"I Was Not Prepared." Stephen King Gives Verdict On IT Film

The author of the horror novel has watched the new Andrés Muschietti-directed movie, and he's got plenty to say about it.

Stephen King wasn't prepared for how good the IT remake is.

The 69-year-old author wrote the chilling novel back in 1986, which was turned into a 1990 TV mini-series starring Tim Curry as terrifying clown Pennywise, and now director Andy Muschietti has reimagined the story to scare a new audience in 2017.

King admits he approached the project with enthusiasm and had "high hopes," but he was stunned by how frightening Muschietti's version is and how terrifying Bill Skarsgard's portrayal of Pennywise is.

The writer said: "I had hopes, but I was not prepared for how good it really was. It's something that's different and at the same time, it's something that audiences are gonna relate to.

"They're gonna like the characters. To me, it's all about character. If you like the character, if you care, the scares generally work. I'm sure my fans will enjoy the movie. I think they're gonna really enjoy the movie. And I think some of them will go back two or three times and actually savour the thing."

Watch the official trailer for IT here:

IT follows a group of young children who are faced with their biggest fears when they square off against the evil clown in Derry, Maine, after multiple children go missing.

The surviving children mature into adulthood and are forced to revisit their horrors as one by one they encounter Pennywise again.

Muschietti previously revealed that Allegiant star Skarsgard, 26, was so frightening in his full makeup that he freaked out his child co-stars on set.

The filmmaker said: "He didn't stay in character when the camera stopped, but we did try to maintain distance between him and the kids.

"We wanted to carry the impact of the encounters to when the cameras were rolling. The first scene where Bill interacted with the children, it was fun to see how the plan worked. The kids were really, really creeped out by Bill. He's pretty intimidating because he's six-four and has all this makeup."

Meanwhile the film has unveiled three new extended clips ahead of it's release on 8 September.

Watch the first, which is entitled This Town Is Cursed below:

See clip 2, entitled Take IT:

Watch the third and final clip, which goes under the name I Don't Want To Go Missing Either: