5 Reasons Why Bill Skarsgard Is The Best Pennywise (And 5 Reasons It’s Still Tim Curry)

Andy Muschietti’s IT Chapter One and IT Chapter Two are some of the most successful horror movies in history, and for good reason. IT is the classic tale of children in danger with no adults around to save them, and Pennywise the clown is the kind of character that will strike fear into the hearts of anyone who hears his name. But of course, a huge part of the success of the new IT rested on the shoulders of the actor who played this iconic character, Bill Skarsgard.

Skarsgard really had his work cut out for him too. The IT miniseries is a pop culture staple, and Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise is one of the scariest and most memorable in horror history. But Skarsgard and Curry both took very different approaches to the character and played to their own strengths in their performances, so here are 5 reasons why Bill Skarsgard distinguished himself as the best Pennywise, as well as 5 reasons that Tim Curry will always be the best dancing clown.

10 Because Bill Plays The Role Intensely

Although Pennywise is ostensibly supposed to be a magical monster that is disguising himself as a clown, Bill Skarsgard very much plays Pennywise as a monster through and through. What makes Bill’s performance so effective as a horror movie villain is that while he is attempting to appear as something human and something that children would be drawn to, clearly his true monstrous nature really can’t be concealed. Clowns can be somewhat scary in their own right, but Skarsgard manages to nail that uncanny valley of something that looks somewhat close to a human, but is different enough to be instinctively repulsive.

9 Because Tim’s Pennywise Looks Human

What makes Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise in the original IT miniseries so compelling is that he really does just look like a normal man. He’s literally a mythical demon, but no average person would even give him a second look, even if he was absconding with a random child at the time.

He only cuts a terrifying figure because the children he’s attacking, and by extension the audience, understands what he really is. The thought that the most frightening being in the universe could just blend in with the rest of us is unsettling, and Tim Curry uses that fact to his advantage.

8 Skarsgard: Because Bill’s Pennywise Looks Inhuman

Something that is particularly scary about this more recent version of Pennywise is that while he’s something resembling human, no one on earth would actually see something like that and think that he was real. There is an almost cartoonish quality to Pennywise’s appearance, that enormous head, bizarre teeth, and extremely lanky physique really does make him look like the Bizarro version of a real clown. Pennywise is a shapeshifter that can appear in any form that terrifies his victims, and he is a cosmic demon underneath that facade. And Bill Skarsgard’s performance brings that to the forefront, making Pennywise into something that anyone would be terrified to see.

7 Curry: Because Of Tim Curry’s Characterization

Tim Curry’s performance as Pennywise is so brilliant because he makes the character into a real character. Yes, Pennywise the clown is just an image that the real It cloaks itself in, but Tim Curry creates that mask and makes it into a fully formed person. The Losers Club understands what Pennywise really is, but Tim Curry makes it feel like this is some overworked, sad sack clown with a pack-a-day smoking habit and a thick New York accent. He feels like the kind of clown that you might see at a cheap kids birthday party, which only serves to make him scarier.

6 Skarsgard: Because Of Bill Skarsgard’s Physicality

Bill Skarsgard actually masterfully incorporates his physical acting into his overall acting performance, he does it so well that it’s hard to notice how much he’s moving and changing his body in order to sell the inhuman nature of Pennywise unless it’s something you’re actively looking for.

Skarsgard’s Viking frame certainly helps him out a bit, but he moves his limbs like a snake and contorts himself in strange positions that makes him feel very distinct from any normal person. His excessive drooling makes him look like something that is closer to a predatory animal than a human. And shockingly, he’s even capable of moving his eyes in different directions, that particular moment wasn’t a special effect.

5 Curry: Because Sometimes Less Is More

Now that Andy Muschietti’s IT Chapter One and Chapter Two have been released, it does kind of make some elements of the original IT miniseries look a lot more humble in comparison. And while that hurts the miniseries in some ways, it doesn’t have any impact on how effective Tim Curry’s performance was. Tim Curry’s performance was definitely a little campy and hammy, but it perfectly suited the characterization of a clown, and honestly his manic, bizarre glee is just really fun to watch. Curry isn’t going out of his way to really sell this monster as a monster, which actually makes his performance more effective.

4 Skarsgard: Because Sometimes More Is More

The contrast between the old Pennywise and the new Pennywise is stark, and one of the most obvious distinctions between the two is that the new Pennywise feels like a really big production. The OG Pennywise was a normal clown, but this version of Pennywise is kind of a work of art. Obviously the costume designers and makeup personnel deserve a lot of credit for that, but Bill Skarsgard also deserves props for being able to take such an over the top character and make it feel like a real, threatening monster instead of the absurdity that he really could have been in the hands of a lesser actor.

3 Curry: Because He’s A Real Clown

Horror movie monsters are undoubtedly a scary bunch. I mean the entire success of horror movies rests on them, so they certainly should be. But often times what makes some horror movie villains feel especially effective is that they feel real. Originally, the IT miniseries intended to put Tim Curry in a lot of prosthetics, but Curry fought against it and said his performance would be better without it.

And boy, did he nail that. Tim Curry’s Pennywise was a real clown, like something any child and adult has seen a million times before, and so the fear that Pennywise inspired had to be delivered entirely by Tim Curry’s performance (and obviously it was delivered).

2 Skarsgard: Because Bill’s Pennywise Would Even Scare Adults

Pennywise is a demon that prefers to feed on children because they are the easiest to scare, but we have to ask why Bill Skarsgard’s version of the character sticks solely to children. Because if we’re being real, no human on earth would see that thing and not immediately need some smelling salts and possibly a change of underwear. People can debate about what works and what doesn’t work with a certain horror villain until the cows come home, but the one thing that really matters is that they’re actually scary. And this iteration of Pennywise is absolutely terrifying to everyone.

1 Curry: Because Tim Curry Is Everyone’s Childhood Trauma

Bill Skarsgard really managed to take Pennywise the clown as a character and make it his own, but Tim Curry obviously has one edge over Bill that just can’t be undone. And that’s that Tim Curry is the Pennywise that nearly everyone grew up seeing. IT is a terrifying story and Pennywise is one of Stephen King’s best monsters ever, but the main reason that Pennywise has been such an enduring and scary character is because Tim Curry did such an amazing job playing him. The new IT is fantastic, but Tim Curry will always awaken everyone’s inner child, and probably still scare the pants off of them.