Book to Film | Frankenstein

Frankenstein’s book cover (left), and film poster (right).

There have, of course, been many screen adaptations of Frankenstein over the years, but the one I’m going to be talking about here in relation to the book is the 1994 version, directed by Kenneth Branagh.

This iteration seems to generally be considered the most faithful to the original novel, which is part of the reason I was keen to give it a go. I can absolutely see why it is regarded as so, as the main arc does indeed stick pretty close to Mary Shelley’s iconic story, albeit with a few extra bells and whistles to ramp up the drama. Unlike many other pop-culture versions of Frankenstein’s creation, I was glad to see that this one was as pitiable as he was monstrous; as indeed Shelley herself intended. This meant the integrity of the book’s core themes – like the moral ambiguity of pushing science too far; the risks of trying to overcome death; the destructive nature of blindly pursuing our obsessions; and the question over how we as a society truly make monsters – are all still largely intact.

All that said, there is something about the film that just never fully clicked for me. Though the story and themes are still there, the subtlety and nuance are gone. Everything feels a bit too extra, from the frantic direction to the overbearing soundtrack. This somewhat hectic feeling means that the emotional beats of the narrative can’t always resonate properly, as we are relentlessly rushed onto the next scene.

The film’s principal cast: Kenneth Branagh as Victor Frankenstein; Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth Lavenza; and Robert De Niro as The Creation.

Alongside the big names heading up the cast, there are a number of well-known actors in supporting roles – including Ian Holm, John Cleese, Celia Imrie, and Richard Briers. I can’t say anyone’s performance blew me away, but I suspect this was due in part to the film’s overall sense of erratic melodrama. De Niro is certainly charismatic as The Creation, able to evoke the tricky blend of pity and revulsion. Bonham Carter is also ethereally captivating in the film’s climax, when her character is given a fate more theatrical and disturbing than in the book, yet undoubtedly more visually haunting too.

Ambitious and aesthetically striking, I suspect Branagh simply tried to accomplish too much in a runtime of less than two hours. Still, it was enjoyable enough, and I was glad to see a version that tried hard to honour the intent of Shelley’s masterpiece, even if it wasn’t always entirely successful.

Let’s Recommend | Halloween Reads

Let’s recommend some Halloween reads!

Each year, as the build-up to Halloween begins, I like to recommend some creepy books for those who want to get into the spirit of the season. Without further ado, here are my picks for this year – and as always, I encourage you to share your own recommendations in the comments.

The Silence by Tim Lebbon

A thrilling, apocalyptic horror story that plays with the idea of sensory deprivation, this is definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of Josh Malerman’s Bird Box, or the movie, A Quiet Place. A cave system that has been sealed off for millennia is excavated, unleashing a horde of deadly, prehistoric, bat-like creatures that hunt using sound. We follow a family (one of whom is deaf) who flee their home in search of somewhere safe to hunker down, as the plague spreads across Europe. Relying on the use of sign language to live in silence, with a mounting sense of panic and claustrophobia closing in, they must face threat from the creatures themselves, and people pushed to the brink. It’s not a perfect book, but I found it fast, fun, and a fresh take on a well saturated genre.

Carrie by Stephen King

Between the iconic status of both the book and the film, and the non-linear structure that gives us glimpses of the tragic outcome throughout, we always know that Carrie’s story will end in violence and bloodshed. Despite this sense of inevitability, the book still manages to be tense and gripping. King’s heroine is so well drawn, and so poorly treated, that despite the horror she unleashes, we can still feel pathos and sympathy for her. Indeed, the true evil in this story is found elsewhere, making this a tale about the monsters we create.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

First off, if you’ve seen the Will Smith movie, know that the original book is very different, and in my opinion, significantly superior. We follow a man who fears he may be the last survivor following an outbreak that has seen the rest of the population turned into vampires. The physical danger posed by these blood-thirsty creatures is indeed horrifying, but is no less real to our hero than the looming threat of insanity, brought on by the paranoia, loneliness, grief, and alcohol addiction he must also wrestle with. As with my favourite sci-fi/horror, there’s an attempt to base everything in plausible logic and science, which makes the scenario feel all the more unsettling.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

This is a masterful tale of mounting tension, and a great example of the less-is-more approach to the horror genre. There are no cheap jump scares or gory scenes in sight, and yet it creeps beneath your skin and makes you question what is real, and which characters can be trusted. Not only are there some outright creepy moments in which Jackson builds a tangible sense of fear, but the whole book is suffused with an oppressive and ethereal atmosphere that suits the tone of the story perfectly. The plot itself sees four people visiting a notorious manor, determined to prove whether or not its rumoured haunting is real. It’s subtle and nuanced, and explores many interesting themes, but never to the detriment of its ability to unnerve.

Wytches by Scott Snyder

This graphic novel draws on the early mythology of witches to subvert many of the expectations you’d likely have going into a story about them. Forget cauldrons and pointy hats; the beings found herein are of far more monstrous and threatening stock. The accompanying artwork is striking, which serves to enhance the impact of the dark, intense, and disturbing story.

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What reads would you recommend to get into the Halloween spirit?

Let’s Recommend | Halloween Reads

Let’s recommend some reads for Halloween

With Halloween fast approaching, I thought now would be the perfect time to once again recommend a few creepy reads, in case you’re on the lookout for something to get you into the spirit of the season as the day itself draws ever closer.

Final Girls by Riley Sager

Final Girls is like a love letter to the horror genre, indulging in many of the old-school tropes that make it famous, and yet in a way that really works. And so, for all its twists, tension and gore, it manages to capture a fun and even nostalgic quality that will remind you of popcorn flicks of days gone by. The characters are fleshed out, flawed and unreliable, adding to the absorbing nature of the story, which in itself centres around three young women known in the press as the Final Girls, as they were each the sole survivor of a mass murder; two of whom must band together after the other is found dead.

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

This is a very recent read for me, and one I suspect will linger in my mind for quite some time. It’s the story of a young couple who move into a luxury apartment block, with the wife eager to start a family. They befriend an elderly couple on their floor, but become suspicious of their true intentions when they become increasingly involved in their lives, and in particular Rosemary’s pregnancy. It gets right under your skin and builds a sense of dread incredibly well, and all at the perfect pace to keep you gripped.

The Resurrectionist by E.B. Hudspeth

The Resurrectionist is presented as though it’s non-fiction. The first half is the ‘biography’ of a famous yet hugely controversial scientist who conducted mysterious experiments in his bid to prove his hypothesis that birth defects and deformities are merely the body’s attempt to revert to former states, with all mythical beings and creatures having once been real and humans being their descendants. It’s deliberately vague and unsettling, with his obsession driving him to take drastic measures that will no doubt disturb. The second half of the book is his magnum opus; painstakingly detailed and macabre anatomical artwork that lays out how he believes such creatures would have evolved. I love the idea of people finding this book on a dusty library shelf in decades to come and believing, just for a moment, that it could perhaps be real.

Some examples of the macabre artwork found inside The Resurrectionist.

The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs

If you’re looking for something brief to pick up of an evening and creep you out, a short story like The Monkey’s Paw could be ideal. It’s a classic of the ‘be careful what you wish for’ message, in which a family come into possession of a magical (or cursed) monkey’s paw that will grant them three wishes, though each coming with horrifying consequences they could not foresee. It’s very atmospheric and testament to the fact that what you don’t see can be as powerful and unnerving as what you do.

The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley

The Beauty is a dystopian novella that centres around a group of men after a fungal disease has wiped out all women. They await inevitable death whilst living on the memory of everything they have lost, until a strange new species begins to grow from the bodies of the deceased women. The way the men choose to treat these beings will determine the entire future of society. Whiteley manages to create a world that is both beautiful and revolting, and it’s one of those stories in which the cruelty of mankind itself becomes the true monster of the piece, with themes of gender roles and storytelling adding even greater depth to this hypnotic fever dream of a story.

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What reads would you recommend to get into the Halloween spirit?

Let’s Recommend | Halloween Reads

Let’s recommend some books for Halloween!

With Halloween right around the corner, this time I’ve decided to recommend some books with varying degrees of creep factor to help get you into the spooky spirit. As always, I encourage you to share your own recommendations in the comments.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

I can’t stop thinking about – or recommending – Bird Box. This creepy dystopian-esque story really plays on our senses and is a masterclass in the power of the unknown. We follow a young woman and her two children in a world where something is lurking outside; something that can drive people to insanity with a single glance. Having lived in the shadows for years, our heroine must blindfold her children and set out in search of safety. The climax of this book in particular is truly haunting.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

If it’s a classic you’re in search of, The Turn of the Screw would be a fine choice. This creepy novella follows a young woman who begins a new job as a governess, but when she becomes convinced the children she has been charged with protecting are under threat from ghosts inhabiting the manor, her very sanity is called into question. This is perhaps one of the earliest and best examples of an effective unreliable narrator.

Misery by Stephen King

If you prefer your monsters to be of the human persuasion and your horror all the more unsettling for the fact that it could actually happen, Stephen King’s Misery is a great pick. Tense and at times deeply disturbing, we follow a writer as he is kidnapped by his ‘number one fan’, Annie Wilkes, who is not happy at all about the way he ended his last book…

The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

If you opt for the Penguin Little Black Classics edition of this celebrated short story, you get another two brief tales by Perkins Gilman as well, both equally as atmospheric and worthy of a read. The title story follows a woman’s slow descent into madness after she is confined to a single room by her husband, whilst the others follow two men who become infatuated with the ghostly figure of a woman they glimpse through a window, and a young woman who becomes the target of a lecherous man, respectively. The author cleverly flips gender perceptions common at the time and packs a punch with few words.

Monsters in the Movies by John Landis

If non-fiction is more your kind of thing, Monsters in the Movies is a great coffee table read that you can dip in and out of, getting interesting insights – as well as gorgeous, high quality visuals – from horror films throughout the years, so you can learn about how they brought our favourite monsters, be they vampires, werewolves, devils, demons, zombies, witches or such like, to life. It is therefore a great place to find movie recommendations to also help you get in the Halloween mood.

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What creepy reads do you recommend for Halloween? Let’s chat about them.

Let’s Recommend | Creepy Books

creepy reads

I’ve been hoping to start something of a series here on my blog where I recommend a certain type of book and encourage you all to recommend some in return. Seeing as we are fast approaching Halloween, it seemed the perfect opportunity to kick things off by recommending some creepy books to get us all in the spooky spirit.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Coraline follows a young girl who, upon going through a mysterious door in her home that has always remained locked, discovers a bizarre and disturbing alternate version of her own life. There are lots of great characters in this book, notably the cat, the ‘other mother’ and of course the plucky and resourceful Coraline herself.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy by Tim Burton

This is a series of abstract poems and sparse short stories accompanied by beautifully weird illustrations. It felt to me like getting to steal a glance inside Burton’s sketch book or journal and if you know his work, you will know to expect the unexpected with a good dash of creepiness.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

This is a graphic novel comprised of several short stories. The artwork is vivid, bold and immersive. It wasn’t so much the stories themselves that stuck with me as it was the fantastic atmosphere that Carroll created throughout.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This is a short story often cited as a feminist text that follows the disturbing mental decline of an intelligent woman confined to a single room by her husband and doctor, who feel it is inappropriate that a woman should wish to write. It has an important message about supressing creativity but is also just unsettling in its own right.

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I’ll leave it there for now but as I said, I’d love to make this a collaborative feature so by all means recommend some of your favourite creepy reads in the comments. Happy reading!

Nasty Little Books!

Let’s get into the Halloween spirit with some Nasty Little Books!

I became aware of the term ‘nasty little book’ a while back when I first watched this awesome video. It’s not a bad thing as the name might suggest. On the contrary, it essentially describes a book that is short (around 200 pages or less) that really knows how to get inside your head, crawl beneath your skin and pack a heck of a punch. Given that we are fast approaching Halloween, it seemed the ideal time to recommend some of my personal favourite ‘nasty little books’.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

The Turn of the Screw is a classic and its popularity has endured for good reason. James mastered the art of less is more and through the eyes of his unreliable narrator, we are never quite sure if the story is one of a terrifying haunting or the depiction of one woman’s slow descent into madness. Either way, it’s a chilling, breathless read.

The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan

This book left me so conflicted, as I was simultaneously rooting for the main characters whilst cringing at their actions during their eventual slip from reality. When a family of children become orphaned and cover up their mother’s death through fear of being separated into care homes, you can’t help but sympathise with their misguided efforts to shut out the world and live a self-contained existence, but their own oblivious ignorance has devastating consequences.

Real World by Natsuo Kirino

Translated from the original text by the Japanese ‘Queen of Crime’, Real World follows the viewpoints of several teenagers, one of whom is a boy who murders his own mother in the opening pages of the book and four of whom are the girls who all become embroiled in the fallout in some capacity. It’s about living in a fantasy world vs reality and the importance of facing the consequences of our actions, but reading from the viewpoint of a remorseless teen killer is enough to send shivers up your spine.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

The story of The Woman in Black was made famous a few years ago by the very popular and creepy movie adaptation starring Daniel Radcliffe, but it all started with this short yet powerful novella released some years prior. The epitome of a classic ghost story, it will have you looking over your shoulder for a long time after you turn the final page.

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Have you read any of these? What ‘nasty little books’ do you recommend?