The winners' club
Two months ago, in celebration of the theatrical release of It, we asked you to scare us silly with your Pennywise-inspired fan art, and you didn't disappoint. Every entry to the competition was brilliantly horrific, perfectly capturing why everyone both loves and hates the celestial clown killer in all his glory. While we wish we could have given every piece of artwork a trophy, but It director Andy Muschietti had to chose one winner, who earns the incredible prize of a ‘Derry experience’ trip for two in Bangor, Maine, complete with a visit to the home of Stephen King himself.
You'll find the winning piece at the end of this gallery but, first, here were some of our favourite runners-up. And there's even a special message from Muschietti, to the winner, below!
Appropriately drawing inspiration from one of the scariest scenes of the movie, this monochromatic piece suggests that It would be no less scary as a noir thriller. Even against the blackened water, Pennywise's distorted reflection is more than enough to put anyone off the idea of floating with poor little Georgie.
Bill Skarsgård's disturbing grin as Pennywise is something that most of us won't be forgetting anytime soon, and this portrait accentuates that facial gesture to skin-crawling degrees. Bonus points awarded for the blood splattered ruffle collar, not to mention the ominous reflection of the balloon on his bulbous forehead.
Ah yes, Pennywise's den; a literal horror house of death and disaster. I'm not sure what to more creeped out by here: those piercing eyes which keep staring at you no matter what angle you're looking at them, or the shady, eldritch building beneath.
Black, white, and red have been prominent in most of the entries seen so far, but this poster-style piece throws them all together for a chilling glimpse at Pennywise, with his steady, beady eye centred right in the middle of it all. Yeesh.
How about we take a break from all the clown-centric horror to focus on sweet little Georgie Denbrough himself? N'awh...how cu- wait a second... It takes a while to notice, since Georgie is painted with such love and care, but that Pennywise cameo at the bottom is a devious addition to an already wonderful piece.
The film only briefly touches on the more cosmic lore behind Pennywise and the town of Derry, but there's definitely an air of the cerebral and the celestial to this hypnotic take on It's titular alien. Whatever you do, don't take his hand...
Surprisingly, only a few entries decided to showcase Pennywise's gleaming set of barbed teeth, but this addition gives those fangs the spotlight they've always deserved. The attention to detail here is great, from the bead of drool running from his mouth, to the flecks of blood scattered across his attire.
This was the Pennywise shot that spooked the living daylights out of everyone with It's first trailer, and this entry zooms right in to focus on Skarsgard's face without flinching. The forehead alone, almost scaly in texture, has a tactile quality to it that doesn't sit well with the nerves.
Here it is, the winner, and Andrés Muschietti's personal favourite. A modernist portrayal of Pennywise, it's as if Andy Warhol himself went into the sewers to ask the clown to sit still for a portrait. Each of the four images adopts different variations in colour, but none are any less scary than the rest - a testament to the evocative power of the symmetrical stencil at the heart of the piece. The way in which Pennywise's hair and ruff almost conjoin to appear like some sort of mane is a great touch, and rather fitting considering the character's penchant for predation. All in all, it's a finely crafted presentation of Pennywise that feels both traditionally scary yet wholly unique as a work of art, and we can see why Muschietti took to it so fondly. Congratulations!