who would soon make the six phone calls to remind his friends of the promise
they once made. The news was too much for Stan, who took his
own life. In the meantime, It would also be calling
back an old friend. Henry Bowers, who was sitting in Juniper Hill
Mental Asylum, began hearing the familiar voice of Pennywise speaking to him through
the moon. When the remaining Losers reconvened at a
Chinese restaurant upon returning to Derry, Pennywise leaves them warnings in their fortune
cookies including eyes, bugs, blood and more. This is a symbolic way for It to tell them
they’ll meet unhappy fortunes if they try to fight. The Losers go for individual walks around
town while they wait for their memories of the summer of ‘58 to come back. During this time, Pennywise terrorizes each
of them with the belief that they will not be able to win as they once did. I think the reason It becomes so confident
is a combination of factors. The Losers have grown up, lost their imaginations,
lost one of their members (Stan), and forgotten about Derry for the most part. However, one thing that I think It didn’t
count on was the fact that despite them growing older, many of them still work in creative
fields. Beverly designs dresses, Ben designs buildings,
Richie is a radio DJ known for his creative voices and Bill is an author of fiction -- a
concept that those people who think Pennywise is real don’t seem to understand. Each of the Losers goes somewhere they used
to spend time at in Derry. Ben visits the library where Pennywise taunts
him from the landing. “Excuse me sir -- do you have Prince Albert
in a can? You do? Well you better let the poor guy out -- HOO
HEH! HOO HEH! HOO HEH!” I love that part. It also scared Ben using the form of Dracula
and taunting him about the death of Stan. Before disappearing, it leaves behind a balloon
with a message, “have a good day, tonight you die.” In the movie -- Pennywise spends more time
warning the losers that they should get out of town, which really I don’t find to fall
in line with the character so much, because in the novel It comes back and wants revenge
on those who bested him -- so it wouldn’t really make sense for It to lure them all
back there and then make them leave again. Eddie takes his walk down memory lane… not
down memory lane because that probably isn’t a real place, but rather, down West Broadway,
where he comes upon the Tracker Bros truck depot or at least what’s left of it. This was were the kids used to play baseball. Eddie sees a leper version of Belch Huggins
climb over the fence. Then the canvas squares they used to use as
bases fly into the air and take after him. Tony Tracker, one of the co-owners of the
depot, comes out of the ground at home plate. Eddie also sees a zombie version of his childhood
crush Greta Bowie and of Patrick Hockstetter. Beverly goes back to her old apartment to
see if her Dad is still there, but a woman named Mrs. Kersh has taken up the residence
and invites her in for tea. Mrs. Kersh starts rotting before her eyes,
before dropping the fact that her father was Robert Gray, also known as Pennywise the Dancing
Clown. She also realizes that the tea she is drinking
tastes like crap from the sewer, and it is at this point that sis snapped... that meme’s
probably going to be so outdated by the time this video even comes out…. Mrs. Kersh turns into a witch and chases Beverly
out as the whole place turns to candy like the house from Hansel and Gretel. As she runs out she hears her father's voice
call out, but when she turns back, she sees the clown holding the detached leg of a child. There’s also a balloon, with the words “It
Came From Outer Space” the name of a horror movie from the 50s that also works with the
origin of It. From It… by Stephen King. While I could probably go on about how many
times I’ve had an issue trying to distinguish the monster It from the word it, let’s instead
move on to Richie Tozier. Richie goes back to City Center, where the
Paul Bunyan statue turns into Pennywise holding two balloons, one reading “Richie Tozier’s
All-Dead Rock Show”. Pennywise tells him that the eye is waiting
for him below -- a reference to The Crawling Eye that they encountered on their first trip
into the sewers. He looks back up and the clown has been replaced
by a Buddy Holly statue and looking back on it now, it’s interesting to note that Pennywise
the Clown looked just like Buddy Holly roughly nine years before anyone knew who Rivers Cuomo
was. Richie feels a sharp pain in his eyes, possibly
a connection to the smoke in his eyes during the smoke hole ritual they did as kids. He blinks his contacts back to normal, and yes, this is me blinking for all you people who comment and say I never blink. and
everything goes back to normal, but he still hears Pennywise’s laughter in the back of
his head. Late that night, It takes the form of Victor
Criss to break Henry out of the mental asylum. Victor’s body still has the voice of Pennywise
though, and he explains that Henry must kill the Losers because Henry can hurt them regardless
of if they believe in him or fear him. In order to escape, they must first get past
one of the Juniper Hill guards, John Koontz. It first attacks him using the Pennywise form,
then turns into a giant dog -- which is a Doberman, just like the guard dogs at the
asylum -- and mauls Koontz to death. That night, the Losers reconvene at the library,
where It taunts them with strange visions including one of Stan’s 11 year old head
which is stuffed with feathers, possibly a reference to the often used bird form of it. "I finally made it guys. I'm in the Deadlights now. And you know what? It's true what they say. We all float down here. And you will too. in fact...THEY ALL FLOAT! His eyes open, and they are the eyes of Pennywise. The head bursts, leaving behind a mess of
blood. The Losers decide to call it a night, but
Henry Bowers has other ideas. Henry ambushes and attacks Mike, who is wrapping
up at the library. Then, while prowling the streets at 2AM, he
sees a sewer grate with a balloon tied to it. Don't waste your time on Henry because the
voice inside his head tells him that a ride has been sent for him and a 1958 Plymouth
Fury pulls up. I know this isn't an episode of Things You
Missed, this is Horror History, but let me give you a freebie anyways: the car matches
the description of Christine from another Stephen Book… Christine! The driver of the car was a zombie version
of Belch who doesn't speak the entire car ride until the end when Pennywise's voice
comes out of his mouth and tells him to shut up and get the losers. I can only imagine what kind of review Henry
would have left on zombie Uber. Henry would go on into the hotel and manage
to injure Eddie Kaspbrak, just as he did in 1958, but in 1985, It had one more trick up
her sleeve that NONE of the Losers Club could have seen coming before the final showdown. Beverly Marsh never really escaped her abusive
father. Yes, she did get out of Derry, and yes, that
was the last time she ever spoke to her dad. But Beverly ended up falling into the same
old trap again when she married a man named Tom Rogan, who treated her even worse than
Al Marsh did. Tom was able ascertain Beverly’s location
after she left him to reunite with her childhood friends in Derry, and he found himself waking
up in a Holiday Inn in Maine where he found a balloon tied to his bathroom doorknob. The voice of It spoke to him through the balloon
and told him to do It’s bidding. At this point, I think it’s important to
look back at It’s human servants. The fact that It is able to manipulate some
people to do her bidding, but not others, is interesting to me. In fact, it seems that It is only able to
manipulate people who already have a lot of evil in them. There is also a nurse that It manipulates
later named Mark Lamonica -- the brother of Sheryl Lamonica who was killed in 1958. It sends him with a scalpel to try to finish
off Mike in the hospital -- and King describes him as being an easy target for It because
he’s a drug addict. On the other hand, it seems like It’s rival,
the Turtle is able to manipulate good people. The Losers Club members often describe some
kind of helping hand aiding them, like when Mike throws the tiles at the bird and he feels
something “helping” him throw them harder than usual. Now if only we could get the Cubs bullpen could get a little
help from The Turtle then we’d really be in business… But Beverly’s husband Tom isn’t the only
spouse who followed their partner into Derry, because Bill’s wife Audra has also made
the trip. In order to ensure the opportunity for revenge,
It uses Tom to capture Audra and bring her into the sewers, leaving her purse at the
foot of the pumping station as bait for Bill. Because of this, he, Eddie, Ben, Beverly and
Richie must go face It before they are ready, and this time, they’re on a rescue mission. Even with everything turned in It’s favor;
even with only 5 Losers to kill now as opposed to 7, It feels fear again as they approach,
so Pennywise tries to intimidate them a little more on their drive to the Barrens. Pennywise speaks through the car radio, first
reading an ad for the Richie Tozier All Dead Rock Show. Then Georgie’s voice berates Bill, telling
him “You let it kill me!” They turn off the radio, which must have been
a good indicator for It that Bill was still pretty rattled by the idea that he could have
been partially responsible for what happened to Georgie. I think it’s for this reason that the first
form that the adult Losers encounter after climbing down into the sewers is Bill’s
younger brother. Bill starts to feel guilt -- and he feels
he should have been the one to die. The others need him to come to the realization
that this Georgie isn’t real -- and he’s able to do so by repeating the phrase, “he
thrusts his fist against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.” Just like last time, this hurts It, who retreats
into the inner sanctum. You may have noticed throughout this video
that I refer to It using the female pronouns. There’s a reason for that -- and when they
get to the inner lair at the heart of the sewer system, they discover that the Deadlights
they interpret as a spider has an eggsack. It’s female and It’s pregnant. Thought I do have serious questions about
who, in their right mind, would have knocked It up. but... Actually let’s try not to think about that. Once again, It goes for Bill, which if you
think about it makes sense; he’s the leader, he’s probably the biggest threat to It seeing
as how he became a writer and he’s still flowing with creativity and It’s his wife
that’s been captured, so he’s the most motivated. Just like when they were young, Bill leaves
his physical body and enters the void. It tells him that The Turtle is dead, and
won’t be able to help him this time, which he doesn’t believe at first, but later concludes
to be true when they pass by The Turtle’s empty shell. Bill tried to mentally seize It’s tongue
like he had during the Ritual of Chud when they were kids, but this time he misses his
grip and drifts deeper into the void. In the physical chamber Richie realizes something
is wrong and confronts the spider using his Irish Cop voice. Then Richie is whacked into the cosmic void
as well, and he is able successfully engage in the Ritual of Chud. Richie takes Bill’s hand and threatens to
kill It if It doesn’t bring them back to the real world. They almost lose their grip on It, but are
able to safely get back to their physical bodies. Just before they arrive, Eddie is trying to
hurt The Spider with his aspirator like he did in 1958, but when It comes back to the
physical body of the spider, It bites down and rips Eddie’s arm off before retreating
into the dark depths of the lair. This time, Richie and Bill don’t want to
let It get away again. Just as they pursued It to 29 Neibolt Street
as kids, they follow the spider further into the dark. Beverly stops to comfort Eddie in his final
moments, while Ben finds the trail of eggs left behind by It, and one by one attempts
to stomp them all out. Now It was becoming more afraid than ever. It sensed Richie and Bill’s pursuit. It sensed the death of It’s young. And It began to turn white. It turned back to Richie and Bill, now beginning
to let off the Deadlights within. The arachnid creature begged them to let her
go offering them power, success and the prospect of 500 year lives. Bill and Richie began to feel the power of
“another”. Not It, not the Turtle, but the celestial
force I mentioned wayyyyyy back at the beginning of this video (even before I started talking
about tacos) that created both of them. Bill hears the sound of The Spider’s heart
pounding now like an enormous drum. He punches his way into It, reaches for the
heart and crushes it in his hand. The creature jerked and quivered, and as it
died, the light faded from it. Bill heard the voice of The Other telling
him, “son, you did real good.” Richie was basically passed out at this point. Ben had finished stomping over 100 eggs, and
thinks he’s gotten them all. Audra falls from the webbing she’s strung
up in and lies crumpled on the ground in a catatonic state. Eddie has died, and Beverly’s pack of matches
is their only source of light and hope to get out. Meanwhile, a huge storm brews above them over
Derry, and the flood that would ensue is a metaphorical washing out of all the bad history
the town had endured over the 300 or so years of its existence. The flood would end up destroying much of
Main Street and any buildings near the canal were swept away. The Losers were able to climb directly out
of the destroyed sewer pipes to the street above. As they left Derry, their memories of everything
that had happened between them and It began to fade once again, but this time, even Mike,
who was still recovering in the hospital, would lose his memories of the horrific occurrences
that took place in and under Derry Maine. At this point in the story, it is widely believed
that It, the creature that had caused so much pain and taken so many lives was dead. However, some might say that simply isn’t
true. Stephen King would go on to write many more
novels that either take place in, or reference the town of Derry, and some of them seem to
imply that the battle with the Losers Club in 1985 was not the end of Pennywise. A few years pass before the events of Stephen
King’s 1987 book The Tommyknockers, where an alien intelligence possesses the nearby
village of Haven, Maine. A fifteen year old boy named Tommy Jacklin
is sent with 13 year old Hester Brookline to retrieve as many car batteries as they
could manage. During the stop in Derry, Tommy notices a
clown with shiny silver dollars for eyes staring at him through an open sewer manhole. He brushes it off as an effect of the alien’s
mutations on his mind, but more evidence would come over a decade later in the year 2001. Dreamcatcher is another alien possession novel
by Stephen King in which a character named Mr. Gray -- which in itself could be a nod
to the human form of It, Robert Gray, comes across the former spot of the Derry Standpipe,
the water storage structure that was destroyed in the flood at the end of It in 1985. There’s now a memorial in its place. It reads, “TO THOSE LOST IN THE STORM. MAY 31, 1985. AND TO THE CHILDREN. ALL THE CHILDREN. LOVE FROM BILL, BEN, BEN, EDDIE, RICHIE, STAN,
MIKE. THE LOSERS CLUB.” But there is another message, which has been
spray painted in red jagged letters over the top of the memorial, which reads, “PENNYWISE
LIVES.” This is pretty solid proof that Pennywise
does indeed live on in Derry, because most of the town doesn’t know who Pennywise is,
and those who do don’t have the motive to deface this memorial, like Pennywise does. But how does Pennywise live? It was pretty clear that the Deadlights faded,
and It’s brandings disappeared from the door leading the spider’s lair. Some believe that the 27 year cycle simply
can’t be stopped -- that the Losers Club never had the ability to kill It to begin
with and that Pennywise simply went back to sleep. However, I have a different theory. At the end of the battle in 1985, Richie and
Bill finish off the spider while Ben stomps on all of the eggs, using only a pack of matches
to find and stomp out all of them. When they reconvene, Ben tells them. “I stamped out over a hundred. I think I got all of them.” “I pray to God you did.” Richie tells him. Then they flee the chamber. It seems pretty inconclusive to me. There’s even a thought at Ben has earlier,
as he’s stepping on them all. “How many? How many eggs? Didn’t I read that spiders can lay thousands…
or millions?” So I would theorize that at least one of these
eggs went unnoticed, and It was reborn into a new physical body. This new It would also have the shapeshifting
ability, and thus would also be able to take the exact same form as Pennywise. It also makes sense for the new It to use
this form again, because It seems to know all about things happening in Derry, and would
be able to pick up on the idea that the kids in town are scared of this clown. There’s one more possible piece of evidence
that Pennywise lives in Stephen Kings 2014 book Mr Mercedes. This one doesn’t take place in Derry, but
rather, in Cleveland, Ohio where a serial killer wears a clown mask to conceal himself. One of the characters compares it to “the
TV movie about the clown in the sewers.” He’s talking about the TV mini-series adaptation
of It that came out in 1990. So apparently this adaptation also exists
in Stephen King’s universe, but you’d have to think that in order for that to be
possible, someone somewhere had to have seen the real Pennywise and been inspired by it,
so I see this as another piece of evidence that Pennywise is alive, probably as one of
the forms of the new It, after the events of the novel It. So what does that hold for the future? Could we one day see a sequel to It? During a Reddit AMA in 2013, Stephen King
addresses the question. “I don’t think I could bear to deal with
Pennywise again. Too scary, even for me.” So maybe we’ll continue to see Pennywise
lurking in the shadows in some of King’s future works, or maybe he’ll change his
mind after seeing how much people love the 2017 and 2019 adaptations of It. Let me know what you think in the comments. Click the playlist on the left to see the
complete history of some of the other characters from It, and remember to subscribe to CZsWorld
for new horrors every week, ring the deathbell for notifications and I’ll see you in the
next one. Assuming, we both survive.
This is a great recap of all the incidents and puts a 1:1 visual from the book to the movies/mini-series. Show's what's right between them all.
I dig it.