Last year added another reason for people with coulrophobia to avoid going to the movies: Stephen King’s iconic “IT” was once again brought to life by director Andrés Muschietti. Of course, this has sparked a debate on which of the two Pennywises was the best, and overall, which are the scariest screen clowns ever created on film. But the scary clown was not Stephen King’s original idea (he masterfully turned it into one of the most iconic villains in horror history). The evil clown has been around for way longer than you might expect.
Bad clowns in history
Evil clown expert author Benjamin Radford traces the origins of the “evil clown” character back to Arlecchino, one of the well-known roles in the Italian “Commedia dell’arte”. While in Italy, Harlequin was usually a well-intentioned character, he is based on the character of the devil in French passion plays. Arlecchino is a trickster, with the apparent goal of creating chaos within the play – this is perhaps one of the reasons why it is often seen as malevolent.
Over the centuries, of course, the “devil clown” has turned to the “dark side” more and more, ultimately giving birth to the evil clowns we know today (and, without a doubt, coulrophobia).
Killer clowns
Killer clowns showed up quite a few times in the works of 19th-century authors, including horror master Edgar Allen Poe’s “Hop-Frog”. In this story, he writes about a dwarf taken from his homeland and turned into a jester for the king, who ultimately has his revenge by dressing up the king’s cabinet into flammable costumes and burning them to death. Other works, including “La Femme de Tabarin” by Catulle Mendès, also featured a killer clown as its central character.
Supernatural clowns
The evil clown made a comeback with a massive supernatural twist in Stephen King’s “IT”, published in 1986. This time, the clown itself was nothing but a disguise, hiding a pan-dimensional character feeding on children. Actually, Pennywise the Dancing Clown was just one of its many disguises – the monster could read the deepest fears of its opponents and present itself in the right form for each of them, making it even scarier. And when the mini-series was released a few years later, it has given the clown a face – thanks to the masterful interpretation of the character by Tim Curry – which made things even scarier for many.
Since then, evil clown characters have shown up in many movies, including “Carnival of Souls”, “Camp Blood”, “The Last Circus”, and many others, often hiding their violent and murderous nature under layers of face paint and funny clothes.
