Thought Pennywise was horrifying enough? You haven't heard about the It movie's deleted baby-eating scene

Pennywise is already the poster-boy for your nightmares, but it could have been worse. Much, much worse. The It movie shocked us and made us shudder in equal measure, except it was reasonably restrained compared to one cut scene that, let’s just say, puts the baby in baby back ribs. I hope you’re not eating your lunch while reading this…

The Throwing Shade podcast (H/T Screen Rant) picked over the bones – for lack of a better phrase – of actor Timothy Simons’ test screening as Pennywise. In it, Simons confirmed the existence of a scene involving the demonic clown on the hunt for a quick snack.

Simons, for better or worse, doesn’t shy away from explaining exactly what would’ve happened: “It was [Pennywise] way back at the beginning of Derry, convincing the woman to give him her baby to eat. And it was scary. The thing that was scariest about it was that it was very direct. It was, ‘If you don’t do this, these are the things that I’m going to do.’ And they were all terrible.”

Welp. I won’t be sleeping tonight. And you thought the red balloons and the sewers were bad enough.

But should it have been cut? Sure, it’s a hideously gruesome scene – and there’s no indication it was cut for purposes of taste – but would it have been a case of simply going too far or, now that we know about this, did the It movie not go far enough?

There is the small matter of a sequel around the corner. There’s always next time…

Image: Warner Bros.

Bradley Russell

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in film and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.