History NightmareFuel / It

** Pennywise's very [[EvilIsPetty personal]] vendetta against Derry is also terrifying. Imagine a creature older than the universe crashing down on Earth. Whose sole motivation isn't something grand like world domination or even enslaving the people of Earth but just to keep itself fed. With children that can never understand what they're up against.

** Even worse? Beverly's ''mother'' picked up on his lust for their daughter. She asks Beverly if he's ever been inappropriate with her, but she's too young to understand what she means. Talk about AdultFear, imagine having a kid and having to decide whether to bring up the issue of them being molested or not, knowing that if you're vague, the kid may say "no" because they don't understand the question, but if you're clear and specific about it, you're going to torpedo your kid's trust in their other parent once they realize there's a reason you asked in the first place.

-->'''Pennywise:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Hello and goodbye.]]

--> ''Come in and see'', that something seemed to whisper in my head. ''Never mind all the rest of it, Jake-come in and see. Come in and visit. Time doesn't matter in here; in here, time floats away. You know you want to, you're curious. Maybe it's even another rabbit-hole. Another portal''.

*** The description of him when he was ''five-years-old'' suffocating his baby brother.

** Said boy's fate, in chapter 17. He was a sociopath with only one fear: leeches. It takes the form of leeches combined with mosquitoes and wasps. The description of the boy being drained of his blood as well as ''[[EyeScream the fact that one of the leeches sucks his eyeball dry]]'' is pretty horrifying as well. Even after ripping off and squashing a bloated leech feeding off his arm, the severed head was still embedded and continued to suck out the blood even as it was spilling out the other side like a hose. He was still alive while Pennywise was dragging his bloodied body into the sewer. He woke while It was feeding on him.

* The deadlights themselves are the perfect representation of what It truly is, both figuratively and literally. An EldritchAbomination. While It's physical forms on Earth can be horrifying, they are still ultimately imperfect and ''mortal'' forms that can be conquered and beaten. The deadlights, however, don't follow the natural forms of the universe. They are utterly alien in every sense of the word, in [[AlienGeometries shape]] and [[EldritchAbomination sight]] and [[HellIsThatNoise sound]]. The lucky ones who come face to face with the deadlights are mercilessly annihilated but the unfortunate ones who don't die are forced to live forever inside them, insane beyond all hope of rescue. It is the ultimate fate of [[AndIMustScream Tom Rogan]] and very nearly the fate of Bill and Richie.

* Instead of appearing in the school shower to frighten Eddie like in the miniseries, It harasses him in the form of a homeless man offering oral sex. King's description of the homeless man and his proposition is incredibly nauseating nevertheless. The form that the monster takes afterwards based on the fear of the homeless man; the homeless man had an advanced case of untreated [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis syphilis]] that Eddie (very understandably) mistakes for leprosy, so the form It takes looks pretty nauseating.
* The boys being chased by It at the Neibolt Street house porch.
* "Sometimes I worry about you Beverly. Sometimes I worry a ''lot''." It's up in the air whether it's creepier coming from her own father or from It disguised as her father.

* The fact that, when they went back as adults, IT was pregnant. And they don't know if they got all the eggs! Oh, and the Ritual of Chüd, where Bill had to bite It's tongue, which is described as all gross and cracked and scabbed.
* "And although the wall itself towered hundreds of feet above them, the door was very small. It was no more than three feet high, a door of the sort you might see in a fairytale book, made of stout oaken boards bound with iron strips in an X-pattern. It was, they realized at once, a door made only for children. Ghostly, in his mind, Ben heard the librarian reading to the little ones: ''Who is that trip-trapping upon my bridge?'' The children lean forward, all the old fascination glistening in their eyes: will the monster be bested...or will it feed? There was a mark on the door, and heaped at its foot was a pile of bones. Small bones. The bones of God alone knew how many children. They had come to the place of It."

* The horror and destruction It wrought whenever it awoke from its decades long hibernation. The beginning of its reign of terror in Derry, Maine in the 18th century starts with only two words - "It awoke." And of course it became worse from there, especially the incident in 1906 when 88 children were gruesomely killed during an Easter Egg Hunt caused by an explosion from Kitchener Ironworks right before It went into hibernation again.

* The realization that the kids had that the ''entire'' town was in a sense, in league with It, especially when they realize that even their own parents weren't going to stop It from taking them. It's bad enough as a kid to have to fight the boogeyman, but far worse to come to the conclusion that your parents are on ''his side'' and don't even know it.

* Henry Bowers carved the first letter of his name into Ben Hanscomb's belly with a knife, and would have put his whole name down there if Ben hadn't fought back and gotten away. The scar faded away after Ben left Derry, and then reappeared as It began to reawaken.

** And the implication: he was in the ''bathtub.'' IT used the sewers as a means of traveling--what did Stan see before he died, that left his face locked in that silent scream?

* It has the ability to mimic any of Its victims, but it's never explained whether it's only mimicry, or if It really does take their souls and just uses them to lure or frighten victims. That might ''really have been'' Beverly's father... or what was left of him. And what happens when they go on living ''after'' being possessed by IT?

* Poor Eddie Corcoran. Beaten within an inch of his life (literally) by his stepfather, loses his little brother to said stepfather, is saddled with a mother who won't do anything about the abuse (possibly because of It), can't go home because of his bad report card, goes to the park, and then has his head torn off by the Gillman. His life ''and'' his death were one long nightmare.

[[AC:Down here, we all float. And when you're down here ''you'll float too.'']]

* '''''[[BigBad IT!]]''''' An [[EldritchAbomination interdimensional being]] of pure torment and evil that transported into our universe and crashed landed on Earth... namely, the location that would become Derry, Maine. It settles underneath the town, and every 27 years, it awakens and begins to feast on the town's population of children... Why children? Because fear tastes ''[[{{Sadist}} delicious]]'' to It, and nobody is more prone to pure fear than a young child. It will [[IKnowWhatYouFear read your subconscious, take on the form of a nightmarish circus display of your worst fears]], and eventually it will find a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendous way to kill you]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian devour your body]]. And it most enjoys tormenting its young victims in the form of a [[MonsterClown demon circus performer]] known as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".

** How did it get pregnant anyway? FridgeHorror indeed...

** Imagine growing up in one of the towns that King amalgamated into Derry. The murder on the bridge was based on real events in Lewiston, Maine. Near as anyone can tell, the water tower nearest there was in Norway, Maine. That book was all sorts of creepy for people native to Maine.

** Pennywise's very [[EvilIsPetty personal]] vendetta against Derry is also terrifying. Imagine a creature older than universe crashing down on Earth. Whose sole motivation isn't something grand like world domination or even enslaving the people of Earth but just to keep itself fed. With children that can never understand what they're up against.

** Every now and again though, IT's psychic hold on the town loosens just a bit and one of the adults notices something ''off''. Like Will Haloran and the giant bird above. Imagine seeing the impossible, even if it's just a hint, and being the only person able to even talk about it. That very sense of isolation is one of IT's chief weapons.

* '''''[[BigBad It!]]''''' An [[EldritchAbomination interdimensional being]] of pure torment and evil that transported into our universe and crashed landed on Earth... namely, the location that would become Derry, Maine. It settles underneath the town, and every 27 years, it awakens and begins to feast on the town's population of children... Why children? Because fear tastes ''[[{{Sadist}} delicious]]'' to It, and nobody is more prone to pure fear than a young child. It will [[IKnowWhatYouFear read your subconscious, take on the form of a nightmarish circus display of your worst fears]], and eventually it will find a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendous way to kill you]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian devour your body]]. And it most enjoys tormenting its young victims in the form of a [[MonsterClown demon circus performer]] known as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".

* '''''[[BigBad It.]]''''' An [[EldritchAbomination interdimensional being]] of pure torment and evil that transported into our universe and crashed landed on Earth... namely, the location that would become Derry, Maine. It settles underneath the town, and every 27 years, it awakens and begins to feast on the town's population of children... Why children? Because fear tastes ''[[{{Sadist}} delicious]]'' to It, and nobody is more prone to pure fear than a young child. It will [[IKnowWhatYouFear read your subconscious, take on the form of a nightmarish circus display of your worst fears]], and eventually it will find a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendous way to kill you]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian devour your body]]. And it most enjoys tormenting its young victims in the form of a [[MonsterClown demon circus performer]] known as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".

* ''It.'' An [[EldritchAbomination interdimensional being]] of pure torment and evil that transported into our universe and crashed landed on Earth... namely, the location that would become Derry, Maine. It settles underneath the town, and every 27 years, it awakens and begins to feast on the town's population of children... Why children? Because fear tastes ''[[{{Sadist}} delicious]]'' to It, and nobody is more prone to pure fear than a young child. It will [[IKnowWhatYouFear read your subconscious, take on the form of a nightmarish circus display of your worst fears]], and eventually it will find a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendous way to kill you]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian devour your body]]. And it most enjoys tormenting its young victims in the form of a [[MonsterClown demon circus performer]] known as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".

And now it's been adapted into ''[[Film/It2017 new]] [[Film/ItChapterTwo films]] (this time in cinemas), which have [[NightmareFuel/It2017 their own]] [[NightmareFuel/ItChapterTwo nightmare fuel pages]].

And now it's been adapted into ''[[Film/It2017 another]]'' film (this time in cinemas), which has [[NightmareFuel/It2017 its own nightmare fuel page]].

* The unfortunate destruction of the African-American military night club which was set fire by a group called the Legion of White Decency, in effect a Yankee-flavored KKK. One of the survivors, Dick Halloran, would become the cook for [[Literature/TheShining the Overlook Hotel]]. Mike Hanlon's father, Will Hanlon tells his son that on the night the club burned down in 1930 he witnessed a giant bird carry off a LWD member in its talons—the same bird that nearly killed Mike in when he was an infant! Not to mention the "half-assed enema" Mr. Hanlon received from a lady's high-heeled shoe, when he was nearly trampled during the escape.

* The unfortunate destruction of the African-American military night club which was set fire by a group called the Legion of White Decency, in effect a Yankee-flavored KKK. One of the survivors, Dick Halloran, would become the cook for [[Literature/TheShining the Overlook Hotel]]. Mike Hanlon's father, Will Hanlon tells his son that on the night the club burned down in 1930 he witnessed a giant bird carry off a LWD member in its talons—the same bird that nearly killed Mike in 1958 when he was an infant! Not to mention the "half-assed enema" Mr. Hanlon received from a lady's high-heeled shoe, when he was nearly trampled during the escape.

* ''It.'' An [[EldritchAbomination interdimensional being]] of pure torment and evil that transported into our universe and crashed landed on Earth...namely, the location that would become Derry, Maine. It settles underneath the town, and every 27 years, it awakens and begins to feast on the town's population of children...why children? Because fear tastes ''[[{{Sadist}} delicious]]'' to It, and nobody is more prone to pure fear than a young child. It will [[IKnowWhatYouFear read your subconscious, take on the form of a nightmarish circus display of your worst fears]], and eventually it will find a [[CruelAndUnusualDeath horrendous way to kill you]] and [[IAmAHumanitarian devour your body]]. And it most enjoys tormenting its young victims in the form of a [[MonsterClown demon circus performer]] known as "Pennywise the Dancing Clown".

** His cameo in ''Literature/{{Tommyknockers}}'', he just stands down the street and waves.

* How about the fact that ''Pennywise isn't confined simply to his own novel''? He appears in several other Stephen King novels, and plays no direct role. He simply sits in the background, possibly waiting for something.
** His cameo in ''Tommyknockers'', he just stands down the street and waves.
** ''Dreamcatcher''. "Pennywise lives!" '''''"PENNYWISE LIVES!"'''''

* All of these examples and others become even more frightening upon listening to Steven Weber's reading of the novel. His matter-of-fact narration of horrific scenes leaves the listener no quarter, and the different voices he affects for Pennywise's different manifestations are particularly chilling.

* Pennywise appearing as the main character's little brother the day he died with his arm ripped off. Fortunately, the main character regains his senses and kicks EldritchAbomination ass.

Ah, ''Literature/{{It}}''. Regarded as one of Stephen King's scariest ([[{{Doorstopper}} and longest]]) novels, it ''sure'' does have NightmareFuel. [[BringMyBrownPants Now, where are my brown pants?]]

* The deadlights themselves are the perfect representation of what It truly is, both figuratively and literally. An eldritch abomination. While It's physical forms on Earth can be horrifying, they are still ultimately imperfect forms that can be conquered and beaten. However the deadlights don't follow the natural form of the world. They are alien in every sense of the word, of shape or sound. The lucky ones who come face to face with the deadlights are mercilessly annihilated but the unfortunate ones who don't die are forced to live forever inside the deadlights, insane. It is the ultimate fate of Tom Rogan and very nearly the fate of Bill and Richie.

And now it's being adapted into ''[[Film/It2017 another]]'' film (this time in cinemas), which has [[NightmareFuel/It2017 its own nightmare fuel page]].

** The scar Bower's left never faded. The scars from the werewolf, which were in the same vicinity, did fade and reappeared when Ben was back in Derry. Ben noted he had showed the Bower scars to his bartender only a few days before and the werewolf scars were not present then.

* It has the ability to mimic any of Its victims, but it's never explained whether it's only mimicry, or if It really does take their souls and just uses them to lure or frighten victims. That might ''really have been'' Beverly's father... or what was left of him. And OHMIGAWD, what happens when they go on living ''after'' being possessed by IT?

* What happened to Tom Rogan when he gazed into Pennywise's "deadlights". Since he was an abusive dick, he deserved having his head explode from madness.