This Blood-Curdling Scene From It Was Too Much For Even Stephen King

Stephen King is often credited as the master of literary horror – and rightly so – but it turns out there was one scene from New Line and Andy Muschietti’s wildly successful It that left him certifiably spooked.

Even before the film’s launch, King waxed lyrical about Muschietti’s crowning achievement, admitting that the big-screen adaptation far exceeded his expectations. Not only that, but we understand the legendary author also gave the go-ahead for some minor plot changes involving Beverly Marsh (Sophia Lillis), and King has since been fairly vocal on Twitter about the film’s meteoric success.

It’s shattered one box office record after another – and for an R-rated horror movie, no less – but on a more personal level, it appears the moments in which Pennywise adopts the form of a disfigured woman were too much for even Stephen King. As producer Barbara Muschietti recalled in an interview with Collider (via Bloody Disgusting), King emailed both Muschietti siblings to reveal that the woman in the painting “scared the shit” out of him.

Inspired by the work of Amedeo Modigliani and, more specifically, Andy Muschietti’s fear of those warped paintings, that flute-playing woman is the manifestation of Stanley’s worst nightmare, and it turns out the woman known as Judith in the film’s credits has also done a number on King himself.

Per Collider:

It’s something that actually… Stephen King, the first email he sent to Andy when he had seen the movie… the one fear he wrote back… he said, ‘I fucking love the woman in the painting, it scared the shit out of me.’

And while It continues to dominate box office charts and attract glowing reviews, we imagine “scaring the shit” out of Stephen King ranks pretty highly in the Muschiettis’ achievements.

It: Chapter 2, on the other hand, is now beginning to take shape ahead of its tentative release in 2019, at which time it’ll join other high-profile sequels in the vein of Star Wars: Episode IX, Bond 25, John Wick: Chapter 3 and M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass.