There are few horror flick monsters that have left as lasting an impression as Stephen King's clown creation, Pennywise. He's the titular villain in Stephen King's horror novel 'IT', which saw its first live action adaptation back in 1990 with a miniseries that had Tim Curry in the frightful role. From that moment on, audiences across the world became more scared of clowns than ever before.

Some of the children on the set of 'IT' were scared by Skarsgard's portrayal of PennywiseSome of the children on the set of 'IT' were scared by Skarsgard's portrayal of Pennywise

This year, a brand new big screen adaptation of the story is to come to fans, with Bill Skarsgard stepping forward to take on the role. It's a momentous ask and, if done even a tiny bit unsuccessfully, is something that will be ripped to shreds by critics and the viewing public alike. Thankfully, from what we've seen in the trailers and teasers to-date, Pennywise is just as scary as ever before.

In fact, the character is so scary that young children on the set of the film were genuinely frightened by Skarsgard.

"At one point, they set up this entire scene, and these kids come in, and none of them have seen me yet," the actor explained in a chat with Interview Magazine. "Their parents have brought them in, these little extras, right? And then I come out as Pennywise, and these kids - young, normal kids - I saw the reaction that they had. Some of them were really intriguied, but some couldn't look at me, and some were shaking. This one kid started crying. He started to cry and the director yelled, 'Action!' And when they say 'action', I am completely in character. So some of these kids got terrified and started to cry in the middle of the take, and then I realised, 'Holy s**t. What am I doing? What is this? This is horrible.'"

The actor does go on to say that once the take was over and director Andy Muschetti had yelled 'cut!', he tried to console the children and explain that he wasn't really a murderous monster. Of course, he will have still been decked out in full costume, so we can't imagine it would have gone down too well.

More: Will 'The Dark Tower' And 'IT' Match Up To The Stephen King Movie Classics?

'IT' will be released across the nation on September 8, 2017 by Warner Bros. Pictures.