The first trailer for the remake of Stephen King’s It has attracted criticism from real-life British clowns.

The trailer, which left audience members at SXSW screaming, debuted on March 29 and racked up a record number of views in its first 24 hours.

However, some members of the professional clowning community are less than impressed. Celine Harland from Glasgow – who has performed as Tickles the clown for 17 years – told the Press Association: “It’s a horror movie and it affects people’s thoughts and opinions on what a clown is. Unfortunately, it’s not like Jaws which is unrealistic, we do have clowns in society, and yes it will affect business, of course it will.”

Harland added: “I have parents and teachers phoning me… they’re scared to hire you for 35 kids in case they’ve got one child who will be upset.”

Read: Stephen King’s ‘It’ – everything we know about ‘Part One – The Losers Club’

Matthew Faint, director of Hackney’s clown museum, also expressed disappointment with the trailer, saying he finds the appeal of Stephen King’s It hard to decipher.

“It’s a horrible movie and we’d like to distance ourselves from the subject of scary clowns,” he said. “We fight our corner as proper clowns because it’s basically a scary character in a clown face which we don’t think much of.”

“There’s just so many horrible movies out there … clowns that eat people or whatever. It takes people’s minds in the wrong direction. We don’t need it. It’s bad, it’s disgusting,” he added. “It’s sensational rubbish. I don’t know why people want to see these horrible things, what’s the point? I don’t understand people’s mentalities.”

The R-rated film adaptation of King’s 1986 novel is set for release on September 8 this year. Bill Skarsgård stars as Pennywise, following in the footsteps of Tim Curry, who famously portrayed the creepy clown in a popular 1990 TV miniseries.

Mama‘s Andrés Muschietti is directing from a script co-written by True Detective and Beasts Of No Nation film-maker Cary Fukunaga.

On of the film’s producers, Seth Grahame-Smith, recently revealed that Stephen King has given the remake his approval.

The film’s cast also includes Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard, who is playing Richie Tozier, a member of the so-called ‘Losers Club’. The first photo of Bill Skarsgård in character as Pennywise the clown was released last summer.

The post Real-life clowns hit out at ‘disgusting’ trailer for remake of ‘Stephen King’s It’ appeared first on NME.

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