In recent years it is more and more frequent to see cinematographic works taken from books and novels (famous or not), we can talk about many titles and works, including the most recent one, or the new and already very famous TV series The Haunting of Hill House. In particular, here we will see five film transpositions of novels, starting from the aforementioned series of the American streaming platform.
The Haunting of Hill House
The famous original TV series Netflix, which in just over a month has reached an exceptional number of consents, is taken from the homonymous and not very well-known novel written by Shirley jackson in 1959 and released in our country in 1979.
Although the series is largely inspired by the original novel (especially in the settings, in the names and characters of the characters) the story changes radically. In fact, the novel is not about a family haunted by the past spent in the haunted Hill House, but rather tells the story of a single girl who is "captured" from the house to the point of going mad and killing herself (a theme that is partly treated with Nell within the series).
Shining
The famous film, written and directed by the director Stanley Kubrick in 1980, it is a transposition of the equally famous and homonymous novel by Stephen King, written just 3 years before its film adaptation and almost immediately became an icon of modern horror.
The story of the two works is really similar, in fact the characters and the labyrinthine settings of theOverlook Hotel they are perfectly transposed from the literary work to the cinematographic one. However there are some substantial differences between the two works on the final, in fact in the novel theOverlook Hotel burns in the flames while the cook Dick Halloran he saves himself from the murderous madness of Jack. Instead in the film Halloran dies and the Hotel receives no structural damage.
IT
Speaking of the very famous dancing clown Pennywise and of its history, this is present in 3 different versions (namely that of the novel, that of the mini television series and that of the film adaptation). As for the novel, this was written by the famous and already mentioned Stephen King and came out in 1986.
Instead, the mini television series was broadcast in 1990 and is divided into two parts, one in which the first part of the novel is transposed (in which the protagonists meet for the first time the killer clown called IT), and the other where the second part of the novel is told (in which the characters, now adults, face the extra-dimensional monster for the second and last time).
However, the mini series and the film adaptation of 2017 (born from the direction of Andrés Muschietti) do not differ too much in structure. In fact, there are also 2 films (the second is scheduled for 2019). and even in this case the story is divided into two parts, one in which the characters are children and the other in which they are adults.
Between all three versions the substantial differences are not many, in fact the characters and settings do not differ almost at all, but it is not the same if we talk about the events narrated, which are considerably reduced to the bone in the visual transpositions of the novel. , for needs clearly linked to the timing (this greatly compromises the explanation of the backgrounds of the various characters), fortunately, however, the two transpositions are quite faithful overall, especially the film version of recent years.
Hannibal
This work too has received a similar treatment to that of It, in fact it is a novel by Thomas Harris (written in 1999) which has received two transpositions, one cinematographic (part of the saga de "The Silence of the Innocents") and the other in the form of a TV series.
The two versions do not differ in particular from the novel, in fact (except for the FBI agent in charge of the investigation of Hannibal Lecter in the TV series) the characters do not change from version to version, and the same goes for the settings.
The differences lie in the cast of the two film versions, in fact in the 2001 film the famous cannibal is played by Anthony Hopkins, while the FBI agent Clarice Starling is interpreted by Julianne Moore. Instead, as far as the 2013 TV series is concerned, the cannibal is played by Mads Mikkelsen while the FBI agent Will Graham is played by Hugh dancy.
The Exorcist
The latter film adaptation born in 1973 from the direction of William Friedkin is taken from the novel of the same name W written in 1971. It is also important to mention the 2016 TV series, which turns out to be a free re-adaptation of the novel but which received only two seasons and was canceled on 11 May 2018.
Dwelling on the cinematographic re-adaptation of the aforementioned editorial work, it is possible to say that the two versions, also in this case, are not extremely different from each other. Some of the things that have undergone changes in the narrative have been changed for reasons related to the timing of the film re-adaptation.
