Andy Muschietti’s 2017 adaptation of Stephen King’s It Chapter One redefined modern horror by proving that fear works best when grounded in authentic emotion rather than cheap thrills. The film shattered box office records with over $700 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time unadjusted for inflation. What made this supernatural thriller resonate wasn’t just Bill Skarsgard’s unsettling portrayal of Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Muschietti’s deliberate choice to balance terror with heartfelt coming-of-age storytelling made all the difference. The film succeeds in frightening audiences precisely because it explores the nature of fear itself, manifesting the terrors of the Losers Club while allowing viewers to contemplate their own anxieties.
Set in Derry, Maine during the summer of 1989, the story follows seven outcast children who unite against an ancient evil that feeds on their deepest fears. The movie skillfully combines elements of horror, friendship, and coming-of-age themes, creating a narrative where loyal, solid friends become all you need, especially when fighting an evil clown. Muschietti understood that monsters alone don’t make a horror film memorable; it’s the people worth saving that do. Through this lens of childhood trauma and resilience, he crafted more than just another Stephen King adaptation. He delivered a meditation on the terrors that shape us and the bonds that save us.
Georgie’s Tragic Encounter
In October 1988, two brothers face a tragedy that will haunt their town for years to come. Twelve-year-old Bill Denbrough (Jaeden Lieberher), who is pretending to be sick to avoid going outside in the rain, makes his six-year-old brother Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott) a paper boat named the S.S. Georgie. Despite not being thrilled about the downpour, Georgie ventures out with his new toy after Bill convinces him to retrieve glue from the basement to finish it.
During his trip downstairs, Georgie passes their mother Sharon (Pip Dwyer) playing piano and enters the dark basement where the light doesn’t work. After turning on his flashlight, he spots what appears to be eyes reflecting the beam, but upon closer inspection, he realizes it’s just a harmless reflection from something metallic and returns to Bill’s room with the glue.
Once outside in the torrential rain with his completed boat, Georgie watches helplessly as it gets washed down a storm drain. Pennywise suddenly appears from the sewer, offering to return the boat to him. Though Georgie is initially wary of the stranger, Pennywise manipulates him with sweet talk, trying to convince the child to trust him and reach for the boat. The moment Georgie extends his arm to grab it, Pennywise brutally bites it off.
Georgie screams and tries desperately to crawl away, but Pennywise grabs his leg and drags the boy into the sewer to devour him. An old woman and her pet cat from across the street hear Georgie’s screams but arrive too late to help, finding only a pool of blood on the pavement. This marks the beginning of a series of disappearances that will terrorize Derry.
The Losers’ Club Forms
Eight months later, in June 1989, Bill is now preparing for summer vacation with his friends Stanley Uris (Wyatt Oleff), Richie Tozier (Finn Wolfhard), and Eddie Kaspbrak (Jack Dylan Grazer), collectively known as the Losers’ Club due to relentless bullying by Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) and his gang. During this time, they witness a mother waiting outside the school, hoping her missing daughter Betty Ripsom (Katie Lunman) will appear, confirming that Georgie isn’t Pennywise’s only victim.
The group also includes Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), a girl being bullied by her peers, and eventually Ben Hanscom (Jeremy Ray Taylor), the new kid in town who catches Henry Bowers’ attention as his next target. Ben’s only positive connection at school is Beverly, who becomes the sole person to sign his yearbook. At home, Bill faces Zack’s (Geoffrey Pounsett) harsh dismissal of his efforts to find Georgie, as his dad insists the boy is already dead. Bill refuses to accept this conclusion, maintaining hope despite the mounting evidence.
Meanwhile, Mike Hanlon (Chosen Jacobs), another outsider who serves as a target for Henry Bowers’ crew, experiences his own terrifying encounter when he sees a burned handprint on his barn door, a manifestation connected to his deepest childhood trauma of being unable to save his parents from a barn fire. When the door flies open to reveal Pennywise inside, the creature vanishes just as Henry and his gang arrive to mock Mike.
Stanley encounters Pennywise at his synagogue while practicing reading the Torah, an activity at which he struggles. After his father, Rabbi Uris (Ari Cohen), tells him to return the book to his office, Stanley pauses to pick up a painting that has fallen from the wall and hangs it back in place. He watches the figure in the canvas suddenly vanish, leaving the surface blank. Moments later the missing image reappears and lurches to life, revealing Pennywise’s shapeshifting ability as the creature becomes each child’s deepest fear.
Uncovering Derry’s Dark History
Ben has his own disturbing experience at the library while researching Derry’s history and secretly writing poems for Beverly. An elderly librarian lingers nearby, watching him with an unnerving smile, enough to make Ben hurry into the basement archives. There he uncovers a deeply disturbing pattern in Derry’s past: the Easter Day 1908 disaster when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded during an Easter-egg hunt, killing 102 people (88 of them children) even though every machine had been shut down for the holiday.
Earlier still, the town’s 91 founding settlers vanished without a trace by the first winter. Rumors blamed a Native American attack, yet no bodies or weapons were found—only a trail of bloody clothes leading to an old well house that now sits beneath the abandoned house on Neibolt Street where all the town’s sewer lines converge. As Ben studies these events, a red balloon suddenly appears, Pennywise’s calling card, and a nearby Easter egg mysteriously catches fire, mirroring the historical disaster.
The burning egg leads Ben to a hidden room where he’s chased by a headless, burned boy who transforms into Pennywise before the real librarian arrives and the creature vanishes. Shortly after, Henry Bowers finds and bullies Ben, carving his initials into the boy’s stomach while an older couple drives by without helping. Ben manages to kick Henry and escape to the Barrens, where he encounters the Losers’ Club and becomes their newest member.
In the Barrens, the Losers discover Betty’s shoe, confirming she may be dead, while Patrick Hockstetter (Owen Teague), one of Henry’s friends searching the sewer for Ben, is killed by Pennywise. Since Ben is injured, the others try to help him buy medical supplies but lack sufficient money. Beverly happens to be at the pharmacy and flirts with the pharmacist to obtain bandages and rubbing alcohol for free. While treating Ben’s wound, Beverly and Ben share a meaningful moment of connection that hints at deeper feelings.
Beverly’s home life reveals a darker reality. Her father Alvin (Stephen Bogaert) kisses her in an unsettling way that shows the abuse is still happening. Feeling trapped, Beverly cuts her long hair short as an act of defiance and self-determination. When the Losers’ Club meets again to go swimming, Beverly confidently takes off her shirt and jumps in, with the rest following her lead as they all enjoy a carefree afternoon together.
Pattern of Evil Emerges
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Afterward, Ben shares his library research with the group, revealing that Derry has an unnaturally high number of missing people. Not just children but adults too, though children disappear most frequently. Near his house, missing person posters confirm the pattern continues, including one for Patrick, Henry’s friend who died in the sewer.
Ben explains the complete history to the assembled Losers. The vanished settlers, the bloody trail leading to the old well house, the lack of evidence for Native American attacks, and most importantly, the well now sits beneath the abandoned house on Neibolt Street where all sewer lines converge, a location Pennywise has made its lair. The terrifying clown’s image even appears in the historical poster, suggesting its presence throughout Derry’s entire existence.
As the Losers process this information, each member continues to face personal encounters with Pennywise that prey on their deepest fears. Eddie is confronted by a diseased leper near the abandoned Neibolt Street house, which is a manifestation of his worst fear, before Pennywise appears and disappears as usual. Beverly discovers an anonymous poem written for her, although she does not yet realize Ben is the author, and then hears strange noises coming from her sink. These sounds turn out to be the voices of children Pennywise has abducted, who are begging for help.
When she investigates with a measuring tape, it extends impossibly far into the drain and returns covered in hair that lashes out and grabs her face. Blood suddenly floods the entire bathroom, turning everything a deep crimson. Her father enters the room, but he cannot see the blood, while Beverly remains fully aware that the horrific manifestation is real. Bill experiences his own torment when he sees Georgie standing in his flooded basement and runs toward him. The apparition of Georgie apologizes for losing his boat and asks Bill to come with him, although this is merely another one of Pennywise’s tricks. Pennywise then chases Bill, yet Bill manages to escape.
Beverly later brings the Losers to her house to show them the blood-covered bathroom. Unlike Beverly’s father, every member of the group can see the blood, which confirms that it is real to them even though adults remain blind to it. They work together to clean the bathroom until it shines, and during this moment Ben observes the growing connection between Bill and Beverly. He feels a pang of jealousy, and he also notices that Beverly has kept the poem he wrote for her.
During their next meeting, the Losers talk about their individual terrifying experiences and realize their encounters all share a common thread, which is the clown, even though not all of them have seen it directly. When they spot Henry Bowers’ car and Mike’s bike, they discover that Henry and his gang are bullying Mike. Pennywise watches from nearby as the torment unfolds. The Losers decide to fight back, and they start a rock war against Henry Bowers’ crew. They win the battle, and Mike officially joins them, completing the group.
First Battle at Neibolt
The Losers eventually piece together a chilling pattern. They learn that an evil entity resurfaces in Derry every 27 years, which coincides with spikes in disappearances and deaths, especially among children. They gather in Bill’s garage with a projector to study information about Derry and discover that all sewer lines converge at the abandoned house on Neibolt Street. This house stands over the old well where Pennywise’s lair can be accessed.
As they study the projector slides, the device suddenly moves on its own. Pennywise appears on the screen and then emerges from the projection to attack the Losers. Beverly shows little fear, and when the garage door opens and sunlight floods the space, Pennywise vanishes. Bill becomes determined to confront Pennywise in its lair, even though the danger is obvious.
Inside the Neibolt house, the Losers face a series of terrifying encounters. Richie finds a missing person poster with his own picture on it, and when they hear a voice calling them, Bill and Richie discover the mutilated remains of Betty Ripsom. Eddie is drawn away by a sound before a door slams shut, separating him from the others, and he’s confronted by the zombie-like diseased leper before falling downstairs and breaking his arm.
Richie enters another room after hearing his name called, becomes trapped when the door slams shut, and encounters an eerie dummy in a chest before Pennywise appears to scare him, though Bill manages to save him. As Eddie lies in pain from his broken arm, Pennywise emerges from a refrigerator to terrorize him. Bill and Richie face three doors and must choose one, discovering a headless girl inside before escaping and finding Eddie with Pennywise.
When Pennywise tries to attack Bill, Beverly intervenes by stabbing the creature in the head with a metal rod. Bill grabs Pennywise during the struggle, and they discover that the creature’s true lair can be reached through the well in the basement of the old house. After Eddie’s mother takes him home following his injury, tensions erupt within the group because Bill insists they should continue fighting Pennywise, while the others, shaken by what happened, want to leave the creature alone. The Losers’ Club fractures and eventually splits apart.
Final Confrontation and Promise
Pennywise’s manipulation extends beyond the children when the creature appears on Henry Bowers’ television and gives him a knife while he’s playing with his police officer father’s gun. Henry uses the weapon to murder his dad, stabbing him to death in an act facilitated entirely by Pennywise’s influence. Meanwhile, when Beverly tries to leave her house, her father confronts and attempts to assault her, forcing her to fight back and incapacitate him by striking him with a toilet lid in self-defense. Pennywise then abducts Beverly, and when Bill finds her father unconscious in the bathroom, he sees a message from Pennywise written in blood: “YOU’LL DIE IF YOU TRY.”
Bill calls all his friends, and the Losers’ Club reunites to save Beverly, returning to the Neibolt house and climbing down the well in the basement. Inside Pennywise’s underground lair beneath the sewers, they find a mountain of decayed circus props and children’s belongings with the bodies of Pennywise’s child victims floating in mid-air around this collection. Pennywise shows Beverly three lights in his mouth, the Deadlights, which cause her to float in a catatonic state. Henry Bowers attacks Mike, who fights back and defeats him by pushing him down the well, though when Mike reloads his bolt gun, all the bolts fall out except for one.
Stanley hears strange voices before Pennywise terrifies him by manifesting as the distorted woman from the painting, his biggest fear. The creature tries to suck Stanley’s face into its mouth, making his cheek bleed as he panics in extreme terror. Bill sees Georgie and runs toward him, while the other Losers find Beverly hanging in the air. Ben saves her by kissing her, a true love’s kiss that breaks Pennywise’s spell and awakens her from the catatonic state.
Bill finds Georgie, who asks to be taken home, but Bill realizes this isn’t truly his brother when the apparition refers to his paper boat as ‘it’ instead of ‘she.’ Bill had named the boat the S.S. Georgie and always referred to boats with feminine pronouns, as his father had taught him. Bill shoots the impostor, revealing it to be Pennywise in disguise. The Losers’ Club fights Pennywise with all their strength until the creature captures Bill and offers the others a deal: leave Bill behind and they can live. The Losers refuse to abandon their friend and stand together against Pennywise.
The confrontation reveals a crucial weakness in Pennywise’s power. The creature couldn’t harm Beverly while she was unafraid, because fear is essential to its strength. This lack of fear saved her, and because the Losers’ Club is no longer afraid, they overpower Pennywise together. The creature, wounded and weakened, retreats down the well into the sewers below, going into hibernation. Among the floating belongings, the Losers find Georgie’s yellow rain jacket, and Bill is heartbroken over losing his little brother forever, finally accepting the reality of Georgie’s death.
Sometime later, the Losers’ Club gathers together one more time. Beverly tells them that when Pennywise exposed her to the Deadlights, she had a vision showing they would face It again as adults, foreshadowing a future confrontation. Bill leads the group in making a blood oath. If Pennywise returns, they will all come back to Derry to face it again, sealing this promise with a blood pact. After the others leave, Bill and Beverly share a kiss, cementing their connection. The film ends with the title card “Chapter One,” indicating this story will continue when the Losers must return to Derry as adults to fulfill their promise.
