IT Chapter Two Director Says Pennywise Is A Lot Like Donald Trump

PA/Warner Bros

What’s scarier: a clown who ruins people’s lives, or Pennywise? 

Based on Stephen King’s seminal horror novel, IT: Chapter Two hits cinemas this week and sees the continuation of the Losers’ Club plight against a child-eating dancing clown.

But Pennywise isn’t just scary because of the way he looks: Andy Muschietti, the director of 2017’s IT and the sequel, says King’s despicable creation has motives in common with US President Donald Trump.

Check out the latest trailer below: 

Trump, who recently spat the dummy after the Danish Prime Minister refused to sell Greenland to him, does the same thing as Pennywise, according to Muschietti.

As reported by AFP, Muschietti said: 

The clown is trying to divide the ‘Losers’ all the time, to turn them against themselves and make them weaker.

That’s how he conquers, he tries to conquer them and destroy them.

The director’s comparison is bound to rile up the MAGA crowd – fair, considering he’s being tarred with the same brush as a malevolent, murdering monster.

Check out the first trailer below: 

The accusations of aspiring to cause division aren’t unfounded however – Trump’s administration recently pushed the Supreme Court to set a legal precedent which would make it acceptable for an employer to fire a person for being transgender.

The recent spate of mass shootings in the US – such as the massacre in El Paso, Texas – saw Trump fuelling the Republican political agenda, ignoring the calls for firmer gun control measures and instead hammering down on immigration reform and, for some reason, video games.

PA

While Trump would likely scoff at the suggestion of being like Stephen King’s nightmarish character, he certainly relishes other, favourable comparisons.

Recently, he declared himself ‘the chosen one’ after after right-wing conspiracy theorist Wayne Allyn Root said Jewish people considered the POTUS to be both the ‘king of Israel’ and the ‘second coming of God’ – sounds like ‘fake news’ to me.

Trump clearly enjoyed the religious theme – later, at a press conference outside the White House, he declared himself the ‘chosen one’. For added effect, he looked up at the sky while doing so.

While defending a failing trade war against China, he said:

I am the chosen one. So I’m taking on China. I’m taking on China on trade. And you know what? We’re winning.

The inevitable online response was immediate – hashtags like ‘#ChosenOne’ and ‘#AntiChrist’ began trending on Twitter.

However, New York Daily News really capitalised on the egotistic comment: for their front page, they recreated Leonardo Da Vinci’s famed depiction of The Last Supper, replacing Jesus with Trump at the middle of a table with his disciples on either side.

Muschietti’s horror sequel is expected to be bloodier, scarier and a massive hit – 2017’s IT pulled in more than $700 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing horror film of all time.

It has a star-studded cast: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain and Bill Hader are the big hitters, alongside Bill Skarsgård as the child-hungry clown at the centre of it all.

Warner Bros

James McAvoy, who spoke to UNILAD on set in Toronto, said they had a high-bar to hit after the horror of the first outing.

McAvoy told UNILAD:

We can be a bit more full-on because we’re dealing with a bunch of adults rather than a bunch of kids. Mind you, it’s not like the last one was a PG, so you’ve got a pretty high bar to hit.

Luckily we’ve got a director who wants to outdo himself, not just in terms of thrills and chills but also in terms of the quality and that’s the most important thing if you up the quality the other stuff will come.

I don’t think the aim for him is to scare people more or be more horrific I think is the aim for him is to make an even better movie.

There’s even clown-only screenings being organised for the film’s release – maybe you’ll see some Trump masks.

IT: Chapter Two floats into cinemas on September 6. 

If you have a story you want to tell send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.