20 Must-Read Horror Books That Deserve Adaptations

A thriller in the vein of The Outsider, Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild centers on Joan, a Métis woman searching for her missing husband. Victor has been gone for a year by the time Joan catches up to him at an evangelical revival held in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Except now he’s not going by Victor, and he doesn’t seem to remember Joan at all…

I know what you’re thinking: We’ve already had a Hill House adaptation! And you’re right! The problem — and I mean no shade to Mike Flanagan here — is that only one of Hill House‘s many adaptations has been true to the source material, and it came out nearly 60 years ago. Shirley Jackson’s classic story of paranormal research, psychic phenomena, and a house gone Wrong™ deserves a comeback in the near future.

Paul Tremblay’s breakout hit shifts between past and present as one young woman struggles to finally tell the story of her family’s brush with the supernatural. When Merry was 8 years old, her big sister, 14-year-old Marjorie, began exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia. Believing Marjorie to be possessed, the girls’ unemployed father signed the family up to be on a reality show that would document her exorcism. Fifteen years later, horror fans are left wondering what really happened…but is Merry ready to tell the tale?

In 1959, Silvertjarn was abandoned, save for an executed woman’s corpse and a crying baby. Documentarian Alice has connections to Silvertjarn, and she’s come for answers. This remote corner of Sweden isn’t talking, however. Instead, a series of setbacks befall the crew, and Alice must confront the fact that someone — or something — still lurks in the old mining town.

Cave horror offers a particular kind of claustrophic terror, and few have done the genre better than The Luminous Dead. Here, a down-on-her-luck mercenary falsifies her way into a lucrative mission. The job she’s paid to do isn’t the one she signed up for, however. Now, alone in the cave system of a remote planet, Gyre must trust her employer and navigator, Em, to get her back to the surface safely. But what’s Em’s agenda, and why is she controlling Gyre’s body whenever she wants?

Newly wed into a family of English colonizers, Catalina writes home to say that her husband, Virgil, plans to murder her. But when her cousin, Noemí, comes to Virgil’s ancestral estate, the remote High Place, she finds herself barred from seeing or talking to Catalina. Convinced that something is awry, Noemí musters all her wits to investigate Virgil’s home and family. She isn’t going to like what she finds, however. Mexican Gothic is perfect for fans of Jane Eyre and Get Out.

Horror goes meta in My Heart Is a Chainsaw. Horror movies have been a lifeline for Jade, an unloved, biracial teen living in a tiny Idaho town. And thank the filmmaking gods for that, because Jade’s about to need every ounce of horror-movie trivia she knows. Someone’s on a killing spree near Proofrock, Idaho, and that means her time has finally come to shine.

Another meta offering, Cassandra Khaw’s Nothing But Blackened Teeth centers on an… unconventional… destination wedding. Ghost-chasers Talia and Faiz plan to marry at a haunted Heian castle. Centuries ago, a young woman whose fiancé died on their wedding day became the castle’s hitobashira, and legend has it that she’s demanded another sacrifice with each passing year. And if that weren’t enough, the three well-wishers they’ve brought along may be anything but. Can any of the wedding party survive the wedding night?

Eve is a hivemind of mitochondria present in humans, and she has big plans for the next stage of our evolution. All she needs is the right host to bring about humanity’s downfall. The 1997 J-horror film based on this 1995 novel — which also spawned a manga series and video game trilogy — unfortunately flopped at the box office, which is all the more reason to bring it back to screens in the 2020s.

A girls’ trip turns deadly for four fortysomething friends in this survival thriller. Going whitewater rafting in rural Maine was supposed to bring them closer together. But when their guide is killed in a freak accident, Wini and her BFFs find themselves in a fight for their lives. Not only are they stranded in the wilderness without any real survival supplies, but they also aren’t alone in the woods.

One year ago, Elsie survived a terrible and suspicious fire. With murder charges looming on the horizon, it’s up to one man, an expert in the burgeoning field of experimental psychology, to determine whether she’s guilty or mentally ill. Through their interviews, a deliciously gothic story unfolds involving a pregnant widow, a strange diary, and a house no one will approach — a house populated with eerily lifelike wooden figures.

In the near future, an animal-borne virus has proved lethal to any humans who eat infected meat. After humanity bands together to destroy other animals out of fear, the global population faces a starvation crisis. To survive, countries around the world institutionalize cannibalism, rendering certain unfortunate humans as heads of cattle for the slaughter. But when a middleman in this brave new meat-packing industry receives a female head as a gift, he’s thrust onto a philosophical tightrope.

A camping trip turns deadly on two fronts in this 2014 novel. When a stranger seeks medical assistance from their scout leader, a physician, five teenage boys are plunged into a fight for their lives. Trapped together on a tiny island, the boys must find a way to survive a lethal infestation while also facing the threat of escalating violence from within their troop. As of 2019, James Wan was set to adapt this one for the big screen.

Years ago, their band rented out the eponymous country manor to record their new album. A series of strange events culminated in the disappearance of the band’s frontman, Julian, somewhere within the sprawling house itself. Now, a documentarian has brought Julian’s old bandmates back to Wylding Hall with a psychic in tow, to solve the mystery of the vanishing singer. But what truths stand to be revealed upon their return?