Pennywise from 'IT' is the internet's new crush and it's sort of weird

When Stephen King wrote the character of Pennywise the clown back in the eighties, he probably hoped it would strike fear into the heart of his audience.

Terror, even.

And for the most part, that's exactly what Pennywise has done.

This is 2017, though. It's the age of slightly strange mass online crushes. And since the recent film adaptation hit cinemas last week, terror clearly isn't the only thing Pennywise has been inspiring...

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Yep: despite his predilection for dismembering small children, a lot of people think Pennywise is sort of hot.

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Still, there may be a reason for: hiding beneath the white face paint, blood-red makeup and receding orange hairline is a man called Bill Skarsgård.

He's the younger brother of Aleksander Skarsgård (the one from Big Little Lies), and he is undeniably chiselled:

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And what do you get when you cross a finely sculpted actor with a demonic fictional creature?

A lot of very muddled feelings...

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It's a strange world.