Content Warning: This article contains reference to child abuse and sexual assault.
One of the many Pennywise It forms acts as a secret nod to Stephen King’s darkest story ever. Over the decades, Stephen King has authored some truly disturbing tales. Although a lot of the writer’s work has been embraced by mainstream horror readers, some of King’s more unsettling work has not yet been adapted thanks to its shocking content.
While some of King’s ideas, like It’s universe-vomiting Maturin the Turtle, are too ambitiously weird to be included in adaptations, other elements of the writer’s work are simply too dark to gain an adaptation. Much like It’s infamous sewer scene needed to be excised from both the movie and miniseries version of the bestselling book’s adaptation, the short story “The Library Policeman” will likely never be adapted due to its graphic content. Despite this fact, though, the movie adaptation of It does feature an oblique reference to King’s darkest story ever.
The librarian who stands smiling behind Ben in the first It movie (before appearing back at her desk a second later) is reminiscent of Ardelia Lortz, an ancient evil entity that shape-shifts into a creepy old librarian to feed off the fear of children, much like Pennywise. Ardelia Lortz is the antagonist of the short story “The Library Policeman,” a dark, disturbing novella featured in Four Past Midnight. Some of King's best short stories have never received movie adaptations, but “The Library Policeman” is a rare story that will likely never be able to be realized onscreen. This is because the novella centers around a graphic scene of child molestation and this pivotal moment is central to the plot of the story, making it arguably the darkest work in King’s extensive back catalog.
The plot of “The Library Policeman” concerns a middle-aged businessman’s creepy trip to the library, where he meets the elderly Ardelia Lortz. Unlike Pennywise, Ardelia Lortz doesn’t transform into a monster in front of the story’s hero in the library. Instead, it is only days later when his love interest informs him that Ardelia Lortz died years ago that the character realizes something is amiss. In a twist that mirrors Pennywise’s It backstory, Ardelia Lotz turns out to be a form taken by an ancient, ageless evil entity that feeds off the fear of small children. Unfortunately for the story’s hero, when he confronts the being, Ardelia Lotz can bring up repressed memories of his childhood trauma at the hands of the titular child molester.
The content is explicit but handled comparatively well in King’s story, which is nonetheless a bracing and intense read that will be ill-suited to many readers. However, the memories of the story’s hero are far too disturbing to be tastefully realized onscreen, making a potential adaptation of “The Library Policeman” an exercise in futility. As such, the Pennywise librarian disguise is likely the closest that viewers will get to see his distant relative Ardelia Lortz onscreen, making this It easter egg a clever nod for Stephen King aficionados.
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