Pennywise returned a little early. According to NJ.com, a Harrington Park couple were enjoying a summer day in their backyard this past Saturday when they noticed an object being tossed into their backyard. It wasn’t a newspaper. It wasn’t a baseball.
It was a Funko Pennywise plush.
Even worse, the doll was caked in fake blood with “0Q8FZ” scrawled on its forehead. (Don’t get too sleuthy. They already confirmed a Google search came up short.) Naturally, the couple — Renee and Alex Jensen — were a little more than disturbed, especially given that they live in a suburb flush with trees and neighbors at a distance.
“It came at an angle and I just watched this thing,” explained Renee, “it didn’t hit a single tree and went straight over, just cleared the gate and hit the pine branches and hit the ground. If you saw how many trees we have and where this thing came from, it made no sense at all. It didn’t even hit any of our trees until it was just about to land at our gate.”
(Read: Every Stephen King Adaptation from Worst to Best)
Spooked, the two hit up Facebook, sharing the news before alerting the authorities. “They were hysterical,” Renee said of the two cops who arrived. “They wouldn’t touch it. they were totally creeped out too. It was so funny.” They recommended destroying it.
The Jensens followed suit, opting out of the Ritual of CHUD for some simple gasoline and newspapers. That night, however, Renee slept with a knife, not realizing a simple blade would do very little damage to spectral beings such as Pennywise.
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To her credit, she also went a step further in the days that followed. “I had a stick of sage and I lit that thing,” she added. “I was walking around our whole entire property.” It’s no Maturin, but hey, the doll is gone and the Jensen’s are still afloat.
It: Chapter Two hits theaters on September 6th. Stay tuned to The Losers’ Club, a weekly Stephen King podcast, which will undoubtedly be covering the forthcoming sequel. Below, you can revisit their review of the 2017 original and their interview with the filmmaker.
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