10 Horror Films That Improved on Their Novels
Jared Woods
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“The book was better!”
Ever heard that line?
It’s a lazy critique, sure, but let’s confess that it’s the truth in the majority of cases. Books have the luxury of endless space to build suspense while narrating the inner workings of a terrifying mind, ricocheting off the deepest crevices of the reader’s imagination. Meanwhile, the time constraints of an average film naturally lead to plot shortcuts and the omission of characters, leaving a skeleton of the original frame to play with.
However, there are those rare cases where the opposite screams true. Some pages of texts trip over themselves trying to explain a visual, whereas the movie can present it to you in one swift moment. Authors may get lost in their indulgent waffle of vocabulary, but the film is forced to slice the fat from the meat to offer the complete message in a single sitting. And, yes, there are stories where our personal experiences fail us, requiring someone with a concentrated perspective to present an entirely different angle, to which we respond, “Ooooh, I get it now!”
So, by using a careful balance of scores from Goodreads and Rotten Tomatoes, let us celebrate those exceptional masterpieces where maybe, just maybe, the film was better. A lot better. Sometimes so much better that we may not even be aware that there was a novel in the first place.
10. The Exorcist (1973)
The scariest aspect of The Exorcist is that it’s based on a book that was based on a true story. Going by the pseudonym Roland Doe, the confirmed victim was a 14-year-old boy who was supposedly plagued by demonic possession in the 1940s. He displayed superhuman strength, spoke in monstrous tones, and required a priest named Walter Halloran to save him. How much of the legend is genuine will forever remain a debate. But the tale was horrifying enough to inspire William Peter Blatty’s interpretation, changing the male Roland into the female Regan and amplifying the drama.
The novel initially sold poorly, so when the film offer came knocking for a modest amount of money, Blatty readily accepted. He composed the script himself, carefully downplaying certain scenes for the screen (such as the excessive diarrhea and graphic sexual content), and remolded it into a timeless piece of absolute terror. He definitely did something right, as The Exorcist was the first horror flick nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.
9. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Ira Levin birthed this horror masterwork as a novel in 1967. But what most people don’t know is that the book was so impressively frightening that producer William Castle purchased the film rights before it was even published. That explains how Rosemary’s Baby hit the cinema so quickly, just over a year later.
The studio originally offered the job to Alfred Hitchcock, but he declined, allowing the piece to fall upon Roman Polanski’s lap. Polanski’s approach was to stick close to the source material, keeping large chunks of the dialog and the creepy Satanic atmosphere intact. Turns out that was a smart move, and the film now features on every greatest horror list ever written, eventually preserved by the National Film Registry in 2014.
It also solidified Polanski as one of the world’s top directors, a man whose life resembled a horror flick itself. First, he escaped the Holocaust as a Jewish boy living in Poland. Then he survived his wife, Sharon Tate, whom the Manson Family brutally murdered. And finally, he became the monster, sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl and fleeing to Europe. He remains a wanted fugitive in the U.S.
8. Pontypool (2009)
Response to Tony Burgess’ 1995 book, Pontypool Changes Everything, was lackluster at best, with critics yawning that it was a typical zombie-driven affair. Hence, when Bruce McDonald expressed interest in adapting the novel to the screen, Burgess was eager to give it another shot, reportedly writing the script within 48 hours.
Inspired by Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds, Burgess did not expand on his previous work but reduced the plot to a radio broadcast. In doing so, the camera hardly leaves the studio, utilizing clever techniques to bring the chaos from the outside, inside. Because of this, Pontypool is a modern blueprint of low-budget horror, trading cheap effects for cinematic restraint and favoring strong character development to bring the thrills. And the thrills are brought! So much so that Consequence of Sound ranked Pontypool the 42nd “Scariest Movie Ever Made” in 2018, which is remarkable for such a contemporary film. We have been assured there’s a sequel coming too, even if that was announced 13 years ago.
7. Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchcock has more than his fair mouthful of classic films to boast, but there’s a good case for Psycho standing as his most famous, substantially outshining Robert Bloch’s 1959 book of the same name. However, the connection between these two mediums proved just as much of a fascinating story.
Naturally, Hitchcock fell in love with the novel and immediately ordered his assistant to purchase every copy she could find so nobody else could buy it, preserving its twists and turns. Hitchcock then acquired the rights for $9,500, pitching the script to Paramount Pictures. The production company wanted nothing to do it, calling the book “too repulsive” and “impossible for films”. Hitchcock persisted, and they relented, eventually throwing him a measly $806,947, far below his usual price.
Imagine Paramount’s red faces when Psycho went on to earn $50 million at the box office, acquiring four Academy Award nominations, and a permanent place in the United States National Film Registry. Furthermore, it is an immortal piece of art, still regularly ranked among the greatest movies on the planet. There’s a lesson in here somewhere. Don’t doubt the Hitchcock, man. You’ll only embarrass yourself.
6. Jaws (1975)
Unlike most of the entries on this list, Peter Benchley’s Jaws novel was a phenomenal success. It didn’t require the film’s extra attention to earn its keep, selling 5.5 million copies domestically before Steven Spielberg got his hands on it. However, the reviews were mixed, with many readers finding the humans unlikable and ultimately cheering for the shark to eat them all.
Spielberg addressed this by hacking several subplots while focusing on character-building the protagonist’s holy trinity: Chief Martin Brody, Quint, and Matt Hooper. This approach blasted the movie stratospherically higher than the source material, transcending the horror genre as “the greatest film ever made”, according to Quentin Tarantino.
Sadly, the resulting hysterical phobia of sharks led to an inaccurate reputation for the poor sea creatures. So much so, that both Spielberg and Benchley have since expressed regret for the harm they caused to the species. But it was too little too late, and marine conservation groups continue to work overtime to undo the mess this movie left behind til this very day.
5. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
When Thomas Harris’ novel first dropped in 1988, the world smothered it with acclaim. Hollywood, being Hollywood, did not waste a second and quickly snapped up the rights, hoping to capitalize on its success.
However, due to its gruesome themes, many were afraid of the project. Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan turned down the role of Clarice Starling. Similarly, Sean Connery rejected his spot as Hannibal Lecter. One has to wonder how they later felt about those decisions, but the rest of us were certainly relieved. The on-screen chemistry between chosen actors, Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, was key to the film’s tension, a point proven when they each won Best Actor and Actress Oscars, respectively. Not stopping there, the Academy recognized it as the year’s Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay (known as the “Big Five” of the awards).
Its immediate critical acclaim was monumental yet outed only by its standing legacy. The Silence of the Lambs is always considered one of the greatest films we have, while it is credited with creating a whole new brand of villain: an articulate, intelligent, well-mannered man who loved to feast on human flesh. Such an impact was so powerful that many casual viewers are clueless that it was originally a book whatsoever.
4. The Ritual (2017)
The most recent entry on this list starts with a 2011 novel by Adam Nevill about a group of male university friends going on a hike through the Scandinavian wilderness. If that doesn’t sound generic enough to turn you away, then perhaps the scathing reader reviews will do the trick, some accusing the book of promoting sexist and fatphobic ideals.
Thankfully, The Ritual film adaptation cleaned up this act while offering such an aesthetically pleasing journey that most authors would struggle to describe it. The ominous Nordic forest, the embodiments of ancient darkness, and the hideous consequences each depend on potent visuals, and the picture delivers on that front. In fact, this scenic atmosphere is so delightful that it’s almost enough to counterbalance the unoriginal plot, which starts strong but ultimately fizzles flat. You can’t have everything.
3. Candyman (1992)
Clive Barker has built a mighty name in the literary horror realm, notably as the twisted mind behind the Hellraiser series. However, it was his Books of Blood anthologies that first catapulted him into the “future of horror” status (according to Stephen King). These collections of short stories run six in number, with Volume 5 (titled In the Flesh) being the most relevant to our current topic. It’s here that you’ll find The Forbidden, a 60-page text that introduces a murderous spirit named Candyman.
Upon this tiny tale, an empire was built, featuring four films that fluctuate in audience adoration. But it was the initial project, 1992’s Candyman, that earned its place as a cult classic within slasher movie history. This is not only because it successfully fleshed out its minimal short story origins into a satisfying full narrative. It’s because the script took the liberty to introduce important issues such as race and social class differences in the United States. As a result, this movie has immortalized Candyman as the first Black antagonist in the record books of horror cinema.
2. American Psycho (2000)
This inclusion is controversial for two main reasons. The first is that American Psycho is not strictly a horror, more of a black comedy with slasher elements. The second is that Bret Easton Ellis’s 1991 novel is considered a classic piece of literature despite (or perhaps because of) the public’s resistance.
However, what director Mary Harron managed to accomplish is borderline impossible. She filmed the unfilmable and captured American Psycho‘s foremost intentions perfectly, which was to fiercely divide audiences and critics alike. The balance of intensely violent misogyny with a tedious analysis of consumerism meets vanity culture was imperative to both mediums, and they each succeeded in holding up a mirror to the ugliest side of humanity. No matter what you saw in that reflective surface, you wouldn’t like it, and you’d never stop thinking about it.
But if nothing else, the film has provided us with an endless scroll of awkward memes, a feat no book has yet achieved.
1. The Shining (1980)
You knew this was coming. Lists like this one are usually littered with Stephen King adaptations, so much so that we writers must actively avoid the author’s name to find other gems in the dirt. Still, if you are forced to choose a single entry, The Shining is the ideal example due to the brilliance of both artistic offerings and the turmoil that developed between them.
Stephen King loudly opposed the adaptation, feeling that Stanley Kubrick did not grasp essential elements of his original story, such as the perils of alcoholism or the supernatural evil of the hotel itself. Obviously, Kubrick didn’t care. Remember how the main character, Jack Torrance, drives a red Volkswagen Beetle in the book? In the film, it’s yellow. Later, we briefly see the red model crushed under a transport truck on the side of the road. This sneaky addition is regarded as a direct slap to King, where Kubrick’s subtext declares The Shining as his baby, and he will do with it as he pleases.
Regardless, the initial reception was mixed. Perhaps the harshest critique came from The Razzie Awards, nominating Stanley Kubrick as the year’s worst director and Shelley Duvall as the worst actress. The latter has long since been retracted after the organization recognized the genuine fear in Duvall’s eyes reflecting the brutal treatment of Kubrick’s perfectionism. Furthermore, a global retrospective analysis has rectified its foolishness, and the movie is now rightfully placed on the highest shelf of royalty as arguably the best-made film in the history of horror (or even cinema itself).
Categorized:Editorials
