When Stephen King wrote the character of Pennywise the clown back in the eighties,I Want To Be The First Guy he probably hoped it would strike fear into the heart of his audience.

Terror, even.

And for the most part, that's exactly what Pennywise has done.

SEE ALSO: This toddler dressed up as the creepy clown from 'It' will haunt your dreams forever

This is 2017, though. It's the age of slightly strange mass online crushes. And since the recent film adaptation hit cinemas last week, terror clearly isn't the only thing Pennywise has been inspiring...

Yep: despite his predilection for dismembering small children, a lot of people think Pennywise is sort of hot.

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Still, there may be a reason for: hiding beneath the white face paint, blood-red makeup and receding orange hairline is a man called Bill Skarsgård.

He's the younger brother of Aleksander Skarsgård (the one from Big Little Lies), and he isundeniably chiselled:

And what do you get when you cross a finely sculpted actor with a demonic fictional creature?

A lot of very muddled feelings...

It's a strange world.

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