by Matt Cardin
Some Notable Cinematic Horror Adaptations
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897):
•Nosferatu (1922), dir. F. W. Murnau
•Dracula (1931), dir. Tod Browning, starring Bela Lugosi
•Dracula, a.k.a. Horror of Dracula (1958), dir. Terence Fisher, starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing
•Dracula (1978), dir. Philip Saville, starring Louis Jordan
•Dracula (1979), dir. John Badham, starring Frank Langella
•Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), dir. Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gary Oldman
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818):
•Frankenstein (1910), Edison Studios
•Frankenstein (1931), dir. James Whale, starring Boris Karloff
•Bride of Frankenstein (1935), dir. James Whale, starring Boris Karloff
•The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), dir. Terence Fisher, starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee
•Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), dir. Kenneth Branagh, starring Robert De Niro
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886):
•Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), starring Lionel Barrymore
•Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), dir. Rouben Mamoulian, starring Fredric March
•Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), dir. Victor Fleming, starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman
Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (1954):
•The Last Man on Earth (1964), starring Vincent Price
•The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston
•I Am Legend (2007), starring Will Smith
Other notable horror adaptations:
•The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959) → The Haunting (1963), dir. Robert Wise and The Haunting (1999), dir. Jan de Bont
•Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin (1967) → Rosemary’s Baby (1968), dir. Roman Polanski
•The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971) → The Exorcist (1973), dir. William Friedkin
•Carrie by Stephen King (1974) → Carrie (1976), dir. Brian De Palma
•The Shining by Stephen King (1977) → The Shining (1980), dir. Stanley Kubrick
•Misery by Stephen King (1987) → Misery (1990), dir. Rob Reiner
•Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (1976) → Interview with the Vampire (1994), dir. Neil Jordan
Matt Cardin
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), with its dramatic transformation of the morally upright Dr. Jekyll into the depraved Mr. Hyde, attracted numerous film adapters. As early as 1912 James Cruze directed and starred in a twelve-minute version of the story. John Barrymore starred in a 1920 silent adaptation, and in 1931 Paramount Pictures released a sound version directed by Rouben Mamoulian and starring Fredric March, who won an Academy Award for his performance. The film was so successful that in 1941, when MGM bought the rights to the story, the studio attempted to buy and withdraw all copies of the 1931 film before releasing their adaptation, starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman, which was not as critically or popularly successful. There have been more than thirty film adaptations of Stevenson’s novel, and aside from the 1931 Fredric March film, the most acclaimed is Mary Reilly (1996), starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovich.
Several other notable adaptations of horror fiction were released in the 1930s. In 1933 Universal Pictures released The Invisible Man, loosely based on H. G. Wells’s popular novel. Directed by James Whale and starring Claude Raines, The Invisible Man, like its source novel, explored the boundaries between horror and science fiction. Universal Studios’ two other classic monster movies, The Mummy (1932), starring Boris Karloff, and The Wolf Man (1941), starring Lon Chaney Jr., were not directly adapted from novels but were influenced by them. The Mummy was made in response to the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (“King Tut”), but the film has strong similarities to Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “Lot No. 249” (1892) and Bram Stoker’s novel Jewel of the Seven Stars (1903). The Wolf Man, for its part, was inspired by European folklore, but two early novels, Alexandre Dumas’s The Wolf-Leader (1857) and Erckmann-Chatrian’s Hugues-le-Loup (1869), translated into English as The Man-Wolf, may have influenced the filmmakers.
Two studios, Universal Pictures and Hammer Films, dominated the horror market during the studio era (ca. 1930–1948), but with the breakup of the studios after the Second World War (1939–1945), outstanding horror films were produced by many companies, although American International Pictures cornered the market on grade B horror thrillers such as I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, both in 1957. AIP also released better films, including four adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s fiction: The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Haunted Palace (1963), and The Masque of the Red Death (1964), all starring Vincent Price. In the postwar period and the years following, both horror fiction and horror films moved from the margins of the popular to the mainstream, no longer being a genre defined by grade B films and cheap paperback novels. The popularity and quality of the horror adaptations that have appeared since the 1960s reflects the renewed interest of writers, filmmakers, and audiences.
Two horror novels published in 1954 became film horror classics when adapted. Jack Finney’s horror science fiction novel The Invasion of the Body Snatchers captured the paranoid mood of Cold War America when released by Allied Artists as a film in 1956, and Richard Matheson’s classic I Am Legend, about the lone human survivor of a worldwide plague of vampires, was adapted three times: as The Last Man on Earth (1964), starring Vincent Price; The Omega Man (1971), starring Charlton Heston; and I Am Legend (2007), starring Will Smith. Robert Bloch published Psycho in 1959, and in 1960 Paramount released Alfred Hitchcock’s memorable adaptation starring Janet Leigh as the unwitting victim of Anthony Perkins’s homicidal mania. Hitchcock’s masterful control of mystery and horror elevated the film to the status of a cultural icon. Also published in 1959 was Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, a chilling story of a group of psychic explorers who visit a house that may or may not be haunted. Robert Wise’s 1963 adaptation, The Haunting, starring Julie Harris and Claire Bloom, effectively combines elements of horror and psychological thriller. In 1999 MGM released a second, and decidedly inferior, adaptation starring Liam Neeson.
In 1968 Paramount released Rosemary’s Baby, based on Ira Levin’s best-selling 1967 novel. Directed by Roman Polanski and starring Mia Farrow, the film successfully combines psychological realism with supernatural horror as a young woman slowly discovers the child she is carrying may be Satan’s. Another successful adaptation that combined elements of the occult with psychological realism was William Friedkin’s 1973 The Exorcist, based on William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel of demonic possession in modern Washington, D.C. Both films were financially and critically successful, establishing the genre of cinematic occult horror. In 1974 Peter Benchley released Jaws, his wildly successful novel of a vengeful great white shark terrorizing a Long Island beach community. For the film adaptation Universal Pictures hired director Steven Spielberg, who worked quickly through production; the film was released the next year to popular success. In 1976 Anne Rice reinvented the vampire novel with Interview with the Vampire. Set in New Orleans, Rice’s novel revolves around the relationships among three vampires—Louis, Lestat, and Claudia—and begins to develop a cultural history of vampires that Rice continues to expand through her Vampire Chronicles. In 1994 Warner Brothers released the film adaptation, starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, to positive reviews. Another film adaptation from the series, The Queen of the Damned (2002), was not as successful.
If earlier periods of horror film were dominated by studios such as Universal Pictures, Hammer Films, and American International, the latter part of the twentieth century was dominated by the novels and adaptations of the work of one man, Stephen King, who in addition to writing more than seventy books has had over one hundred films and television
programs adapted from or based on his work. Several works, such as The Shining and Carrie, have been adapted more than once. Adjusted for inflation, King’s films have grossed nearly eight hundred million dollars. Five of his highest grossing films are horror adaptations: The Shining (1980), Carrie (1976), Misery (1990), Pet Sematary (1989), and Secret Window (2004). Three of these films have become cultural icons, defining film horror in the late twentieth century. In adapting King’s 1974 supernatural horror novel Carrie, Brian De Palma emphasized the terror of a young abused girl who discovers her telekinetic ability when she has her first period, and the horrific results of bullying by her high school classmates. Sissy Spacek received an Academy Award nomination for her performance in the title role. Director Rob Reiner directed the adaptation of King’s 1987 psychological horror novel Misery. James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, writer of romance novels, who writes a manuscript killing off the series heroine. Kathy Bates plays Annie Wilkes, a nurse who rescues Sheldon after an automobile accident, and while helping him recover discovers his intentions to kill her favorite character. She imprisons him, eventually hobbling him by breaking his ankles with a sledgehammer. Sheldon eventually kills his tormentor. Bates received an Academy Award for her performance. Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of King’s 1977 novel The Shining starred Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duval, Danny Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers. Kubrick’s depiction of the descent of Jack Torrance, played by Nicholson, into madness and murder in an isolated and haunted resort hotel stands as one of the most terrifying films ever made, and Nicholson’s performance has become legendary.
Early filmmakers found stories to adapt in other literary forms, drama and history being the most obvious examples, but they also drew upon comic strips and comic books. Later, graphic novels joined these other forms in serving as source material. Science fiction and fantasy filmmakers have adapted these sources early and often, as the long relationship between the Superman, Batman, and now Marvel Universe characters in print and on the large and small screens clearly demonstrates. Directors of horror films have recently explored this genre. Stephen Norrington in Blade (1998) and its sequels, and Guillermo del Toro in Hellboy (2004) and its sequel, both provide successful horror/fantasy crossovers. Another recent trend has been the adaptation of young adult fiction, especially popular mixed-genre fiction combining horror with either fantasy or romance, such as the film adaptations of J. K. Rowling‘s seven Harry Potter novels and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga.
Horror Fiction and Horror Television
Television began and survived with adoption and adaptation, borrowing formats and content from radio, drama, film, and literature. Commercial television modeled news, musicals, comedy, and dramatic programming on that of radio, which permitted frequent advertising breaks, and when, in the mid-1950s, film studios began to make their pre-1948 content available to television networks and stations, many of the Universal horror films, such as Dracula and Frankenstein and their sequels, began to appear on television, often as late-night or weekend content.
Television adopted another format, the anthology, from literature. Drawing on the growing popularity of science fiction and horror films in the late 1950s and early 1960s, American networks presented genre material, some original and some adapted from fiction, in such anthology series as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (CBS/NBC, 1955–1962), One Step Beyond (ABC, 1959–1961), The Twilight Zone (CBS, 1959–1964), Thriller (NBC, 1960–1962), and The Outer Limits (ABC, 1963–1965). All of these series presented science fiction, supernatural, and horror stories, but Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, was more focused on Gothic horror stories, including several by Robert Bloch. The anthology series has remained a significant form in providing viewers with original and adapted horror narratives, as shown in the popularity of such series as Tales from the Crypt (HBO, 1989–1996), with a title and format adapted from the classic 1950s pulp horror comic book of the same name, and Tales from the Dark Side (1983–1988). Networks continued to develop new sources and formats for horror material. ABC adapted Charles Addams’s New Yorker cartoons for its comic Gothic Addams Family (1964–1966), a satire on American life featuring a macabre family living in a decaying Victorian mansion. More comic and less satiric was CBS’s The Munsters (1964–1966), which adapted characters based on Dracula and Frankenstein, as well as their Universal Studios incarnations. Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster have become cultural icons thanks to television as well as film and fiction, appearing everywhere from Public Television to breakfast cereal boxes (Count Chocula and Frankenberry).
Because of the need for broadcast content, television producers, in addition to acquiring the rights to earlier-released films, introduced made-for-television movies, which were usually less costly and time consuming to bring to the small screen than traditional films. As over-the-air stations and cable networks proliferated, the demand for new content increased, and made-for-television horror movies, adapted both from classics of Gothic horror and from popular horror fiction, became popular to both broadcasters and audiences.
The popularity of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula made them both attractive to television producers. In 1972 NBC released Frankenstein: The True Story, starring Leonard Whiting, Jane Seymour, and James Mason. The film was originally aired in two ninety-minute segments, and it presented the monster as handsome upon creation, only to grow uglier as the film progressed. In 2004 the Hallmark Channel released a miniseries adaption of Frankenstein starring Alec Newman, Luke Goss, and Donald Sutherland, which follows Shelley’s novel more closely than most adaptations.
In 1974, CBS broadcast released a made-for-television adaptation of Dracula, directed by Dan Curtis and starring Jack Palance. Outside the United States it was given a theatrical release. The film is noted for Palance’s performance and for suggesting a connection between the fictitious Dracula and the historical Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, the fifteenth-century Wallachian warlord. The television adaptations of the works of Stephen King—thirty-four made-for-television movies, television series, and episodes in other series—can provide an overview of adapted-for-television works by a popular contemporary writer. Television is a medium that can be adapted for narratives of varying lengths, and many of Stephen King’s longer works have been adapted for television miniseries rather than for the cinema, although some of his works have appeared on both the large and small screens. Four of King’s most popular works have been adapted twice. ’Salem’s Lot, King’s vampire novel published in 1975, first appeared as a successful miniseries produced by Warner Brothers in 1979, starring David Soul and James Mason. It was recreated by TNT starring Rob Lowe in 2004. Similarly, The Shining, published in 1977, was readapted (after Kubrick’s 1980 version) for television by ABC as a miniseries starring Rebecca de Mornay and Steven Weber in 1997. It, King’s epic novel of a cosmic horror terrorizing a small town in Maine across multiple generations, was adapted as a successful miniseries in 1992, with Tim Curry starring as the terrifying Pennywise the Clown, who preys on children. In 2017 a new theatrical adaptation was released with Pennywise played by Bill Skarsgård. In addition, King’s The Dead Zone, published in 1979, was adapted twice, first for the large screen by David Cronenberg in 1983 and later as a series for television that ran on USA Network from 2002 until 2006.
Stephen King is not the only successful horror author whose work has been adapted as successful television miniseries. The Vampire Diaries is a successful young adult series of novels published between 1991 and 2012 by L. J. Smith about a beautiful young high school student who falls in love with two attractive vampires. Three additional novels based on the series were written by ghostwriter Aubrey Clark and published in 2012 and 2013. In 2006 the CW network began airing a television adaptation, and it ran for many seasons. The Walking Dead is another popular adapted horror television series. Based on the comic book series of the same name written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Tony Moore, the series revolves around the adventures of Rick Grimes, a sheriff’s de
puty who awakens from a coma in the middle of a quarantined Georgia faced with a zombie apocalypse. The series began airing on AMC in 2010, and in 2015 a spin-off series, Fear the Walking Dead, was produced by the same network.
The attraction of many of the classic Gothic horror monsters is that they are able to overcome natural law and defy death. Mummies, Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and zombies all come back from the dead. The economics of film and television, with ever increasing audiences and formats, demands a constant supply of characters and stories. It would seem inevitable that undying creatures that appeared first in print would be kept alive through adaptations, sequels, spin-offs, and parodies that have come back to life on the large and small screens.
Jim Holte
See also: The Gothic Literary Tradition; Horror Comics; The Legacy of Frankenstein: From Gothic Novel to Cultural Myth; Part One, Horror through History: Horror from 1900 to 1950; Horror from 1950 to 2000; Horror in the Twenty-First Century; Part Three, Reference Entries: Bloch, Robert; Dracula; The Exorcist; I Am Legend; Interview with the Vampire; King, Stephen; Mummies; Poe, Edgar Allan; Rosemary’s Baby; The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Vampires; Werewolves; Zombies.
Further Reading
Backer, Ron. 2015. Classic Horror Films and the Literature That Inspired Them. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Broderick, James F. 2012. Now a Terrifying Motion Picture!: Twenty-Five Classic Works of Horror Adapted from Book to Film. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Guiley, Rosemary. 2005. The Encyclopedia of Vampires, Werewolves, and Other Monsters. New York: Facts on File.
Hanke, Ken. 2013. A Critical Guide to the Horror Film Series. London: Routledge.