Now Scream This: The Best Streaming Horror Movies Based On Books
(Welcome toNow Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)Matt:As an uncivilized swine who barely has enough time to keep up with weekly cinema releases, let other mediums of storytelling, Chris has informed me that some of my favorite horror films are actually based on written literature. I didn’t believe him at first, but some quick researching proves he’s actually right! Who knew books could be good for something besides kindling for campfires? In any case, in honor of some little movie calledDrowsy Physicianor something, here are a few rad horror movies based on authored horror you can stream right now!Chris:HappyDoctor Sleepmonth! Yes, it’s time for yetanotherStephen Kingadaptation – this time adapted from his sequel toThe Shining. In honor of this particular literary horror adaptation, Matt and I are turning to the wild world of horror books for this week’s Now Scream This! Too lazy to read a book? Don’t worry! There are movies!
Now Streaming on Vudu
Matt:David Wong’sJohn Dies At The Endwas adapted byDon CoscarelliofPhantasmfame, and quite well if you ask my opinion. Not everyone can wrangle alternate-reality invasions laced with stoner humor, doped-up by a fake street drug dubbed “Soy Sauce.” This title actually landed in my “100 Best Horror Movies Of The Decade” series posted right here on /Film, as lead actorsChase WilliamsonandRob Mayessell their psychotropic freakout as an evil-fighting buddy tandem. Meat monsters, doomsday cults,Paul Giamatti-John Dies At The Endhas it all!Chris:I’ve never read theJohn Dies at the Endbook, but I have seen the film, and it sure is wacky!
Now Streaming on Netflix
Matt:Clive Barker’s works have long disturbed horror movie audiences, withBernard Rose’sCandymanadaptation ranking high in terms of quality. In a time when representation wasn’t the greatest for slasher cinema,Tony Toddcarved his face on the Mount Rushmore of horror icons as the Chicago hook-hand slayer. Personally, it took until this Halloween season to checkCandymanoff my blind spot list. Why, dear readers, did it take twenty-seven years to right such a wrong (besides obvious reasons first about my age upon release and then being BUSY BUSY BUSY). Doesn’t matter – enlightenment prevails. A magnificent cultural horror swing that’s gory, mesmeric, and makes Bloody Mary look like a punk.Chris:TheCandymanshort story is vastly different than the film, and I’d go so far as to say the film is better. Sorry, Clive Barker!
Now Streaming on Hulu/Amazon Prime
Matt:No, not thatTheMidnight Meat TrainI mistakenly flipped to on Cinemax one night past 2AM. The other one. Adapted byRyuhei Kitamura, based on aClive Barkerstory, starringBradley CooperandVinnie Jones. A grimy look at a city’s underbelly where a murderer slaughters subway train passengers, only to reveal an even more insidious motivation. It’s brutal, drenched in vile butcher’s remnants, and a slick piece of conspiracy horror from the perspective of a paranoid photographer. Definitely still for the after 2AM crowd, based on stomach-churning reasons and super mature content.Chris:Wow, two Clive Barker adaptations in one list? Crazy! Once again, I’m going to say I think this movie adaptation is better than the story it’s based on. It’s just fun. Bradley Cooper! In a movie calledMidnight Meat Train! How can you resist?
Matt:Mike Flanagandid what some thought would be impossible: adapt theStephen KingstoryGerald’s Game. Kinky bedroom rape-fantasy “enjoyment” gone horribly awry.Carla Gugino’s work as a woman bound to her bedpost shines while the vision of her now-deceased lover, played by Bruce Greenwood, pays continual visits (in addition to other unwanted guests). Shades of single-setting tension and unsightly torments plague Gugino’s performance, then Flanagan pays off with his “sliding of the glove” effect. It’s all fun and games until your lover dies of a heart attack and leaves you handcuffed, stranded with no key. Someone has to have said that, right?Chris:Directors avoided adapting Stephen King’sGerald’s Gamefor years, simply because the book is so un-cinematic. But Mike Flanagan actually found a way to make it work.
Now Streaming on Shudder
Matt:Everyone’s lives can use a little moreTakashi Miike, especially horror fans who’ve yet to behold his adaptation ofRyu Murakami’sAudition.Eihi Shiinastars as a romantic who desires to be loved by only one man, andRyo Ishibashiplays the poor widowed bastard who becomes her latest fixation. A movie that zigs, zags, and pulls morbid tricks out of an unassuming sack. Cinematic historians have read the film as both feminist and misogynistic, the former stemming from a particularly gruesome torture scene. In any case, it’s an exquisite, divisive gaze into violent obsessions, as the apple of one’s eye rots from the inside outward.Chris:The perfect date movie.
Chris:When it came time to adaptRosemary’s Baby,Roman Polanskiactually stuckveryclose to the source material. This is almost a page-for-page adaptation of Ira Levin’s novel. It’s also one fo the best horror movies ever made – a chilling, hypnotic portrait of a young woman (Mia Farrow) who fears for her unborn child. Of course, as we all know, she needn’t worry about the child’s fate, since he’s the antichrist and all. What makesRosemary’s Babywork so well is howgroundedall the horror poor Rosemary’s experiences. Yes, there’s supernatural stuff at work here, but it all seems so, well, believable. And that’s scary.Matt:In the pantheon of maternal madness cinema, psychological pre-parental horrors rarely reach the heights ofRosemary’s Baby.
Chris:Here it is: the firstStephen Kingfilm adaptation, based on the first Stephen King novel.Brian De Palmatakes King’s tale of a troubled telepathic teen and works magic with it, employing all sorts of visual trickery – split-screens, quick zooms, and more.Sissy Spacekis marvelous as Carrie White, a complete loser who also happens to have deadly psychic powers. When she gets asked to the prom as part of an elaborate prank to humiliate her, she thinks things are finally going her way. They aren’t. And on top of all that, her crazy religious mother (Piper Laurie) terrorizes her. It all culminates in a fiery massacre that remains powerful and terrifying after all these years.Matt:I truly didn’t mind theCarrieremake, but it’s hard to hold a candle to De Palma.
Now Streaming on Hulu
Chris: Alex Garland’s brilliant, vastly underappreciatedAnnihilationis an adaptation of the book of the same name from Jeff VanderMeer. While it uses the same basic set-up – a team of women heads into a mysterious are that’s been drastically changed by an unexplained phenomenon – it’s a vastly different story than the book.Natalie Portman,Jennifer Jason Leigh,Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, andTuva Novotnyplay the team members, and all of them bring their own unique talents to the film. As the women head into Area X they encounter strange, nightmarish things that defy explanation, and leave the viewer haunted.Matt:I’d argue the spiraling story ofAnnihilationtangles itself after too many twirls around Garland’s sci-fi maypole, but holy shit that hellbeast grizzly bear scene.
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Chris:Loaded with jump-scares but still a heck of a lot of fun,The Woman in Blackis an old fashioned haunted house story based on Susan Hill’s chiller of a novel.Daniel Radcliffeis a lawyer in the early 1900s sent to a spooky old house to put a dead person’s affairs to rest. What he finds is a curse, a ghost, and all sorts of things that go bump in the night.The Woman in Blackisn’t the most nuanced haunted house movie, but damn it, it has style. It embraces its gothic trappings and unleashes several genuinely creepy moments.Matt:You know, I skipped this one when it came out. Never bothered to go back. Maybe I will. Someday. Gazes far into the distance, looking for free time that does not exist
Chris:Lots of people don’t seem to care forWounds(including Matt, I see), but I dunno – it worked for me. I read the short story it was based on –The Visible Filthby Nathan Ballingrud – and while it had its moments, the movie is much better. Armie Hammer is a underachieving bartender who takes his girlfriend (Dakota Johnson) for granted while lusting after his best friend (Zazie Beetz). One night, Hammer’s character finds a lost cell phone in his bar. The phone contains several disturbing photos and videos that kick off a strange, nightmarish journey full of body horror and lots of bugs. It’s an icky, squirmy movie – and I dug that.Matt:Wow, I really thoughtWoundswas a waste of talents that left an actual third act and finale somewhere on a studio’s cutting room floor.
