In It Skarsgård is expertly camouflaged as the sinister, shapeshifting apparition of a child’s deepest fears. With his teeth bared in a lip-curling grin, Bill’s voice work is masterful — always cracking on verge of hysterics, but with the saccharine, high-pitched inflection one would use with a pet. The physicality of Pennywise is perhaps the most ingeniously unsettling dimension Skarsgård lends to the character. In the beginning of his scenes, Pennywise is unnervingly still, his body articulated like a puppet. When you least expect it, he will lurch in a ferocious, convulsive blur, mimicking horrors that lurk only in the deepest realms of sleep paralysis.

Bill Skarsgård photographed for Flaunt Magazine.