5 Horror Movies Based on Books

The creepy stuff on TV is often visual or sound based. Jump scares and scary costumes. It makes me wonder how on earth one can sustain the same type of scare in a book. But then I pick up one of these and I remember. The internal images in my head is pretty messed up as well.

In that regard, let’s have a look at the books that inspired some pretty iconic movies. The links provided are from Audible, and are affiliated links. That means I make a commission from each of the purchases coming off the links. And with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s look at the books and movies.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

The movie has now gone on to be this iconic horror movie credited to director Roman Polanski. But did you know that it was originally a book published in 67, only a year before the movie came out. The writer Ira Levin is sort of an iconic figure about writing about seemingly perfect societies. He also wrote the Stepford Wives.

Summary
Rosemary Woodhouse and her struggling-actor husband, Guy, move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents.
Neighbours Roman and Minnie Castavet soon come nosing around to welcome them; despite Rosemary’s reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, her husband starts spending time with them.
Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Rosemary becomes pregnant, and the Castavets start taking a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castavets’ circle is not what it seems.

Read it here (Intro by Chuck Palanhiuk, writer of Fight Club)

Listen to it here

30 Days of Night, Vol. 1 by Steve Niles

This was one of those movies that came out in 2007 that I never thought I would like, but then did, because… well, not sure, never mind that. But anyhow. Before it was a movie, it was a comic book published in 2002 by Steve Niles. Since then it has continued to live and grow. Now Audiable have this cool thing where they get a bunch of narrators together.

Summary
The isolated town of Barrow, Alaska, is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only Barrow’s husband-and-wife sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction. By the time the sun rises, will they pay the ultimate price – or worse?

Read the graphic novel here

Listen to it here

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

For those who follows Moonmausoleum, knows our weak spot is the classic Gothic setting. The movies that have been made of this have been alright, as I am extremely biased and just love everything with that setting: a haunted house, stiff British people and scary kids in Victorian clothing. And this is what it promises, a classical ghost story. Susan Hill wrote the book back in 1983, but the story is set at the turn of the century.

Summary
As is so often the case with truly well-constructed fiction, this story contains all the exquisitely crafted detail and richness that film adaptations can struggle to encompass. Only enhanced by Paul Ansell’s thoughtful narration, this is Susan Hill at her best. Eel Marsh house stands alone, surveying the windswept salt marshes beyond Nine Lives Causeway. Once, Mrs Alice Drablow lived here as a recluse. Now, Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor with a London firm, is summoned to attend her funeral, unaware of the tragic and terrible secrets which lie behind the house’s shuttered windows. It is not until he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black, at the funeral, that a sense of profound unease begins to creep over him and take hold, a feeling deepened by the reluctance of the locals to talk about the woman in black or what happens whenever she is seen.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

Do you know when you read a lot, one tends to become somewhat of a snob. This is what happened to me and in my stupid belief I had read everything worth reading and would never find something new I liked. But then, this came out, and it tipped the vampire genre on its head. Even the most snobbish Scandinavian literary critics that hates anything supernatural loved it. And so must you! And if you rather want to watch the movie, choose the Swedish one, as that one actually is pretty good as well.

Summary
Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself.
Oskar is a 12-year-old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city’s edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he’s frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn’t go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200-year-old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

Yes Netflix, we have a lot to thank you for, but the movie version of Bird Box is not one. It’s not as it is bad, it is just… meh. And perhaps because it came out just because A Quiet Place came out and they were sort of similar. And by that, I mean very similar. But the book! The book is beautiful!

Summary
Most people ignored the outrageous reports on the news. But they became too frequent, they became too real. And soon, they began happening down the street. Then the Internet died. The television and radio went silent. The phones stopped ringing. And we couldn’t look outside anymore.
Malorie raises the children the only way she can; indoors. The house is quiet. The doors are locked, the curtains are closed, mattresses are nailed over the windows. They are out there. She might let them in. The children sleep in the bedroom across the hall. Soon she will have to wake them. Soon she will have to blindfold them. Today they must leave the house. Today they will risk everything.

Read it here

Listen to it here

Any of this seem interesting for you? How about getting into the listening train of audio books. Now, get 50% off for the next 3 months. I’ve checked and I am now firmly sure these are the one that can offer most horror titles of the audio book platforms.