Which do you prefer? the movie or the novel?

[Br00ksInTexas]

By far the book is always better than the movie. I think that has more to do with our own preferences. We mold characters into what appeals to us, with our own imagination. Books allow readers to control their own visuals. Not to mention, to do most books justice, takes a really long time. The best King adaptations IMO were Shawshank Redemption (short story), The Shining (credit to Kubrick), IT and The Stand (both Mini-series.. Long). The worst are ones were you read the book and feel let down by the fact that so much is missing. It's easier to enjoy a movie if you have not read the book, but either way I think one will ruin the other.

[StephenKingAddict]

Most definitely and ALWAYS the novel is better, in my opinion but I do look forward to and usually enjoy every movie and TV series based on Stephen King's writing.

[kylallie]

Always the novel for me, although I've loved the Christine movie since I was a kid. Nothing beats the novel though, I think if you can create your own visuals for the story it makes it so much better. And also.... the one thing that is always lost in movies, which I think creates a books atmosphere and story - is the inner dialogue of the character we are following. Nothing beats being in their mind... something that movies find very hard to recreate.

[Hteraj Siredog]

Definitely the book wins on this one the movie didnt seem to do justice to the novel at all

[jimson]

Loved the book, didn't like the movie. That is generally typical when you read the book first but not always, I loved Green Mile, book and movie.

In the movie, the characters of Dennis and Leigh never came close to matching the one's I conjured up in my mind while reading the book. Arnie, Will Darnell and George/Roland Lebay were a pretty close match though.

The book was set in PA and if I am not mistaken the movie seemed to be set in California.

I read the book during a freakishly cold early November in OKC and I guess the winter references in the book spoke to me as well.

As a stand alone movie, it might have been OK, but after reading the book, the movie did a particularly poor job of measuring up in my opinion, of course that could be simply because I loved the book so much, nothing would have done it justice.

[guido tkp]

couldn't've said it better, J..

i might add that i expected more from this as it was a john carpenter film (mostly great stuff, there)....he was at a pretty good place, artistically speaking, at that time and had, seemingly, quite a bit of clout for an indie filmaker...

still...hollywoods smudgy, callous fingerprints are all over this in a not-so-good way

needs to be remade...altogether not an effective shocker at all

[bryantburnette]

This is one of the rare situations where I actually prefer the movie. I like both, though.

[Ericw]

I agree. The novel is fantastic! I don't know how many months Stephen King spent researching old car songs, but he did his homework. Christine shines from the beginning when Arnie and Dennis discover the 1958 Plymouth Fury (much to Dennis' dismay) until Arnie's girlfriend Leigh suspects there is something completely wrong about the car and through the end where they attempt to destroy it with a bulldozer. Christine the movie is just as good. The movie plot faithfully follows the novel; it's almost like watching and listening to an oral version of the story. To avoid a spoiler here, unfortunately, Petunia, the vehicle used in the novel to kill Christine, is not a bulldozer. Petunia would appeal more to the olfactory sense.