The SXSW film festival is currently taking place in Austin TX. I really wanted to go this year, but my film didn't make it in. Wa, wa, I know. Poor me. Truth be told, I could next to a sh*t about that now as it turns out that if I had gone to the festival I would have seen new footage from STEPHEN KING'S IT!
That's right, the makers of IT stopped by the festival this past weekend and showed not only a full two-minute scene from the film (described below) but a 90-second teaser trailer that Trace from BD says, "As far as teasers go, it’s one of the best that I’ve ever seen."
Damn, high praise, brother. But I get you, if I had seen the footage I would be a bit on the side of hyperbole myself. I don't fault you for it.
Anyhow, Trace from BD was obviously at SXSW and caught the footage. He was then nice enough to write down a full description as well, which you can check out below.
Teaser description:
The trailer opens with footage of Bill Denbrough making a paper boat for his little brother Georgie. We then move outside, where Georgie is chasing his boat in a rainstorm as it floats next to the curb. Suddenly, Georgie runs right into a street barrier, which knocks him down on the ground. He then watches as his boat sails into a gutter. He runs to the gutter and tries to see if he can see his boat. As he looks deep into the sewers, Pennywise abruptly appears before the screen cuts to black.
Then we are shown the members of the Loser’s Club meeting each other and realizing that they’ve all been seeing the same entity, before one of them finally says “The Clown.” Once that happens, the teaser then moves into its centerpiece, which shows the members of the Loser’s Club looking at pictures on a carousel slide projector that suddenly acquires a life of its own and begins moving through the slides at an increasingly alarming speed. The pictures are of Georgie and his parents, and each slide zooms in on Georgie’s face before cutting to his mother, whose hair is covering her face. As the projector moves from slide to slide, the hair moves out of his mother’s face, and her face is revealed to be that of Pennywise himself.
The trailer then blows through a flurry of shots, as most trailers are known to do. The most striking image from this succession of shots is the unforgettable moment when blood flows out of Beverly’s sink, only in Muschietti’s film it spews out like a geyser and blasts her in the face. There is also a sublime image of Pennywise approaching two of the children (he has them cornered against a wall), but the shot is framed in a way so that only his long, bony fingers fill the screen. The children are in the background, out of focus but clearly terrified.
The teaser ends with Bill walking down into his flooded basement, where Georgie’s ghost taunts him by repeatedly screaming “We all float down here!” before Pennywise rises from the water and rushes at him, in a moment that had the entire audience screaming. It is at this moment that the screen cuts to black and the word “IT” appears on screen.
And here is the rundown on the two-minute scene featuring Stuttering Bill, along with Richie, Eddie, and Stand, meeting Ben Haystack Hanscom for the first time.
We were also treated to a short scene from the film, which takes place right before Ben Hanscom is attacked by Henry Bowers and his gang. The scene shows Bill, Richie, Eddie and Stan at the entrance to the sewers in the Barrens, as they debate on whether or not to go inside. Before they make a decision, they are interrupted by Ben, who abruptly shows up, beaten to a bloody pulp. There wasn’t much to see here, but it did give you a good idea of the chemistry that the children will have in the film. Their banter feels natural and it flows well. Again, it wasn’t much but it was a solid two minutes of footage.
I had to read the rundown, but I only did so once. I'm trying to keep myself fresh for when it eventually hits the public, which will, hopefully, be very, very soon. I will let you know when it does asap! You can read the full report on the footage and Trace's reaction right over HERE.
In a fun addition, I have added a post from Producer Barbara Muschietti's instagram, which seems to show director Andres Muscieitti, and Pennywise himself, Bill Skarsgard, recording ADR for the "Pennywise meets Georgie" scene. Too cool.
And remember, STEPHEN KING'S IT crawls out of the sewers September 8th.