I’m not personally scared of clowns. In fact, I don’t have any strong clown opinions, one way or the other, except for that I don’t find them amusing in the slightest. However, I do know people who are scared of clowns, and these people are absolutely not thrilled with the It promotional campaign.
That’s because it prominently features the terrifying visage of Stephen King’s demonic clown, Pennywise, the villain of the story. I will not share it here, because while I’m not afraid of clowns, I am generally afraid of things that are supposed to scare me.
(Okay, fine, here’s the trailer.)
This brings us to the Alamo Drafthouse, a theater chain with locations across the country. Perhaps you remember the Alamo from their women-only screening of Wonder Woman, and how that triggered a certain segment of people who didn’t quite understand the point. One junior debater even posted on the Austin Alamo Drafthouse Facebook page that if they were going to do this, they should have men-only screenings for Thor: Ragnarok (sigh) or clown-only screenings for It.
And now, we indeed do have that clown-only screening, although frankly the guy who posted that comment could just come sans-makeup and still qualify for the promotion.
Via Polygon:
The theater company announced today it will hold a clown-only screening of Warner Bros.’ upcoming live-action adaptation of Stephen King’s It. To honor the disturbing, murderous clown that stars in the movie, Pennywise, the Drafthouse wants people to dress up and parade their costumes around with other, like-minded clown enthusiasts. An official description of the event on the Drafthouse website reads:
For this special screening of IT, all attendees should arrive dressed as a clown in order to attend. Please arrive early and join us in the Barrel O’ Fun beginning at 5:30pm for an IT pre-party where we will have face-painters available for clown “touch-ups”, a photo booth, raffles for prizes, and other terrifying merriment. Please arrive in your own Pennywise best and be ready to float with us.
This provides the specter of someone walking by the theater as the showing ends, and seeing a few dozen clowns leaving all at once (presumably all heading for the same car in the parking lot.) Imagine being that spectator. If it was me, that might indeed be enough to finally make me afraid of clowns.
Clown or not, It comes out September 8th.
[Polygon]
