Stories You Forgot Were Originally Books

Alyssah Snow

Once upon a time, the majority of people read books for their entertainment; now they have been turned into movies and TV shows, leaving people not knowing that the story was originally a book. Here are some movies and other adaptations that many people don’t know or have forgotten are originally books, some reasons the books aren’t remembered, and why you should still give these books a read.

1. Psycho- The novel was written by Robert Bloch in 1959, with the movie released the next year. In the case of this adaptation, they are both old, and the movie itself is mainly remembered for starting many horror movie tropes and being loosely based on Ed Gein. The main thing the book has over the movie is its access into the mind of Norman Bates. You get his inner thoughts and monologues during his killings and explain his motives more clearly. There is also more graphic violence and gore in the novel’s descriptions that the movie couldn’t have due to the strict censorship.

2. Cats- This musical is based on a book of poems by T.S. Eliot titled Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats. Despite being a talking point on whether or not Andrew Lloyd Webber can actually write a good musical instead of a few memorable songs, Cats had a major impact on musical theatre. It started the concept of the “megamusical,” leading to musical productions to lean more into big-budget spectacles with special effects and elaborate costumes. This collection doesn’t have that memorability in the realm of poetry like some of Elliot’s other works, but it’s still good considering the poems were used as the lyrics. What does the poem collection have over the musical? Well, the poems are about feline psychology and sociology, and the musical is highly debated among musical theatre fans and has a movie adaptation with CGI cat-human abominations that only made back about $38 million of its $100 million budget. The poems also don’t have the weird cat cult plot.

3. Jurassic Park- Michael Crichton published his sensational dinosaur tale in 1990 and had film studios bidding for its film rights years before it was even published. While a good novel, it is a typical Crichton novel, but with dinosaurs. The movie, however, had a major impact on filmmaking. While other movies had used CG, Jurassic Park was the first to seamlessly blend CG into live-action. Being one of Steven Speilbergs's highest rated movies also helps. What the original novel has over the movie is its further look into the science behind the park, a harder sense of the story’s themes that have been slowly lost over the many sequels, and a lot more action sequences that didn’t make it into the movie. The river scene in the newest Jurassic World movie, which was horribly executed and had no impact on the story, was taken from this novel and actually has tension. One of Crichton’s biggest strengths in writing science fiction was making the science aspects understandable to readers who may not understand them. The novel is also more of a

horror book. Notably, certain scenes in the prologues and the scene with Nedry and the Dilophosaurus are far more gruesome and gory than compared to the movie, though the deaths in the novel are more horror-esc. Also, if you’re a fan of the Jurassic Park franchise and want content that’s actually decent for once, this novel and the novel for The Lost World are really all there is left if you haven’t already read them.

4. The Fly- Written by George Langelaan in 1957. While the original movie came out in 1958, I will be referring to the David Cronenberg remake starring Jeff Goldblum (because I haven’t seen the original, I can’t find it). Similar to Jurassic Park above, this movie is remembered for its effects. Along with John Carpenter’s The Thing, The Fly is typically one of the movies referred to for having some of the best practical effects, with the slow, disgusting transformation of Brundlefly. The movie was also Jeff Goldblum’s major movie role. The short story is a good read for people who like quicker-paced, more claustrophobic science fiction horror over the movie’s tragic, slow and sickening meltdown. The short story also has more of a murder mystery/crime aspect to it. It is told through an investigation to determine why Hélène has confessed to killing her husband to reveal the scientific and horror aspects. As for the ‘58 film, which is closer in plot to the short story, the written version does have one certain thing over it: the written description hasn’t aged badly like the effects of the original movie.

5. The Hunchback of Notre-Dame- While more people know of this being a novel, have they actually read it? Mostly no. Victor Hugo’s novel was published in 1831. In 1996, Disney decided to turn this very dark, not child-friendly movie into a family-friendly movie that somehow got a G rating, and it’s still one of their best movies, with what is widely considered the best Disney villain song in “Hellfire.” Because the movie is family-friendly, it is available to a wider audience than the book. Even though this is one of Disney’s darker animated movies, it’s still very toned down from the original. After all, Victor Hugo was a French author in the 1800s. If you want a darker story with deeper meanings and a more complex look into the church during this period, then you should give the novel a chance.

Here are a few others you might be interested in:

6. Dexter- Based on a novel series by Jeff Lindsey called Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

7. How to Train Your Dragon- Novel series by Cressida Cowell.

8. Schindler’s List- Schindler’s Arch by Thomas Keneally.

9. Jaws- Novel by Peter Benchley.

10. Shrek- Children's book by William Steig.

11. Howl's Moving Castle- Novel by Diana Wynne Jones.

12. Die Hard- Based on a sequel titled Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp.

13. The Thing From Another World and The Thing (1982)- Who Goes There? by John W.

Campbell