What Pennywise From It Looks Like Out Of Costume

If horror movie history has taught us nothing else, it's that genre fans cannot get enough of a good villain, and the more grotesque said villain appears, well, all the better apparently. For proof of that fact, look no further than famed cinematic ghouls like Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), and Pinhead (Doug Bradley), who consistently rank among the best-loved horror movie villains in history. 

Those vile creations were, of course, played by the noted horror movie actors either behind a mask, or with loads of special effects makeup. So too was one of the more recent additions to the rogue's gallery of grotesque horror movie bad guys, Pennywise the clown from the "It" movies, and it's safe to say that to see Pennywise is to know pure evil in its truest form. That being said, none of Pennywise's forms were quite as terrifying as the infamous clown-faced facade he most frequently sported in the films, a look which has no doubt inspired nightmares aplenty for the current generation of horror enthusiasts.  

Like those other legendary creepers, however, Pennywise is indeed just another actor made-up to look like the face of evil. And it should come as no particular shock to learn the actor under all that makeup looks nothing like Pennywise in real life. 

That actor who most recently brought Pennywise to life is Bill Skarsgård and, as you can see, he really couldn't look less like the demonic clown he portrayed with such caustic verve in "It." In fact, Skarsgård is quite a dashing lad whose leading-man looks have featured prominently in high profile Hollywood projects like "Allegiant," "Atomic Blonde," and "Deadpool 2." Much has understandably been made of Skarsgård's transformation into Pennywise, with the actor revealing some of Pennywise's more unsettling tics — like the clown's furled lower lip and lazy eye — were of his own doing. Likewise, Skarsgård's physicality and vocal work as Pennywise added demented layers to the beast's already bone-chilling presence, with digital effects bolstering the clown's more gruesome facial transformations.

Even still, most "It" fans would agree that the devil was truly in the makeup when it comes to his Pennywise. If Skarsgård is to be believed, it took the productions' makeup team roughly two-and-a-half hours (via GQ) to make him into the sewer-dwelling monster we came to know and fear. Whether you loved or loathed those flicks, there's little question Skarsgård's work as Pennywise was every bit as fascinating to watch is it was utterly horrifying to witness.