Novelizations: The Practice of Turning Films into Books

We all love films.

In truth, we in the horror community have our favorite film that started us on our interest in creating horror stories today. A good many authors have utilized what they were scared of in film into their books and turned them out to scare others just as badly, if not more so.

I, myself, grew up on 70s grindhouse and 80s slashers. I was a huge fan of The Last House on the Left (1971) as well as Friday the 13th (1980), Bay of Blood (1980), and various other films. As such, I pushed myself to write books that were heavily based in the genre of the films I watched. I’ve penned loads of slashers, a couple of Giallo-inspired books, and plenty of grindhouse nonsense that works on multiple levels of blood, guts, and boobs.

Other authors in the community have done the same. I’d wager a guess that Judith Sonnet based several of her books on films that were from the same generation. I believe that her book, No One Rides for Free, actually starts with the warning “It’s only a book, only a book, only a book…” which stems from the Last House on the Left “it’s only a movie, and so on”.

However, this isn’t a comparative article on what books were based on films, this is about what happens when you get the unique opportunity to turn a film into a book!

Yes, that’s right. A novelization.

Now, you may be asking, what separates a novelization from the film it’s based on?

The answer? Depends!

Certain novelizations are scene-for-scene redos of the film. You can read the book or watch the film, and guess what? It’s all the same. Some novelizations take the road of working with an earlier script that got changed because test audiences were pissy at the ending and the director reworked it, but the novelization will maintain the original ending.

And in some cases, the novelization just flies off the rails and goes places you never expected it to go. The Back to the Future novelization was once such book. Another was the Terminator novelization.

Prior to my own discovery of this beautiful business, I only knew one person who wrote novelizations. Jonathan Tripp, who I interviewed in an earlier article. Tripp wrote the Boggy Creek novelization as well as the novelization of the film of one of his own books. Pretty creative if you ask me.

Another author was Brian G. Berry who penned several novelizations, but we don’t talk about Berry for plenty of reasons and I was never a fan of his work to begin with. I understand the idea of separating the art from the artist, but much like Otis Bateman and Stephen Cooper, I thought their books were ass before they were even canceled…so I’ll always stack the art with the artist when it comes to them.

Growing up, I watched a lot of films.

I still do.

However, one night in my youth I stayed up after everyone went to sleep and I caught a porn parody of Wes Craven’s Hills Have Eyes by one Salvador Ross. I didn’t know it at the time, but Salvador Ross was an alias by the same director of my all-time favorite film, Deathstalker 2 The director being Jim Wynorski.

A few months ago, I decided to do a little digging on a whim and before I knew it, I found my way to Jim’s email.

So I took a shot in the dark and suggested I pen the novelization to one of his films. I totally didn’t expect to get an answer and when I did, I was breathless. Jim is my idol when it comes to certain niches and tropes in film. I based a lot of my books on films I watched from him, including my Valxika series (each book carries a dedication to him and Roger Corman). The film I suggested to write the novelization for proved fruitless, however, he optioned any of his others on the condition that I sent him some of my other books to read. His praise of those works was truly an achievement for me.

So, by happenstance, I offered The Hills Have Thighs. It was agreed upon and before I knew it, I had a signed agreement to make it happen…with full creative control.

I watched the film a hundred times and filled in as many of the blanks as I could, while throwing in things that weren’t even in the film. I pumped it full of extra sex and threw in lots of horror that wasn’t in the actual film.

By the time I was done, I had turned the novelization into a fun erotic horror novel. Jim lent me the use of the original cover art and took a hand in helping with promotion. I went wide with it and for once, it proved to be mad successful. I generally don’t go wide with my releases, but the novelization sold like crazy, conquering the Top Ten of LGBT Horror and Media Tie-Ins as well as landing on the Godless Top 10. 

The Hills Have Thighs: The Official Novelization proved to be a smash-hit with the audience and from what I heard, a lot of people have gone digging up the original film online as well as ordering DVDs. Jim had me send signed copies to him. One of the stars of the film promoted the film on Instagram. And before I knew it, I started getting friend requests from numerous actors and directors on Facebook.

Others have since jumped into novelizations, including Matthew J. Gleason who is penning public domain films and I hope the best for them. I highly recommend everyone try it once, it’s proven to be a huge deal for me.

And before I knew it, Jim was already asking me to consider more for a whole Wynorski Novelization series. It was an honor to grow up watching his films, and now, the chance to work with him on novelizing his works is something I never could have dreamed of happening.

This year is shaping up to be the highlight of my writing career. Probably the highest I’ll ever get in the grand scheme of things.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.