ARE you brave enough to watch a midnight screening of horror film IT?

Cinemas are holding a late-night showing of the new film, based on the popular Stephen King novel of the same name which has been terrifying readers for decades.

It is on at Cineworld, The Valley, Bolton; Vue in Middlebrook and The Rock, Bury, at midnight tonight. 

The supernatural horror movie version of the 1986 novel follows a group of children who are terrorised by an evil clown called Pennywise.

It is the second adaptation of the book after the 1990 TV miniseries which saw Tim Curry appear as the shape-shifting supernatural villain, a role played by Bill Skarsgard in the new film.

Many critics have declared director Andres Muschietti's new adaptation a "horror classic", and - at the time of writing - has a rating of 89% on movie rating website Rotten Tomatoes.

Skarsgard has said he has tried to make the role of Pennywise the clown his own in the Hollywood reboot rather than imitate Tim Curry's performance.

Speaking on Tuesday at the Los Angeles premiere of the film, Skarsgard said the character was "as far away from me as I've ever done before" and discussed his more unusual influences.

"I had a lot of inspirations. The sort of animalistic behaviour was one ... and children, my eight-year-old brother, how he would move and behave when he was even younger," he said.

Also in the movie is Stranger Things actor Finn Wolfhard, 14, who plays Richie Tozier, one of the self-titled Loser's Club group of misfits who are haunted by the shape-shifting fiend.

Screenwriter Gary Dauberman said his major influence for the friendship group came from Stand By Me, the movie based on King's novel The Body.

The film, out on general release tomorrow, is the first of two parts.