Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr. and Bart Mixon talk creating Pennywise at Creature Features

The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s IT broke records, earning $117.2 million during its opening weekend in the U.S. which became both the most successful launch weekend for any horror movie and also the biggest September opening ever. But often overlooked are the people that helped make the Pennywise we see on screen come to be.

The team of Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis are no strangers to the industry, bringing audiences creatures in many films, including: Annabelle: Creation, the upcoming Netflix film Bright, Alien 3, The Santa Clause 2, Starship Troopers, Tremors, Jumanji, and X-Men First Class. They have their own character effects studio called Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc., which will be celebrating its 30th anniversary soon.

Their most recent work however was a little different. Working with director Andy Muschietti, on IT (2017), they were given an intricate sketch from Muschietti of Pennywise and worked vigilantly from that to create what we saw on our screen, and it clearly resulted in something great.

The two took the floor with Bart Mixon, the original IT miniseries makeup effects designer, at Creature Features to talk about their work on IT and their work together on the upcoming movie, Bright.

I also got the chance to chat with them one-on-one. Check it out below!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu7KP2I5oDE&w=560&h=315] [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-Ac82lZxcU&w=560&h=315]