Stephen King wasn't prepared for how good the 'IT' reboot is.
Stephen King
The 69-year-old author wrote the chilling novel about a child killer on the loose in an American town - which was turned into a 1990 TV mini-series starring Tim Curry as terrifying clown Pennywise - back in 1986 and now director Andy Muschietti has reimagined the story to scare a new audience in 2017.
King admits he approached the project with enthusiasm and "high hopes" but he was stunned by how frightening Muschietti's version is and how terrifying Bill Skarsgard's portrayal of Pennywise is.
The writer said: "I had hopes, but I was not prepared for how good it really was. It's something that's different and at the same time, it's something that audiences are gonna relate to. They're gonna like the characters. To me, it's all about character. If you like the character, if you care, the scares generally work. I'm sure my fans will enjoy the movie. I think they're gonna really enjoy the movie. And I think some of them will go back two or three times and actually savour the thing."
'IT' follows a group of young children who are faced with their biggest fears when they square off against the evil clown in Derry, Maine, after multiple children go missing.
The surviving children mature into adulthood and are forced to revisit their horrors as one by one they encounter Pennywise again.
Muschietti previously revealed that 'Allegiant' star Skarsgard, 26, was so frightening in his full makeup that he freaked out his child co-stars on set.
The filmmaker said: "He didn't stay in character when the camera stopped, but we did try to maintain distance between him and the kids.
"We wanted to carry the impact of the encounters to when the cameras were rolling. The first scene where Bill interacted with the children, it was fun to see how the plan worked. The kids were really, really creeped out by Bill. He's pretty intimidating because he's six-four and has all this makeup."
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