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12 Awesome Horror Movies Based on Books

Photo credit: Universal Pictures

Photo credit: Universal Pictures

4. The Birds

Not everyone is aware that one of Hitchcock’s most iconic movies was based off a short story by Daphne Du Maurier (Hitchcock also adapted Rebecca, her most famous novel, for the big screen). Following the tale of a hapless school teacher as the small town she’s working in is overrun by deadly birds, it’s full of iconic scenes and a lot of screaming from poor Tippi Hedren (who got a notoriously rough time on set).

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  • http://batman-news.com kat

    Glad you did NOT include the Shining…that was one of the WORST adaptations of a stephen king novel ever!! He had noo creative say over it and so they did it all wrong!! the book was suspensful and terrifying…the movie got too slap stick at times with Nicholsan’s now famous “here’s Johnny” line (that people who have not read the book love!) If you have not read it, do yourselves a favor and do so…way better than the movie!

    • meshback

      I’ve always thought of The Shining as a flawed masterpiece, beautiful to look at, but ultimately dissapointing. Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone took many liberties with the narrative but captured the spirit and feel of the novel. Without cowbell, I might add.

      • http://batman-news.com kat

        yes, that one was not bad. I liked “The Stand” also.. they did combine a couple characters but otherwise did a decent job of sticking to the feel of the book (because Stephen King had creative input on it)…and you can’t beat Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear The Reaper” as background music in the opening segments.. “The Mist” was also pretty good…and the ending REALLY got to me (not sure if this is how the book ended..I seem to remember a different ending will have to re-read), but unsettling and emotionally powerful all the same.

    • DimKartrashian

      I’ve heard that complaint over and over about the shining. I saw the movie and was so confused about some of the details that were happening in the movie. It had to be explained to me by someone who had read the book. Some film adaptations of books should be labeled as inspired by because they differ so much from the source material.

      • http://batman-news.com kat

        very true- I definately recommend you read the book :)

    • jollyrugger

      Any comment on the TV series? I have vague memories of it as I only saw it when it first aired, but I remembering it being really good, a lot truer to the book, and scary as hell.

      • http://batman-news.com kat

        Don’t recall a TV series, but Stephen King DID do a re-make of The Shining (as a made for tv movie) with Steven Weber of “Wings” fame. It was a lot closer in some ways to the book and thus better. plus it did not have the little kid talking to his finger! Or as much comedy (dark or otherwise)
        - but still flawed on some parts and NOTHING tops the book itself! :) If you have not read it…do so…ASAP :) well worth it even though it is a LOOONGGG book :)

    • SS01

      kubricks shinning was not about the book… research it. it is about multiple topics the movie was just a frame work for kubrick to hang up his toughts . there are large websites dedicated to breaking down the movies layered ideas, as well as his techniuqes to make you feel unsettled. it gets to be an even better watch after you have these things reveiled to you.

      • http://batman-news.com kat

        SS01: I would wager a guess that Kubrick “said” it was not about the book (probaby after the true stephen king fans told him how much they hated it) but the facts remain that he “called” it “The Shining” and that the story line was way too similar to have been just “random thoughts”.. Stephen King HATED the film by the way and still does! If Kubrick wanted to make a random horror movie to test his foray into that genre and practice his ‘techniques’, then he should have ; “a: made it an original film, and “b: made it actually scary/worth watching! Jack Nicolson was good as usual- if off base as Jack Torrance, but Shelly Duvall was pathetic and the kid talking to his finger was just plain ridiculous! there was some good imagery now and then, but not anywhere near enough to salvage this joke!! Kubrick changed all the things that truly made the book suspensful and disturbing!! ( ie: ax in a hedge maze instead of the slow creepy thudding of a roque mallet echoing off the walls and corridors in the hotel so you can not tell where it is coming from…) Instead of trying to find a vehicle to “hang up his thoughts” Kubrick should have hung up his directors cap on this one!!

  • Harriet Burgess

    I didn’t enjoy World War Z; I felt that it lacked urgency, I didn’t feel emotionally attached to any of the characters and it wasn’t scary. Although I admit that I haven’t read the book so I can’t comment how well it translated to screen.

  • slapshot

    I think that the original film version of The Haunting, done in 1963, was a lot better than the later one. The newer one relied of goofy special effects at the end which ruined it for me.

    • nataswon

      I fully agree with you, Slapshot. The remake wasn’t at all scary and just laughable. The original was truly scary and remains one of my favorite childhood memories of staying up late to watch a horror movie. Another favorite of mine (has nothing to do with this subject material) that I saw late night, in 1981 or ’82, was Phantasm. The first one was wonderfully strange, creepy and an instant favorite of mine.

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  • lucid55

    Polanski’s Repulsion freaked me out.

  • MarkM

    Salem’s Lot!?! You are kidding, right!?! I think Tobe Hooper is a good director, but that was a made for TV piece of garbage, (way back in 1979 in fact), & thus is about as ‘scary” as someone wearing a monster mask yelling “Boo!” at you. Telegraphed “shocks”, no rhythm due to having commercial breaks inserted into it, appalling acting, & terrible effects & makeup. You might want to reconsider you’ll self-appointed being an “expert” on the subject if you found Salem’s Lot scary. Maybe if I had seen it when I was 5-6 it might have scared me. The book on the other hand was terrifying.

    • http://batman-news.com kat

      gotta agree with you on that one Mark…another example of how they ruined a great Stephen King book.

  • Zerothe

    Salem’s Lot got me especially his brother floating outside his window. Of course the Exorcist. I remember having to run and jump on my bed and have it against the corner of the wall so no one could reach out and get me from under the it. And of course when you get older it’s not scarey anymore, ” but the memory remains “.

    • dinard38

      After I read this article, I started thinking about movies that scared me when I was younger. This is the first scene that popped into my head; of the little boy floating outside his brother’s window in that dense fog. Then I saw your comment. Haha. Good to know that I wasn’t the only one terrified by that scene.

  • KeselRunPDX

    World War Z was a pile of garbage. Aside from the title and zombies, it had nothing to do with the book. Zombie tidal waves? Gimme a break…

  • Karin Mattson

    What about Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”? The film with Boris Karloff scared us 50+ years ago and other adaptations, such as the one with Kenneth Branaugh and Robert DeNiro, have also been thrilling and disturbing.

    • http://batman-news.com kat

      my favorite version, I think, was (I believe) called “Frankenstein:the true story” They never seem to show it these days and perhaps as an adult it would not even be scary, but it seemed less comical and much more realistic and there is a creepy scene with a re-animated hand that is crawling across the floor…that got me. It seems to follow closer to the book in some ways too (although pure Hollywood in others) would like to see it again but don’t know if any way to find it these days.

  • oldwhiteguy

    The Thing. Based on Who Goes There.

    • nataswon

      Which version? There’s a B&W one (forgot when it was made) then my favorite version, by John Carpenter. The recent Pre-quel was ok, not scary, but had a great continuity factor in showing us what happened to the camp before John Carpenter’s doomed crew investigated. Best part of the Pre-quel? The ending credits recaptured Carpenter’s opening credit style complete with the chasing of the dog…

  • jollyrugger

    ‘Salem’s Lot, the book, was awesome. The movie was crap. TV miniseries was marginally better, but still bad.

  • Andy Bachand

    Any fan of Stephen King’s novel ” ‘salem’s Lot” will hate the Tobe Hooper TV mini-series. Turning King’s vampire Kurt Barlow into something that was little more than a dog to be led around by James Mason’s Straker. Watching the movie you get the feeling that Straker is the real villain and not the immortal bloodsucker he’s suppose to be serving.

  • Sonorita Lopez

    Top 10 movies based on books and 10 books based on movies

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_G-D3rxekI

    Interstellar, Birdman, Whiplash, Maleficent, The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Dance of Reality, Boyhood, Snowpiercer, The Double, Gone Girl

  • Mitch Turitz

    Psycho was really scary for me. The shower scene made me scared to take a shower in my dorm where others can come and go with no locks on the door!

  • Rodney Weidemann

    “In fact, most of the great horror stereotypes (vampires, zombies, werewolves) started life on the page”

    I beg to differ – I think you will find that zombies as we know them today (the Walking Dead variety, rather than the Haitian voodoo type) began life in a little cult horror movie by George Romero in 1968, called ‘Night of the Living Dead’. Zombies of the walking dead variety had never existed in fiction prior to that, so zombies actually started life in movies and graduated to the written word, rather than the other way around….

  • James Dorian Gaynes

    How much did you get paid to add WWZ to this list?

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