Stephen King Has Seen – And Liked – the New ‘It’

Ever since the now-infamous photo of Pennywise the evil homicidal clown peeking out of a drainpipe surfaced online, fans of Stephen King’s seminal horror novel It have been concerned about Seth Graeme-Smith‘s upcoming film adaptation. There was fair cause for worry, too; it looked as if light was coming from several different sources, like a hasty photoshop job one might find on the box art for some direct-to-DVD cash grab. The only person who could really set the It devotees at ease would be Stephen King, who has seen dozens upon dozens of his works make the jump to the silver screen. And it would appear that he’s now done just that.

Bloody Disgusting notes that the film’s producer Seth Grahame-Smith posted a screenshot of a recent email on Instagram, indicating that Stephen King had seen a cut of the film and that it had earned his approval. Take a peek at the post below, in which King is quoted as saying the producers did a ‘wonderful job’ on the film:

I can die now. Goodbye. I'm dead. 🎈

A post shared by Seth Grahame-Smith (@instagrahamesmith) on Mar 2, 2017 at 2:56pm PST

Little positive early notices like this seep out of productions all the time, and they’re usually worth approximately as much as a rat’s hindquarters. But King wasn’t directly involved with the film, and as such, his word holds a little more weight than a star or director sweatily assuring the public that their new movie is good. If direct instructions to chill out from Stephen King himself won‘t set us all at ease, than what will? (Well, a trailer for one, or maybe a promotional image that doesn’t look like it was assembled by an undergraduate graphic design major.)

The film will creep out of the sewers to snatch children from theaters on September 8.