Horror Novilizations
Ah the 80’s. One of the Golden ages of horror. Freddy, Jason, Michael, Aliens….
and I was missing it.
I mean, In 1985 I was 10, so there really was no way that my parents were taking me to see the latest Nightmare on Elm Street movie.
But they would take me to the library.
It was there I really fell in love with novelizations. Did you know there were novelizations of the first two Friday the 13th movies? Adam Greene and Joe Lynch did a commentary to part two and they were discussing the controversy about the scene where Jason is stalking the final girl and she’s hiding, but spies a rat – Jason’s tipped off because someone wets them self. So was it the girl or the 
rat under the table who emptied thier bladder? Adam and Joe couldn’t decide. It’s too bad they never read the book. It has the answer!
And the Freddy films – they actually condensed 4 and 5 into one book…okay not their finest hours, but on the other hand the New Nightmare novel actually adds a third level to the story – not only are the actors form the Freddy movies being haunted by him, the author of the novel is also being haunted by Freddy. It’s brilliant!
Long before the director’s cut of Aliens, the novel gives you a feel for what Newt’s life was before the alien outbreak, how she and the other kids used to play in the vents (so she knew where to hide) and Riply’s relationship with her daughter.
Even though the Thing is based on a short story, this film has a novel – it’s rare now and I still haven’t gotten my hands on a copy.,
Yes, I had found a loophole in the system! And how much fund to discover I wasn’t the only one, years later I would discover several of my friends had done the exact same thing.
In fact it was discussing this with a friend that I found out that there were Twilight Zone adaptions. One of his favorite episodeswas “The Star”, based on the short story by Arthur C. Clarke, but rewritten into the Twilight Zone story by Rod Serling himself!
Every convention I’ve been to has tons of these books around. Sometimes they’re prohibitively expensive, but sometimes you can find a good deal, and these things are always sold up on Amazon. look up your favorite title and try reading a good movie.
Argo City Comics 