During the final battle in It: Chapter Two, Pennywise’s weakened form gained an on-set nickname that adds a secret extra layer to the movie. Adapted from Stephen King’s 1986 horror novel, It, and its sequel It Chapter Two, follows a gang of childhood friends known as the Losers Club who are terrorized for years by a shape-shifting killer clown called Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). For a movie monster that is notorious for feeding off the fear of its victims, Pennywise’s death seemingly makes the ending of the iconic horror movie feel less scary.

In IT: Chapter Two Behind the Scenes: Pennywise Lives Again, the filmmakers open up about their choice to nickname Pennywise’s wounded form during the final battle with the Losers Club. Given Chapter Two’s Pennywise takes on the appearance of a deflated balloon at this point in the movie, the crew decided to refer to this version of Pennywise as “Pancake Head” (via. Warner Bros. Entertainment). Pancake Head is supposed to show Pennywise as lacking that same ferocious vigor that makes the killer clown so terrifying, so the nickname works – though the idea this cathartic moment carries a silly moniker with it makes the It: Chapter Two ending secretly hilarious.

Pennywise’s Ending Death Being Funny Doesn’t Ruin The Movie

Despite the fact that Pennywise’s weakened form adds a layer of comedy to the finale, the Pancake Head version of Pennywise does not downplay the horror in the final scene, especially in terms of how uncanny even this non-lethal version of the villain looks. The different Pennywise form also highlights something important about It’s themes of bravery and friendship, as the rather more innocuous looking Pancake Head serves as a metaphor of sorts about how facing fears can render them small and unimposing. Even the monstrous clown Pennywise can be faced and brought down with enough courage and determination – and made into something almost pitiable.

Why “Pancake Head” Is Still Creepy

Nevertheless, even though Pancake Head shows Pennywise as something to be confronted and not feared, this final form is not without its element of horror. In IT: Chapter Two Behind the Scenes, Muschietti goes into detail about the conception of the different versions of Pennywise, mentioning the idea behind Pancake Head as an amalgamation of his and the rest of the filmmakers’ nightmares. Moreover, the Pennywise form is finally defeated during the skin crawling scene where Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) plunges his hand into Pennywise’s chest and removes his beating heart – making this version of the monster still decidedly unsettling even if he is no longer threatening.

Often times, whenever a book is being adapted into a film, the filmmakers need to reimagine certain elements from the page in order to convey an idea visually. So when Andres Muschietti and the rest of the filmmakers from It: Chapter Two were trying to find the proper way to display the many different sides of Pennywise the shape-shifting clown, it’s no wonder they had to use some rather unconventional, even funny, techniques to capture the character’s essence at any given moment. That being said, the on-set nickname of Pancake Head not only correctly captures the mood of the finale, but provides further insight into the character themselves.