Although Stephen King has written plenty of terrifying villains in his time, one standout quote from 1990’s IT miniseries has the unique distinction of remaining the single scariest line in the history of the medium. There are some heavy-hitting competitors when it comes crowning the creepiest single line of all time on TV. Littlefinger’s Game of Thrones speech about chaos is chilling, but hardly outright scary so much as it is enthralling.
Meanwhile, the creepiest line in Twin Peaks is unbelievably tragic in context, but it is delivered with a plaintive sadness entirely at odds with the panic-attack-inducing terror of what’s happening onscreen. This disconnect is typical of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s inimitable murde mystery masterpiece Twin Peaks, but it also means that the scariest line in the show is only scary in context.
In contrast, the true scariest line in TV history is one that can still send chills down the spine of viewers familiar with the series despite how comparatively tame the show itself is. 1990’s IT miniseries had to cut a lot out of Stephen King’s 1986 novel of the same name, both to conform to network TV censorship standards and to fit within a reasonable runtime. However, the show found room for Tim Curry to deliver the definitive version of Pennywise’s promise, and it is one that still haunts nightmares worldwide decades later.
IT’s Best Pennywise Line Is As Creepy As TV Horror Gets
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In the very first scene of 1990’s miniseries version of IT, as poor doomed Georgie attempts to retrieve his little paper boat from a flooded storm drain, Curry’s grinning clown welcomes him with a cryptic promise. He reassures George that “They float, Georgie… They float… and when you’re down here with me… You’ll float too!” The line is delivered not with genuine malice, but rather a jarringly friendly glee that would fit a kid’s TV host.
The late, great Curry was a master of delivery, and his version of Pennywise arguably outdoes even the far gorier HBOMax prequel Welcome to Derry‘s killer clown as he often seems like an actual real-life clown. A comedic veteran, Curry brings the same panache and charisma seen in everything from The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Muppet Treasure Island to the role of Pennywise and, unlike Bill Skarsgard’s more feral, animalistic Pennywise, he plays the clown as an actual children’s entertainer.
The result of this risky choice is a number of scenes, including the infamous “Prince Albert in a can” gag, that are simply genuinely funny instead of being scary. However, rather than ruining the character’s mystique, the comedy of these scenes only serves to make the moments where Pennywise becomes an inhuman monster all the more terrifying.
Tim Curry’s Original Pennywise Performance Is Still The Most Iconic
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It is a delicate tonal tightrope, one that other King adaptations like versions of Carrie often have to tread when depicting characters who are both scary and potentially ludicrous, like Margaret White. However, Curry manages to not only nail the balance between Pennywise’s clowning and his evil, but also to encapsulate both contrasting versions of the character in this single line.
When Pennywise begins to tell Georgie about how they float down in his underground lair, he seems genuinely happy to be sharing a secret with the kid, and Curry’s giddy enthusiasm makes Georgie’s unfazed response feel believable. As his giddiness gives way to gleeful, deranged sadism, it feels horribly believable that Georgie might not notice what is so worryingly off about this clown until it is too late.
Over the years, later Stephen King shows and the increased prevalence of killer clowns in movies and TV have led new viewers to complain that no kid would go anywhere near Curry’s obviously evil monster in a million years. However, rewatching It’s opening scene without knowing where the story is going, what makes its most famous line so scary is how genuinely friendly the Stephen King villain seems to his utterly innocent, sheltered prey.
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