There’s almost nothing better than hearing that one of your favorite books is going to be adapted into a movie or series. From The Twilight Saga to The Great Gatsby, Harry Potter, and almost the entirety of Stephen King’s work, there’s a vast catalog of book-to-movie adaptations out there, ranging across nearly every genre.
To be fair, though, sometimes book-to-movie adaptations aren’t all that great — hence the expression, “The book was better than the movie.” It can be difficult to transfer hundreds of pages of descriptions, backstories and dialogue into a less than two-hour block. On the other hand, though, sometimes it’s done really well, almost to the point where the book and movie may be tied for which is best. If you’re an avid reader and movie/TV watcher, there’s likely been times when you’ve been reading a book and started to imagine how good it would be as a movie or TV adaptation. The imagery is so vivid, it’s like you can see the book playing out in your head as a movie. These are six young adult horror books that give off that same feeling and would make great movie adaptations.
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6 Deep and Dark and Dangerous
Clarion Books
Deep and Dark and Dangerous is a mysterious ghost story by Mary Downing Hahn that was published in 2007. It’s about a teenage girl named Ali who spends the summer at a lake house in Maine babysitting her niece. At the lakehouse, Ali finds an old photo of her aunt, mother, and a mystery girl who was torn from the photograph. Neither her aunt nor her mother seems to remember who the mystery girl is, but when a strange girl named Sissy starts showing up and tormenting Ali’s niece, she starts to put the pieces together and discovers who the mystery girl in the photo is.
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Mary Downing Hahn is known for crafting chilling ghost stories for children and young adults like Wait Till Helen Comes and The Old Willis Place. Deep and Dark and Dangerous would make a great movie adaptation because it has just enough suspense and horror to be scary without being traumatizing, meaning it would be a good watch for a wide audience. It also relies heavily on foreshadowing, which would transfer really well to the big screen. The book’s setting would do well as a movie, too, because the creepy summer camp setting is a well-loved one in the horror movies genre, and Deep and Dark and Dangerous would be a really good book to see brought to life on screen.
5 Clown in a Cornfield
HarperTeen
Clown in a Cornfield was released in 2020 by Adam Cesare. It focuses on Quinn, a teenage girl who recently moved to a small factory town in Missouri with her dad after her mom died. It’s a typical old small town that’s at odds with itself, with the older residents and the local youth often butting heads. Quinn becomes friends with a group of local headstrong teens — one of which is known for burning down the town’s local corn syrup factory. The teens attend the annual Founder’s Day celebration together and an after party held in a nearby cornfield, but things eventually take a creepy turn when the town’s mascot, Frendo the Clown, begins killing off the teens one by one.
Clown in a Cornfield is a modern slasher, and while it’s in the young adult genre, it’s a fun read for adults, too. It’s a very well-written story with interesting characters and would make a great movie. It also has a sequel — Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives — which means if the book was ever adapted it could become a two-movie event. It’s also likely we’ll see Clown in a Cornfield make its big screen debut sooner than later, because the producers behind the horror movie Smile are currently working on a big screen adaptation.
4 Ten
Balzer + Bray
If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, you’ll likely enjoy Ten by Gretchen McNeil because it’s inspired by Christie’s hit novel. It’s about 10 teens at a weekend-long house party on an island. It starts off as a fun time, but things soon take a sinister turn when they discover a creepy DVD that declares vengeance, a storm cuts them off from the outside world, and a mysterious killer starts picking them off one by one. It’s a classic “whodunnit” that will keep you guessing from beginning to end as you try to figure out who the killer is.
This type of plot works really well in movies and has been done several times before in similar ways like Clue, Death on The Nile and Murder on the Orient Express. Ten is very, very similar to And Then There Were None, from the overall plot to the descriptions of the storm, but it has a certain modern feel to it that manages to make it fresh while being a generally familiar story.
3 I Hunt Killers
Little, Brown and Company
I Hunt Killers is a very unique story and for that reason alone it would make a great movie. Written by Barry Lyga, it’s about Jazz, a likable teen who just so happens to be the son of the world’s most infamous serial killer and attended many a “take your child to work day” with his father, experiencing crime scenes from the criminal’s point of view. Jazz’s dad has been in prison for a while now, but murders are starting to happen again. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins forces with the police to hunt for the killer. But does being a murderer run in the family?
Fans of the TV series Dexter will probably like Jazz and the I Hunt Killers story because there are a lot of similarities between the two, like how charming the main character is. This is also another one of those books that though it’s classified as young adult, it can really be for anyone. It’s well-written, has good pacing, and is such a tense page-turner it wouldn’t be a shock if you finished it in one sitting. I Hunt Killers could be really well-adapted on the big screen and likely see a lot of success — just look at how well-loved Dexter was. The book also has several prequels and sequels attached to the storyline, which could open up the door to a series of movies rather than just a one-off.
2 Joyland
Hard Case Crime
Of course, there has to be a Stephen King novel on this list. Joyland is a Hard Case Crime book about a college student named Devin who goes to work as a carny for the summer at an amusement park in a small North Carolina town in 1973, where he uncovers the secrets surrounding an unsolved murder. It’s both a coming-of-age story and a mystery, and it’s a much gentler book than some of King’s other work. There’s more thought-provoking lines about life, death and growing up and less horror, but it’s still a great read and may serve as a good introductory point for those who are new to King’s work.
The atmosphere of this book alone would make for a great movie. A 1970s amusement park sounds like it’d be a lot of fun to watch. It’s also possible that Joyland would make a good limited series. While it’s not as long as some of King’s other works, he still spent a decent amount of time fleshing out the characters, and a one and a half to two-hour movie slot may not be enough time to do his work justice. Plus, a limited series would give us — the audience — more content to enjoy. It also wouldn’t be the first time one of King’s Hard Case Crime novellas gets brought to life on screen, as Blumhouse Television is currently working on a limited series based on his 2021 novel, Later.
1 Bad Witch Burning
Delacorte Press
Diversity and inclusivity is often lacking, especially in pop culture and modern media. For example, it most modern media witches are either white women or old, crotchety ladies living in swamps or forests. However, Bad Witch Burning is a breath of fresh air in that the main protagonist — Katrell — is a witch of color. Written by Jessica Lewis, Katrell can talk to the dead and uses this talent to make money to support herself and her mother. The spirits on the otherside warn her to stop, but she doesn’t and accidently raises someone from the dead and realizes how much more money she could make by bringing people back to life rather than just chatting with ghosts. But of course, magic — specifically the dark kind — comes at a price.
Bad Witch Burning would make a great movie because all the characters are so dynamic and well-rounded, they already just about jump off the page. It’s also not just a book about witchy magic. It also deals in themes like poverty, abuse and depression and excels in delivering thought-provoking messages while also entertaining you with excellent writing and an interesting story. Bad Witch Burning is Lewis’s debut novel and still fairly new, so maybe if it gathers enough hype and praise we could see something bigger come out of it.
