The Funhouse (1981) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - March 12, 1981

My memory of this film is that it seemed to take forever and a day to reach theaters and drive-ins near me. Even then, I failed in seeing it on the big screen. Because, by that time, I read the novelization by Owen West (Dean Koontz), which I had not cared for all that much.

It turns out that Dean Koontiz himself had not cared for it either and had taken some liberties with the script, in regards to backstory and motivation and so on and so forth. This would also be the only novelization that Koontz would ever write.

The film itself is not all that bad, really. Tobe Hooper's oh-so-unique brand of southern fried insanity pulses in just about every frame and, despite some effect moments of outlandish and over-the-top theatrical bombast, this movie really works well in its quieter, creepier moments. Of which there are quite a few.

Hideaway (1995) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - March 3, 1995

While I know I saw this on home video the only thing that I remember about it is the weird free association trivia-style game that was played by the protagonist (Jeff Goldblum) and his wife (Christine Lahti). A snippet of which shows up as a post-credit gag.

In an interview with Fangoria, I think, director Brett Leonard shared that Dean Koontz got up and walked out on a private screening of the film when Stephen King was mentioned by one of the characters. Although I had read a prodigious amount of Koontz's work in the late 80s, the source material came out during a fallow period of interest in reading him. So I could not tell how much it did or did not deviate from the novel it claims to be adapted from.

But, considering the deviations made by Leonard for The Lawnmower Man, I think it is a safe bet to say that alterations were made.