5 Horror Book-to-Film Adaptations that Will Give You Chills

Based on Shirley Jackson’s seminal classic, The Haunting of Hill House, the 1963 film version is nothing short of a masterpiece.

 Director Robert Wise is often best remembered in cinema circles for his film version of West Side Story, but for us horror fans, there’s nothing better than watching Hill House slowly but surely destroy the sanity of all who dare to enter it.

And truly, the cast of this film is utterly amazing. I’ve been a big fan of Julie Harris ever since I saw her in East of Eden, and she’s the perfect Nell in The Haunting. Add in Claire Bloom as the mercurial Theo and pre-Twin Peaks Russ Tamblyn as Luke, and you’ve got an incredible group of performers who help to put this ghostly film over the top.

Be sure to watch this one with the lights on. 

It should go without saying, but Oscar Wilde was one of a kind. His creepy gothic classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray, has been adapted many times, but the one that deserves your special attention is the 1945 version directed by Albert Lewin.

The queer subtext of the original story manages to come across in this film adaptation, even if the Hays Code forbid them from making the themes more overt. The use of Technicolor for the portrait was an ingenious choice, and like The Haunting, the casting truly knocks this one out of the park.

Look for an early appearance from Angela Lansbury as the ill-fated Sibyl Vane. 

All right, so plenty of people don’t consider Rebecca a horror story, but here’s the thing: a tale about a dead wife basically haunting her so-called replacement while using her devoted servant to do her fiery legwork absolutely sounds like a terrifying setup to me.

 Add in Hitchcock’s resolutely gothic setting, and you have an atmospheric horror film that will creep into the edge of your nightmares.

Ever since I was a kid, I always loved the toxically romantic element of the story between the austere Maxim de Winter and his second wife, and since it’s loosely based on Jane Eyre, why not make it a double feature of period-piece horror classics? 

I’m currently working my way through the new AMC series (and yes, I’m enjoying it wholeheartedly), but we’re going to go all the way back to the 90s for this one. There are certainly fans out there who still aren’t crazy about Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt as Lestat and Louis respectively, but I remember seeing this film for the first time at ten years old, and let me just say that it left its mark.

Plus, Kirsten Dunst in her breakout role as Claudia is worth the price of admission alone. The queer coding isn’t nearly as overt in the film as it is in the book, but there’s still some fantastically sexually charged energy between the male leads as well as then-newcomer Antonio Banderas as Armand.

The Old World atmosphere is on point, though what else can you expect from the always fabulous Neil Jordan? If you want yet another double feature, opt for Jordan’s adaptation of Angela Carter’s magnificent The Company of Wolves.

So much horror goodness, so little time. 

There are so many great series of films in the horror genre, but one set that doesn’t get nearly the love that it deserves is Roger Corman’s Poe Cycle.

Consisting of eight films, the Poe Cycle is true to its name: all of them are unusual retellings of the horror maestro’s short fiction and poetry, shot in glorious Technicolor and starring Vincent Price in every film but one.

You can literally pick any of the adaptations at random and choose a good movie, but let’s go back to the beginning with 1960’s House of Usher. Poe’s original short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” is scant on character backgrounds, so Corman does an indelible job of reimagining it in wholly new and unexpected ways.

The end result elevates a deeply weird tale into a tragic horror story, and the genre is all the better for it.

I can’t stress it enough: if you haven’t seen the Corman-Poe Cycle films yet, then please run, don’t walk, to your streaming queue. It will do your horror heart good.