--- title: Diddy's Halloween Clown Costume Has the Best Moves description: Pennywise gets a new lease on life with Diddy's take on the terrifying clown costume for Halloween this year. canonical: https://time.com/5441833/diddy-pennywise-halloween/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-01T15:29:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:04:51.235Z og:title: Diddy Proves He's Unafraid of Clowns for Halloween og:description: A scary clown has never looked so smooth og:url: https://time.com/5441833/diddy-pennywise-halloween/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e2462875024aedd/6988e30dbc6cfc4da23e3a82/pennywise-cosplay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4902 og:image:height: 2757 og:image:alt: 2017 New York Comic Con - Day 2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Diddy Proves He's Unafraid of Clowns for Halloween twitter:description: A scary clown has never looked so smooth twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0e2462875024aedd/6988e30dbc6cfc4da23e3a82/pennywise-cosplay.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Diddy Is a Dancing, Terrifying Clown for Halloween and You Might Want to Take Notes > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=0aebc371-07cf-4f33-b8ae-56d933439bef&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: 2018 Top Horror Flicks [Watch (HLS stream): 2018 Top Horror Flicks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/bC1HgBuM.m3u8) (3:03)  _Published 2018-10-31. The horror genre strengthens in popularity as box office revenues continue to break records. So what are the best scary movies of 2018?_  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 1, 2018 3:29 PM UTC The horror genre strengthens in popularity as box office revenues continue to break records. So what are the best scary movies of 2018?  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 1, 2018 3:29 PM UTC Stephen King’s creation [Pennywise](http://time.com/5095874/it-bill-skarsgard-pennywise-the-clown-nightmares/) is scary — just ask the [audiences](http://time.com/money/4380647/biggest-box-office-movies-by-rating-g-pg-xxx/) who watched the thriller _It_ this year. But for [Sean “Diddy” Combs](http://time.com/5309832/james-corden-ashton-kutcher-diddy/), dressing up as Pennywise for Halloween is just another chance to show off some very slick dancing. In an Instagram shared with his 12 million followers on Thursday, the music legend and entrepreneur — unrecognizable behind the iconic white mask, red hair and white outfit of the clown character — got to show off his moves while dancing down a hallway, joined by his family. ([Bill Skarsgard](http://time.com/5095874/it-bill-skarsgard-pennywise-the-clown-nightmares/), you might want to take notes on this approach.) A clown has never looked quite this comfortable on the dance floor. This isn’t the first time Diddy and clowns have been a thing. Just last week, [Ellen DeGeneres](http://time.com/5246815/animatronic-ellen-degeneres-auction/) proved he might actually be a bit afraid of them, when she had a [clown pop up](http://time.com/5354149/best-halloween-pranks-2018/) out of a piece of furniture while he was appearing on her show, sitting on the couch and thinking he was safe. “I’m a black man. I have so many other things to be fearful of — a clown is not going to scare me,” he told her then. He was wrong. It was a good fright — for Diddy and everyone else — but now it looks like he’s getting the last laugh, with his Halloween look set and ready to scare anyone who comes down his path. Joke’s on you now, Ellen. Hopefully he didn’t give too many kids nightmares when he went out trick-or-treating on Halloween night. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Scary movie season is in full swing, and the hotly contested cinematic genre and surprising both audiences and box offices alike. Well US horror films are often criticized for their reliance on remakes and endless sequels. 2017's reboot of IT based on Steven King's novel centered around a child- killing clown earned 327. 48 million dollars, making it the highest grossing R rated movie today. Meanwhile, actor- comedian Jordan Peele's directorial debut of the psychological thriller Get Out broke barriers at the Oscars. The 2017 film was the first horror movie to be nominated for Best Picture since the 1992 cannibalistic classic The Silence of the Lambs. Even Alfred Hitchcock couldn't pierce that category, thanks to the Academy's longstanding aversion to the genre. While 2017 was historically a great year for horror films, did it usher a new golden age of scares at the movies? This year has offered a continued trend of sophisticated thrillers, versus the gratuitous gore Of the 2000s. John Krasinski's A Quiet Place was a spring surprise at the box office. And Toni Colette's searing performance in Hereditary was arguably one of the most terrifying depictions of a mother in cinematic history. Even horror franchises have dominated this year's box office, and from a scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis won big reprising her role in the Halloween franchise, breaking boundaries along the way. So in a crowded space of blockbusters, sci- fi thrillers, and mind- bending mysteries, what are the year's best horror movies? Here to share her favorites is Time writer Megan McCluskey. All right Meghan, so horror movies have been doing really well at the box office. So what's got everyone hooked again? Right, I think there is just a new refreshing take on the genre that has people really excited to get out and go to the movies again. What are your top picks for 2018? So I have to start with Hereditary because it has one of the most disturbing scenes on a horror movie that I'd ever seen personally. And then Netflix had a movie earlier this year called The Ritual That sort of in the Blair Witch vein does a really good job of capturing that oppressive sense of dread of being lost in the woods. And also is a rare one where the big monster reveal isn't a disappointing one. And then of course, last but. But not least, is a Quiet Place and which she has almost kickstarted this trend of horror movies based on sensory deprivation. Netflix has a new movie coming out later this year called Bird Box that is a quiet place, but with sight instead of sound. Okay, so a lot of great picks to choose from. It seems every decade there is a certain type of movie horror that people gravitate towards. So, what are we seeing now? Right, so horror movies often speak to cultural anxieties at the time, I think. So it seems like what we're seeing is a shift from gore of gore's sake that was popular in the late 2000s- ish and sort of moving to social commentary that's a more sophisticated type of dread. Okay, if you had to pick one to watch this year, what would it be? One would be A Quiet Place, 100 %. Okay, you heard it here first. I'm going to be queuing it up right now. Megan, thanks you for joining us. 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