One of my favorite books is DRACULA by Bram Stoker; quite possibly the scariest book I’ve ever read. And I’ve been yearning to adapt it for the stage or screen.
But there is a problem adapting this book – at least the heart of it.
Part of what makes the book so darn chilling is how it is told: Stoker gives us the story from shifting angles, using journal entries, letters between characters, newspaper clippings, ship’s logs, etc to tell the tale.
There is no third person omniscient, no “Dracula hides around the corner as Mina makes her way down the hall” type stuff. We only know the little bit that the characters know. And with the constant shifting of point of view, we as the reader have to put the story together. The story isn’t told; it is caught in fragments.
The audience is more involved, which makes the stakes higher, which makes the scares scarier.
But you can’t have a film with someone standing around reading some letters for two hours. So every movie and play has shifted instantly to third person omniscient, which is just fine.
Until now.
It has taken me a while, but I’ve finally figured out how to tell the story in a way that would do Bram proud.
The Dracula Files.
Stay tuned for more…
Just my thoughts,
Sean
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