Oh sweet baby Jesus, there was apparently a deleted scene in It more gruesome than anything that made it to the final cut.
Actor Timothy Simons, who was going for the role of Pennywise the Clown before it ultimately went to Bill Skarsgård, told the Throwing Shade podcast that a disturbing scene from Pennywise’s past was clearly cut.
“It was [Pennywise] way back at the beginning of [the town of] Derry, convincing a woman to give him her baby to eat,” he said. “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.”
Co-host Bryan Safi, who also auditioned for the role, then read out part of the script, which largely matches a script that appeared on Reddit last month.
It details Pennywise convincing a woman to give him her baby to eat, in exchange for keeping the rest of her family (including herself) safe. When the woman (named Abigail) finally relents, the camera closes in on her face as Pennywise munches on the child behind her. Her expression changes from fear, to denial, to grief, to acceptance, and then to nothing, “just a glazed look, as if nothing horrific is actually happening behind her.” Etch.
Of course, just because this scene was cut doesn’t mean it won’t be revisited. A sequel is already in the works, and is likely to cover a lot of the ground that Stephen King‘s book didn’t, e.g. when the characters are adults, and Pennywise’s origins. (NB: This scene wasn’t in the books.)
What it won’t cover, probably, is that child orgy. King himself said he was “fascinated” that people were still intrigued/horrified by it, but truly, that scene should be banished back to his cooked mind where it belongs.
Anyhoo, you can read the child baby eating scene below, if you like. And weirdly enough, it’s not even the only film to open that month that toyed with the idea of eating babies. Must be the hot new trend of 2017 or something.
A removed scene from the movie, about Abigail and Pennywise choosing her child
by u/lundgrenos in ItTheMovie
