Hit Horror Novel Needs To Be The Next Big Movie Adaptation

The Twisted Ones starts as a story of a young woman Melissa, nicknamed Mouse, cleaning out her deceased grandmother’s home while dealing with her own struggles in the privacy of rural North Carolina. However, as she digs through the trash, she comes across her grandfather’s journal, detailing some rather fantastical and horrifying moments he supposedly experienced in Wales.

If that wasn’t creepy enough, the events he describes in his journal start to happen to Mouse. As the situation worsens and she starts questioning her sanity, Mouse realizes she can no longer escape her fears. The only way she’ll survive is to face them head-on.

The story doesn’t sound good initially. A large part of the beginning focuses on Mouse cleaning out her Grandmother’s house and exploring the surrounding area. However, T. Kingfisher uses this time to build the tension in The Twisted Ones.

Once Mouse discovers the diary from decades before, which describes some terrifying creatures and situations from her time in the Welsh countryside, and it’s difficult to determine what is real and what is imagined.

Later, when Mouse goes on a walk with her dog, she ends up in places she shouldn’t, like the top of a mountain, and experiences some strange moments, like when her jaw keeps unhinging.

This isn’t a story that uses a lot of elaborate creatures or gory moments to create horror. Instead, the story slowly builds up the fear. Right away, it’s obvious that something is wrong, but Mouse keeps pushing the feeling away, convinced everyone would just think she is crazy if she tried to explain what she was experiencing.

It isn’t until it’s too late to turn back that Mouse realizes every eerie feeling she’s had has been real. With the right lighting, music, and actress to play Mouse, it would be fairly easy to recreate this feeling of building dread.

The Twisted Ones has a strong folk horror feeling to it. With movies like The VVitch and Midsommar being so popular in recent years, it’s a good time to consider an adaptation of this T. Kingfisher book.

Another reason why I think The Twisted Ones would make for an amazing movie is that some of the more terrifying moments in the book have to do with sound. I read this book for the first time outside on my porch, which is loaded with different kinds of wind chimes.

Unfortunately for me, the sound of windchimes is a prominent part of the horror in The Twisted Ones, as the bones of the creature rattle to signal it’s nearby. Every time one of my windchimes moved, I’d feel my skin start to crawl.

Being able to add that sound to the story, and bring the noise to life, instead of just having it described on the page would be amazing, and seriously add to the horror of the story. A lot of The Twisted Ones‘ horror is built around sound and visuals, which is described in great detail by the author. Transferring the story from page to film should be a fairly easy task, without losing much of the tale.