Horror movies have the tendency to effect different people in different ways. There are some who will smile maniacally as a serial killer hunts their victim on the big screen, while others cover their eyes if they get the sense that any blood is about to appear. The person that this story is about, New Jersey resident Renee Jensen, most certainly falls in the latter camp.
After all, she did have a pretty extreme reaction recently when she discovered a mysterious piece of IT merchandise in her backyard. Rather than just ignore it or throw it out, she not only wound up calling the police about it, but actually went as far as to burn and destroy it.
This story comes from NorthJersey.com, which reports that the entire incident started when Jensen and her boyfriend were enjoying a lazy Saturday and noticed a strange object fly into their backyard. Upon further inspection, she discovered that it was a plush toy of Pennywise The Dancing Clown from Andy Muschietti’s IT, with blood-stained lips and kewpie doll eyes.
Admittedly adding to the creepiness factor was the fact that it had letters and numbers written on the forehead with a felt pen.
Effectively freaked out, Jensen called the police as her boyfriend was getting ready for work, but apparently the officers who showed up at the scene were themselves hesitant to touch it. After they left, the New Jersey woman used a lighter and newspaper to burn the thing to ashes – cleansing the aura of her property with burning sage when the deed was done.
Apparently this wasn’t fully enough to ease her anxiety about the whole thing, however, as she told the reporter that she slept with a knife for a bit of extra security.
This is a funny story all by itself, but the cherry on top of the whole thing is that this story really started circulating thanks to author Stephen King, who retweeted a post about the original article with a perfect caption:
Of course, Renee Jensen and those with similar dispositions may be a bit upset to learn that the pop culture conversation is very soon going to once again be dominated by the antics of Pennywise. Two years after the release of the first IT, the second and final chapter will be heading to theaters everywhere on September 6 – sporting a brilliant ensemble cast that includes James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Jay Ryan, James Ransone, Isaiah Mustafa, Andy Bean, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Martell, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Jack Dylan Grazer, Chosen Jacobs, Wyatt Oleff, and Bill Skarsgard.
In both in the days leading up to and after the theatrical debut, CinemaBlend is going to have extensive coverage of IT: Chapter 2 for you – including interviews, features, our official review, and more. Keep on the lookout for all of that, and to see what else is heading to theaters in the rest of 2019, be sure to check out our Movie Release Calendar.