Just to start off, there have been a couple of movies based on Dean Koontz’s books, and while they didn’t stick around long enough to really do much more than be noticed for a few minutes, it feels as though his stories are worth enjoying a bit longer in movie form if only the right person would take interest in them. He has a very different style when compared to the likes of Stephen King and Clive Barker, but a lot of Koontz’s stories have been page-turners over the years, especially since he does have an eerie quality within his books to turn one’s attention in the wrong direction if they’re not paying attention, and then sneak up and deliver a serious dose of fright to those that weren’t. While it’s true that Koontz’s books do have the tendency to wrap up neatly with a bow at times, it’s easy to think that a director might find a way to make the ending to one of these stories a little more ominous, or at least realistic. Here are a few of Dean Koontz’s books that should be turned into movies.
5. Odd Thomas
This story did get made into a movie with Anton Yelchin, so it’s more likely that a reboot would be needed in order to keep this tale going. With Yelchin’s unfortunate passing this couldn’t happen in the same manner unless people were willing to accept a new actor. But the ability to see ghosts and do something about the unseen evils that were about to cause one catastrophe or another does read like a Stephen King novel, but there are definite differences that can be noticed. This story should be brought back simply because it’s both touching and terrifying all at once, and it could be a great streaming addition.
4. Prodigal Son
Another retelling of the Frankenstein legend, this story makes it obvious that Frankenstein has gone off the deep end and has embraced the madness as he’s created several more monsters and perfected his method over the years. This story comes in more than one part and could be a convincing trilogy if someone managed to write it out in a manner that made sense. With every retelling of this legend, it’s been done in a slightly different way or kept in the same time period or made into a kind of joke that people do or don’t like. Koontz does put his own spin on the legend as one might expect, but at the same time, he still keeps a few things as close as he can to what’s considered normal.
3. Dragon Tears
When you’re after a killer that can use golems made out of pretty much anything they can find it’s definitely easy to think that the killer might be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. But the fact that the killer in this story can also stop time is pretty scary since it leaves the detectives that are being stalked at a severe disadvantage until by a process of following the clues and facts that are presented they finally end up locating the antagonist, who turns out to be someone that they couldn’t have expected in the first place. Take The Outsider by Stephen King and the movie Untraceable with Diane Lane, and that would be the general makeup of this movie, in some sense.
2. The Funhouse
This story is utterly chilling since it has to do in a large part with the secret lives of those that live in and operate a carnival and move about constantly, as is the norm. But when one woman escapes after giving birth to a monstrous child, the ringleader of the carnival spends years trying to find her and attempts to strike at the woman through her child. The ability to produce the kind of chills and thrills that would keep people glued to their seats and reaching for each other in the dark is definitely present in this story since it’s the type that would easily give a lot of people nightmares for a while to come.
1. Lightning
The idea of traveling back in time to affect the outcome of a person’s life based on little more than what another person feels for them is something that’s been done before, but the adventure and action in this movie feels as though it could carry this to a streaming network where it might do well. The overall story is easy enough to imagine and could be easy to cast and only moderately difficult to create given that there are a lot of different ways that it could be pulled off so that it wasn’t too similar to other time travel movies. But the romantic aspect of it as well is kind of nice since it balances things out.
We need to see more Dean Koontz stories in the cinema.
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