October Prompt: Horror Story to Movie

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Book Trivia Game in October features Horror Stories -- stories told in a darkened room, listened to and shivering in fright and/or delight.

Have any of the books listed in there been made into movies? Had you read the book or seen the movie or both? What was your impression of them? Was the book translated into a move well or not?

Or maybe you know of another book made into a movie which totally had you shivering in fright (and hiding behind the couch). What was it? Who was the author? What is the name of the movie? Were there more than one movie made based on that book? (Think - from a totally different genre - of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and how many movies and shows it has been made into, either faithful to the story or changed into something (ta da) completely horrifying like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies!)

Post below with your impressions. Your book and movie comparison needs to be at least 100 words to count towards Beans (and any possible award)! (You are welcome to write of more than one book/movie combination.)

You will receive 20 Beans when you post. Any replies in here, through the school year, will be credited towards a possible award. As always, please keep to HOL appropriate sources for your post.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces).

Remember to click preview before posting to look for spelling and grammatical errors -- or see if auto-correct changed what you wanted to write to something entirely else!

[Dibyarup James Potter]

Imgur Link - Larger Version [1080 x 823 px]

I recently participated in an event where we discussed the book Coraline by Neil Gaiman, originally published in 2002. Now that was indeed a very creepy story, to say the least. And yes, Coraline has also been made into a stop-motion claymation movie in 2009, written and directed by Henry Selick. When Neil Gaiman finished his novella in 2002, he met Selick and invited him to make a film adaptation, as Gaiman was a fan of Selick's other stop-motion projects, including The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996).

The movie had some expansions beyond the book’s original content because Selick realised that a direct adaptation would probably lead to a 47-minute movie. One of the notable additions was the creation of Wybie, who was not present in the original book. Movie Coraline and book Coraline also had some cosmetic differences, such as the colour of their hair and clothes.

In my opinion, the movie did a fantastic job at the adaptation, and for those who read the book, I dare say that the movie upped the creepy-factor 5 folds, by depicting the Other Mother in quite a creepy way along with the other creepy aspects of the Other World. One last thing I want to mention the movie adaptation is the colour palette, which was muted in reality and more colourful in the Other World, similar to The Wizard of Oz, thanks to the brilliance of the Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi, who was the concept artist for this project.


6.20.2024 - Beans sent - Tarma

[Galena May]

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde featured the ghost of an English nobleman who refused to leave his estate after his death due to his guilt over having murdered his own wife during his lifetime. Not to mention, he was not a very amiable host either. He haunted his own descendants and scared them out of his estate, sending a Duchess into sickness, making the butler's wife hysterical, and causing horror that made people lose their wits and even fall ill. Moreover, he even kept a track record of his performances and praised himself for the success of his hauntings. Now, that was one old- fashioned proud ghost. But, his reign was terminated by Virginia, the daughter of the comically practical American family to whom his descendants were forced to sell the estate because of his hauntings, because there was no way he could continue to live in a house with a family who had the least respect for the legacy of ghosts. It is a humorous gothic horror story that brings laughter together with spook and provides a fascinating page - turner experience of the supernatural which is comic and palatable even to horror haters.
The readable version was first published by Oscar Wilde (known for humor, twists, and fascinating dramatic occurrences in his short stories) in 1887 in two parts in The Court and Society Review. In 2010, Classical Comics published a graphic novel version of the same.
The story was adapted several times for television films and comedy films, sometimes animated, across the United States, Britain,France, West Germany, and Australia, BBC Sunday - Night play being one of the airers. It was also made into several theatrical films such as the 1944 Hollywood movie of the same name and starring Charles Laughton in the lead (Charles Laughton, haha, fine name for the actor of a comic horror story), an Indian Bollywood movie named Bhoothnath (in 2008) featuring actor Amitabh Bachhan from India in the lead, and a British animated feature film of the same name as Oscar Wilde's story and released in 2023.
The last movie actually has a very different beginning than the story. After the family move to the estate and ignore the first introduction of the Canterville ghost, their daughter, Virginia, goes through a couple of spooky, unexplained accidents and falls into the pond, recovering the locket of the Canterville ghost's murdered wife, getting to know the story of how she was drowned there by her husband. If I remember correctly, the book version mentions no such thing, and instead says that the ghost killed his wife in front of the fireplace where blood from the incident falls and leaves an unremovable blood stain on the carpet. In the book version, this blood stain is the source of many plot elements of the story, when the sons of the family try to remove it with an American stain - removing liquid and succeed and when the blood stain is renewed but starts changing color after every subsequent removal. Besides the endless extravagant dramatization throughout the movie (although the basic structure of the story is kept the same), the end is again severely dramatized and grossly deviates from the book version to achieve that purpose. It features a dramatic duel between the ghost and The Grim Reaper (who has been the gardener all along and is revealed in yet another dramatic twist) with Virginia's help (also showing Virginia actually entering the garden of death for the fight and leaving her lifeless body behind). The Grim Reaper becomes the ultimate villain in the end and also fights Virginia's lover who breaks into the scene and effects a confession of love to Virginia in between the horrific fighting scene. In the book version, there is mention of such things as Virginia's lover, the Garden of Death, and the Grim Reaper, but they are mere ornamentations and no such dramatic fight is seen, nor does Virginia's lover break in upon the fighting scene, in fact he is much more childish and doesn't even know where Virginia is until Virginia reappears. In my opinion, the movie version has the script grossly changed and dramatized and the main protagonism shifted from Virginia (which in my opinion is somewhat typically misogynist) to her lover and even to the ghost, against the Grim Reaper, to add the dramatic effect. In my opinion, the movie version is far more horror and terrific action than comic, as opposed to the book version which is the opposite.


11.15.2024 - Beans sent - Tarma

[River Fenwick]

One horror book I've read that was turned into a movie that I saw is Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. The book was first published in 1962 and was created from just a ten-page story Bradbury had written! The movie came out in 1983 with a PG rating, though many have argued that it should be PG-13. The plot revolves around a carnival called the Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show in Green Town, Illinois, during October, which draws the town's attention, especially the two 12-year-olds, William Halloway and James Nightshade, and William's father, Charles. It soon becomes clear that something is going on within the carnival.

The book was far more in-depth in its horror elements, where I felt the terror was detailed and almost came alive within the text, while the movie was underwhelming. Like many movies, this one had to axe some scenes in the book to account for budgeting and time, which took away the appeal, in my opinion. The casting was great for the movie, and if I hadn't read the book first, I likely would've thought the movie was fantastic as a horror film, as seeing some of the scenes helped put it in a better perspective for me, especially with the mirror maze.



3.31.2025 - Beans sent - Tarma