Don't a lot of these novelizations get written while the movie is still in production? I think the novel authors will usually get access to the scripts at the time, but scripts also change a lot during the shooting of a film. That could explain a lot of the differences.
I think most go by a script if they plan the tie-in book to come out when the movie does. The Alien movie novelization goes by the director's cut and actually carries the kidnapping and encasing the the Xenomorph does in the director's cut through the next two books (even though it doesn't happen in those movies. The Resident Evil novels the first couple that are direct adaptations of the first games, but then if you were reading them in real time as the games came out, the original Resident Evil 3 Nemesis felt like the game makers read her books and did the exact opposite of what happened. The adaptations also got re-written to include things they added in with the first HD update. No idea if the others are accurate - the novel series ended up being a weird amalgamation of the games and the first movie series.
I just remember that scene. I could probably find more if I went through both but that's the only thing that sticks out.
The novelization of Gremlins 2 opens on a fucking alien volcano planet. Borrowed it from a classroom library when I was maybe 10 and that’s literally all I remember about the book.
David Bischoff: "So, Joe, do you have any requests for the novel before I get started on it? Like, how creative can I get?"
I used to have the novelization of the first Gremlins, and it gave a full explanation, with flashbacks to the alien world where they came from, of how and why the Mogwai were created, as well as an explanation for why Stripe destroyed some of the eggs when more were being hatched, the aftermath of which is visible in the movie in a couple of shots.
They're highschoolers but still, ew.
lmao@1:52 where he ninja flips the guy and he floats away like a ceiling vent caught him. Even it copies the book's plot 1:1, this is not the tone I want in a Frankenstein. tbh, the book is great, but I already read it, I don't need to watch it, so yeah, screw book-accuracy. Best Frankensteins are the Universal one, the Hammer one, etc.
I have read a couple that apparently realized the script wasn't going to fill out a novel and just made up extraneous stuff to pad it out. On a mostly-unrelated note, I read Brad Carter's fairly recent novelization of killer bigfoot movie Night of the Demon, and I thought it was actually pretty well-done, not at all the meme gag I was expecting. He filled out the (very thin) plot of the movie with more gore, sex, and a giant conspiracy. And character development, I guess. But apparently Severin is funding a bunch of these things. I wouldn't mind reading his take on Rats: Night of Terror or Hell of the Living Dead.
If the Hell of the Living Dead novelization isn't half stock photos of African animals, it is worthless to me.
So let me ask - did you pirate the movie? I know what scene you're talking about and on a big screen it looks fine and is a lot of fun. However, I knew the moment I saw the movie that once this bit moves to a small screen, it wouldn't look nearly as good and would probably come off as rather goofy.
I saw FD6 and now that it's been awhile, I yield. They cracked an absolutely perfect formula with Final Destination. These movies really do make themselves as long as you stick to the numbers. They could pop out one of these every 5ish years and they'll still probably always make money.
That's probably the best way to view Mungo. It's existential dread done well. That being said, There's a weird association between horror and fun these days and it leaves a lot of the genre behind. You don't see too many horrors these that aren't Comedies (I mean that in a traditional literature sense). It leaves out this whole genre of horror movies that are just sad, dark, and depressing movies about awful things.
Dr. Sleep is such a vastly different movie from the Shining, it's absolutely worth watching. I'd argue it's more of a thriller than a horror movie though. Even goofy at some instances. If you're going into it expecting to be scared, don't.
The pros say that writing a script to a movie is all about cutting scenes until you are left with the absolute minimum content that you need to tell your story as efficiently as possible, so many scenes end up cut from the film. Writing a novel is the exact opposite, it's all about filling up as many pages with words as possible and adding as many details as you can for the reader to get a full sense of the story, Which is why books based on films try to add in as much cut content as possible as well as adding their own scenes to the story.
You know, you're right. I had that same bad, sick feeling after finishing The Terror. It was just so soul-crushing. Stories can be sad but in a cathartic way, and those leave me feeling sad but good afterward. The Terror had no catharsis. My immediate thought after finishing it was "I did not like that", but the more time that has passed and the more I think about it, the more I appreciate it and want to rewatch it.
Not a horror movie per se, but Mystic River has an ending that just makes you feel utter, exhausted despair. Amazing movie, and the only one I ever bought my own copy of with no intention to ever watch it after renting it originally.
Movies are too coddled nowadays. Not many are willing to go the tragic route.
Same with Hereditary for me. I have no intention of watching it ever again, but it is a very uncomfortable movie.
Hereditary felt to me like they were trying way too hard, but I got a massive laugh out of the telephone pole scene, and an even bigger one out of the diarama recreating it.
It is at least uncut. I thought I hallucinated the heart ripping scene when I saw it on Cinemax back in the day.
I thought Hereditary was as boring as every other ghost movie, which at this point new ghost movies should be outlawed because they've been done to death and they are all almost the same exact movie. Same goes with Exorcism movies, they are all the same movie over and over again. The Changeling and The Exorcist are all you need for those genres for the most part.
