From Dracula to a Giant Fish: 10 Scariest Horror Movies Based on Books, Ranked
A frightening forest journey
Adam Nevill’s 2011 folk-horror novel The Ritual became a film directed by David Bruckner. It follows old friends Luke, Phil, Hutch and Dom as they hike through remote Scandinavian wilderness in Sweden to honor a recently deceased friend.
The group takes a shortcut through a sacred part of the forest without realizing it. A moder, a mythological Norse creature resembling a goat-man, begins stalking them, alongside local fans of the creature. The film is noted for its striking, unsettling visuals and Andrew Shulkind’s cinematography.
Spirits behind a scam
Malevolent adapts Eva Konstantopoulos’s novella Hush, with Olaf de Fleur Johannesson directing. The film moves the story to Scotland and follows Angela and her brother, Jackson, who run a fraudulent ghost-hunting and medium business.
They take a job from Mrs. Greene, an elderly woman who says her house is haunted by children’s spirits. As Jackson urges Angela to investigate, they discover the house is filled with spirits. Florence Pugh plays Angela, and Ben Lloyd-Hughes plays Jackson.
Dracula reaches the screen
Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula first inspired the unlicensed 1922 film Nosferatu, whose filmmakers changed the names. Hollywood made its first licensed version nine years later, with Tod Browning and Karl Freund directing and Bela Lugosi starring.
The story centers on Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains. After a real estate deal with Jonathan Harker, Dracula sees a picture of Harker’s fiancée, Mina, and travels to England aboard the ship Demeter. The 1931 film was described as fairly faithful to the novel.
Key points
- The Ritual follows hikers stalked by a mythological creature in Sweden.
- Malevolent adapts Eva Konstantopoulos’s Hush and is set in Scotland.
- Nosferatu was an unlicensed 1922 film inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
- Hollywood’s first licensed Dracula adaptation arrived in 1931, starring Bela Lugosi.