Reed Faster Speculates: The Watchers Movie vs. Novel

Movies from books are not a new thing. From portions of the Judeo-Christian bible to comic books, we don’t lack for material to bring to the big screen. However, when taking a book to film, many things might have to be sacrificed or changed for the sake of audience understanding or because of the limits of the technology available to produce the material effectively. Many books-to-movies fall woefully short of their source material, often because the vision of the author isn’t easy to translate or because the director has a different view of what is happening. (I’m notably reminded of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Stephen King’s dislike of it.)

You don’t have to read the book to enjoy the movie, and vice versa. However, I do occasionally catch myself comparing them. My latest foray into this was The Watchers, a book written by A.M. Shine and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan (child of the famous M.Night Shymalan, who produces this film). 

Check the trailer below: 

Now, as far as books-to-movies go, this one followed closely with the original story. There were a few notable changes, though. Please note that there will be spoilers for both in this post. 

First, Mina in the book isn’t really given an ethnicity (I assumed she was Irish, because of the setting), but the movie makes her decidedly American. She’s an artist in the book, who occasionally does odd jobs to supplement her meager income. In the movie, she works for a pet shop. This changes the initial exchange - in the book, a friend of hers from the bar asks her to take the parrot to a seller, offering to give her a portion of the money. In the movie, her boss asks her to take care of it. While these seem relatively minor differences, I feel it changes the tone. The artist is lost, a bit whimsical in how she handles her life (which is part of her biggest disagreement with her sister). I think that gets lost in the movie, because it seems like it is just two sisters who disagree with each other. 

Another big difference I noted between the book and movie was the amount of Mina of time Mina spends in The Coop. It seems to only be a couple of weeks, whereas in the book it is more a matter of months. The amount of time they spend in The Coop seems important - even though Mina never really gives up the idea of escaping, it feels like she settles into a routine that is hard to escape from. It builds a heavier sense of dread in the book (again, this is just my opinion). 

Finally, while the bird factors large in both depictions, the movie uses the Golden Conure as a map for helping them escape the forest. In the book, they have to rely on Madeline and a compass, and the directions of a man who signed his own death warrant when he built The Coop to begin with. It seems like an even thinner thread of hope, which means an even bigger build of tension. 

I really enjoyed the story, regardless of the differences. I felt like the twist at the end was really well nailed for both mediums, although I am not sold on the idea of a sequel (even though the author did write one, I have not heard good things about it). They both ended with the idea that we will always be watched by The Watchers, regardless of where we are. There are things in the world that will never be explained, places of mystery that will never fully be developed or discovered, and what we can’t see may not be as benevolent as we would hope. 

What books-to-movies do you enjoy? Or did you not enjoy?

Remember, when the last page is turned, and the last reel slips from the projector, I shall be here with a new suggestion should you need it.