Books
6 of the Best Horror Movie Novelizations You Should Read
It’s easy to take the accessibility of movies for granted now that we live in a high-tech world populated by streaming giants and cheap video-on-demand. However, there was a time when you couldn’t simply rewatch any given scene at a moment’s notice, and that’s where merchandise used to be important.
Not only were tie-in products a way of declaring your love for a certain movie or franchise, but they could also serve as standalone experiences, reminding you about what made you fall in love with that particular story in the first place.
That’s exactly why I love film novelizations – especially of the horror variety. There’s nothing quite like experiencing an alternate take on your favorite scary stories, especially when they come furnished with internal monologues and more in-depth characters (as well as uncensored deaths). In honor of the novelization industry making a comeback now that titles like Terrifier 3 and even Return to Silent Hill are getting their own literary adaptations, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the best horror movie novelizations!
As usual, this list is purely based on personal opinion, but don’t hesitate to comment below with your own favorite films-turned-books if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Godzilla by Stephen Molstad
I know it sounds insane to put the novelization of TriStar’s Godzilla on this list when the western world finally received a properly translated release of Shigeru Kayama’s original novelizations of Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again, but believe me when I say that Molstad’s underrated little tie-in is a lot more fun than the movie it’s based on.
For starters, this is an epistolary novel presented as an in-universe non-fiction book written by our main character, Dr. Nick Tatopoulos, with the character’s scientific descriptions and unique point of view transforming a mediocre kaiju movie into an incredibly intense piece of radioactive sci-fi!
5. Halloween by Curtis Richards
So much of what makes Halloween tick as a phenomenal horror film involves John Carpenter’s mastery of music and visuals, so it really came as a surprise when I finally read Curtis Richards’ annoyingly hard-to-find novelization of the story and found myself having a blast.
The book may follow the same overall narrative (albeit with some added details filling in events that were skipped over in the film), but Richards’ interest in the supernatural elements of this seasonal yarn makes it feel like a completely different beast altogether – especially where Michael is concerned. Not only that, but the kills feel a lot more gruesome as well, which is why I’d recommend this one to any fan of the original film.
4. The Funhouse by Dean Koontz
It’s not every day that an established author takes a stab at novelizing your film, but that’s precisely why Dean Koontz’s literary adaptation of Larry Block’s script is such a special little book. Though I’m a huge fan of the original film due to its grimy photography and overall sleazy atmosphere, Koontz managed to elevate the material while staying true to its B-movie origins.
In all honesty, I actually prefer Koontz’s more psychological take on this classic slasher. It may diverge from the source material at times, and certain sections feel like a completely different story altogether, but it’s still one hell of a spooky standalone experience that I’d recommend to any fan of 80s schlock.
3. The Lords of Salem by Rob Zombie & B.K. Evenson
Movie novelizations usually aren’t treated like the main course when it comes to horror franchises, but I’ll be damned if Zombie and Evenson’s The Lords of Salem adaptation isn’t the definitive version of this nightmarish story.
Not only does it reach further into the main character’s psyche and add horrific context to things that seemed innocuous in the movie, but this moody little read ends up fixing most of the narrative jank in Zombie’s homage to the demonic thrillers of yesteryear. That’s why I think this book is so much more than a mere companion piece, and I’d even recommend it to folks who dislike the original movie.
2. Event Horizon by Steven McDonald
I know it’s almost certainly impossible at this point, but I’m still holding out hope that someone out there can recover the lost footage from the original cut of Event Horizon. However, while we wait for this unholy miracle to take place, Steven McDonald’s original novelization is still one hell of a consolation prize.
Based on earlier drafts of the script, this novel takes the classic route of fleshing out characters and backstories in order to fill up the page count. However, it also includes most of the mind-bending terror that was removed from the theatrical cut of the film prior to release, which is why it makes it onto this list.
1. Alien by Alan Dean Foster
An established writer of original speculative fiction in his own right, Alan Dean Foster is also known for being the master of tie-in novelizations, especially where sci-fi is concerned. From Star Trek to Transformers and even The Chronicles of Riddick, Foster has a clear passion for transforming cinematic space operas into literary adventures that you often forget are based on a pre-existing story.
Foster’s adaptation of Alien is a prime example of this, with this incredibly intense horror story feeling like it was conceived as a book first. I especially appreciate how the novel explores certain aspects of the crew’s mission and backstory (not to mention the alien craft) in ways that the theatrical cut simply didn’t have enough time to show, all the while providing us with a slightly different take on the xenomorph.
Books
‘Scary Movie Night’ Review: A Hitchcock-Themed Thriller Full of Juicy Twists But Not Much Else
A secluded mansion. A group of friends each harboring secrets. A party built around one woman’s love of Alfred Hitchcock. These are the ingredients laid out to begin Scary Movie Night, the sophomore novel from Miranda Smith and follow-up to her breakout debut, Smile for the Cameras.
They’re all, standing alone and taken together, very promising ingredients, and when Smith starts to bounce all those secrets and all that seclusion around with a little murder in the mix, they make for some juicy plotting. But fun twists and macabre themed party nights do not a thriller make. There is fun to be had here, but for all its reliance on classic horror tropes and the films of a master of cinematic suspense, Scary Movie Night never quite finds a way to become something more.
Movie blogger and influencer Tippi (yes, she’s named for Tippi Hedren from The Birds) is going through a rough patch. Her upcoming marriage was just called off, and she’s planning to hit the Cannes Film Festival then travel the world as a newly single woman, even shifting her career focus from movies to travel in the process. Her friends Ava, Marlowe, and Constance are supportive, but they also know it might be the last time they see Tippi for a while, so master party planner Ava comes up with the perfect sendoff: A themed scary movie night party, complete with costumes, hosted at the elegant estate of Tippi’s grandmother, Marmee.
Marmee, you see, has her own history with the glamour of Hollywood, and even has a private cinema set up in her mansion. It’s the perfect venue for the perfect night, at least until Tippi starts receiving vaguely threatening notes from her ex, and the first body turns up.
See what I mean about all the ingredients being there? This book starts with so much promise, particularly when guests turn up for the party and reveal their various movie costumes. There’s so much to chew on, and Smith wastes no time diving directly into the drama of it all. The book moves primarily through Tippi’s first-person perspective, so we get the lowdown on her friends, their various relationships, the quarrels that have defined previous social interactions, and much more. It’s a series of rich veins all tapped at once, and it feels like the book is genuinely going somewhere quite fun.
Here’s the thing: The book does go somewhere quite fun; it just gets there in a way that I found both frustrating and often unfulfilling. The characters aren’t defined by their choices in the book so much as they’re defined by what Tippi tells us about each of them, and while the notion of Tippi as an unreliable narrator is key to the plot, her supporting cast never really gets a chance to sit up and exist as anything other than archetypes in her head. The dialogue doesn’t help matters in this regard, and I kept finding myself wishing one of Tippi’s friends would just seize the narrative, just for a moment, so I’d get some sense of these people beyond the broad brushstrokes of the protagonist.
Which brings us to the issue of Tippi as the narrator in the first place. Like the Hitchcock blondes on which she’s clearly modeled, we’re meant to learn about her through her choices, and constantly question whether or not she’s made the right ones. Why did she leave her ex with a wedding looming? Why is she changing career paths? Why does she have to be talked into her own going-away party? How she reacts to these things, and what she’s really after, will be what defines her, but here’s the thing: Tippi, for all her Hitchcockian layers of plotting, never steps forward as a fully formed character. Like the Hitch films playing in the background during the party, she’s more like a suggestion of a character than a person.
Writing first-person present-tense is tricky under the best of circumstances, but doing it when your protagonist is meant to be harboring secrets of her own is especially challenging, and it just…never quite entirely works here, and drawing very direct parallels between her and Hitchcock’s various leading ladies doesn’t really help matters.
But here’s the really interesting part: I wouldn’t be invested in any of these issues were it not for a story that genuinely kept me reading. For all of this book’s shortcomings, and I found a few, it ultimately holds together because Smith has a genuine gift for plot twists, and secrets, and the kind of juicy drama that makes a thriller keep barreling forward on the page. There’s good stuff in here, even if it’s sometimes overshadowed by missteps, and that means that while Scary Movie Night might not obsess you or give you nightmares or stick in your head for weeks on end, it will entertain you. I wanted more from this book, but I also want to see what Miranda Smith writes next, and that’s an achievement in itself.
Scary Movie Night is available July 14 wherever books are sold.
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