Short Stories and Film

The movie adaptation of a novel is an old standby for the film industry. When ideas run dry, they’ll rape and pillage the local bookstores for what’s hot (or offbeat), hoping to capitalize on a built-in fan base. Sometimes this plan goes very well (i.e. Harry Potter), spawning amazing films that add to the novel’s creation. Other times it goes horribly wrong (i.e. I, Robot), either totally crapping on what the novel achieved or disrespecting the source material so much that the only similarities between the two is the title.

What I find interesting is when they start digging into short stories for their ideas. With a novel, the issue you have is too much source material, so they can trim, re-arrange and mold it to fit the 90 minute visual medium. With a short story, you have a clever idea at best, possibly a twist or two and that’s it. Instead of trimming, they end up stretching or sometimes fabricating whole new elements to tack onto the original narrative. Again, this is a hit or miss. Many of Stephen King’s short stories were adapted for film with varying degrees of success. For every 1408 there’s a Lawnmower Man.

What got me thinking about this was Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train, a short story from his Books of Blood collection. During his workshop at the Fangoria convention (post) he mentioned that he was quite happy with the director’s cut of the film. At the time I had heard of the movie, but was unaware of his connection to the source material. Quickly getting a hold of that version, I didn’t end up watching it until last night. For the record I would like to state, Vinnie Jones is one of the scariest motherfuckers I’ve ever seen on film, right up there with Tony Todd (Candyman) and Doug Bradley (Pinhead). He’s always been a menacing character (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels), but he focuses it all on the perfect execution of this role.

The movie is about a photographer who stumbles upon what he thinks is a serial killer slaying people riding the subway late at night. His obsession with this man leads him down a dark path, to say the least. When it comes to film adaptations, I find that watching the movie first and then enjoying the source material will allow me to enjoy them both. Since it’ll always be a watered down version of the original by virtue of its medium, the written word will end up giving me more of what I enjoyed from the film. I liked this movie quite a bit, especially with Jones’s amazing performance. Immediately after the film finished, I dove into the short story. It’s the one story I intentionally skipped in Books of Blood.

Once I started reading, it became apparent that the movie had structured things differently in order to accommodate the transition to silver screen. Characters and situations were changed with the overall narrative stretched. For the first time in a long time, I found myself preferring the film to the written word. As good as Clive Barker’s idea was, it suffered from the limitations of his delivery method. We spend far too little time with the protagonist in order to have any emotional investment and the same goes for the villain. Everything happens so fast that it’s over before it builds any real momentum. This was one of those tales that would have benefited from being turned into a novella and I guess, in essence, that’s what they did with the movie.

Not to mention, Vinnie Jones’s take on the character—either because of the script, director or his own spin—was far superior to the short. In the story the villain felt like a minor obstacle before the ending, but in the movie Jones was a force of nature, relentless and unforgiving in his task. Also, the stakes for the protagonist are upped in the film, giving him more than a passing interest in dealing with the Butcher. All in all, it was a great adaptation of a short story and one of the best in my opinion. The reason it flopped in the box office was because Lionsgate decided to only release it in “dollar theaters”. Why they would do this is beyond me, but such are the decisions of major movie studios. Some bean counter somewhere thought it was a fiscally smart decision.

It was nice to see that someone not only got an adaptation right, but did it better, which is a rarity in Hollywood these days. Quality, especially in regards to horror films, is usually not top of the list. There’s a certain lack of respect for the horror genre, unless its those few directors/writers that understand it can be just as powerful as any drama. Frailty comes to mind.

What short story film adaptations have you come across that elevate or disparage their source material? Do those familiar with Midnight Meat Train in both formats agree with my assessment? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Short Stories and Film

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