Of course, the Duffer brothers offered some insight into the connection. In an interview with Vulture , Matt Duffer explained that It, King's work in general, and Pennywise were somewhat responsible for his and the show's development. "We saw the It mini-series and Tim Curry's performance as Pennywise really messed me up. Like, it scarred me in a major way," Duffer said. "It was one of the first true horror things I had seen, and I had not experienced Stephen King before. That was my first experience with Stephen King, so that was a really huge point in my life. It was two weeks, at least, of no sleep because of that. So yeah, I think [Bob's clown story] was really me describing something that just freaked me out."