Okay so what are some parts from the novel that were not put in the movie? did anyone read the actual book. Cuz I don't wheter or not if its worth reading.....but I did heard that the book was more darker than the movie version.
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I skimmed through the book at the library the other day.
The biggest difference is the way the narrative is told. We start off with inch-high Scott and his ordeals in the basement, and his story is told through flashbacks.
Scenes that didn't make the movie (from what little I read); Scott being bullied by children, a child molester mistaking him for a kid and trying to take advantage of him in a car, some sexual tension between him and Louise (and even some lovemaking).
I heard that he and his wife supposely had a daughter, which she is not in the film, and that they hired a babysitter. But Scott later has some sexual tension with the babysitter. Is it true?
I couldn't find the book in any bookstore or library I've been, since they were out of print.
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Yes, it is true he does get sexually attracted to the teenage girl because he's shrinking it has made him impotent with his wife, therefore the young baby sitter being smaller becomes desirable to him. The ironic thing is we have the psychological effects of shrinking not only almost turning him to paedofilia but also a padofile tries to prey on him at one point mistaking him for a little boy because of his size.
In the book he shrinks 1/7 of an inch every day, and it begins on the last week of his life when there is just one week left untill he shrinks to nothingness, at the same time he's busy battling the spider and all details of the origin of his condition are dealt with in flashback. The radically different thing about the book is the ending which I won't spoil by writing here, but in the movie like many films of its time they chose to give it a religous spiritually uplifting ending which works equally well.
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it would still have been better if it could have been more realistic. Too much time was spent on the spider.
scott and louise have an 8 year old daughter which makes it somewhat interesting but its not all that realistic the way she treats her father. I think it would have been more interesting if beth had been 17 and if there were a few other kids as well. The interaction between shrunken scott and his wife and kids should be the biggest part of the story, not a small part!
The part about the babysitter also could have been handled a little better. She never really has any scenes with her because louise makes scott hide in the basement. Scott secretely starts to pine for the teen ager and that was just plain ucky. It would have been more interesting if louise had introduced Catherine to scott and if we had been allowed to see how they interacted.
Interaction between scott and the world ceased when he shrunk. Even the parts with his wife were insignificant. Shame
If they do make a remake, not that's already in pre-production somewhere, I think it should rather be faithful to the novel (including those scenes where Scott encounters the babysitter, his daughter, and the teens, not sure about the pedaphile, unless they were making it R-rated, of course it would be a perfect fit to a film based novel), cuz this would put a lot of perspective toward's Scott's view, and the viewers...And since I heard that the book was shifting between flashbacks. It would pretty wise for a movie to do so, plus with computer and CGI today, it would be pretty realistic if they could do it, depending on the budget.
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for the record the book is easy to find--I think it is still in print--try
amazon.com or even ebay or a used bookseller on the Web
Beth, their daughter, is 5 in the book.
In the movie, Scott is said to be 36 1/2 inches tall and weighs 52 pounds.
But given the square cube law, this is impossible...when someone grows
twice normal size, their weight is 8 times as much (we have three dimensions:
2 x 2 x 2). So if someone shrank to 3 ft tall they'd weigh one eighth as much.
Which means Scott would have been 400 pounds before!
What's likely is that Matheson had a son or daughter who was 3 ft tall
and 52 pounds--kids are chunkier than adults, so he was going by the
child's weight.
Dwarfs are usually non-proportional--you can have a non-proportional
dwarf who weighs 60 pounds or so at 3 ft tall. But a proportional dwarf
would be more like 25-30 pounds
Also, in the book he shrinks exactly 1/8th of an inch every day instead of at a proportional rate. That may have been intentional so as to make his rate of diminishing exponentially faster though...
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Hopefully soon the book will be re-editioned soon, cuz I want to read it really badly, unless they are being banned. I also hope that the movie will be remade with more in-depth that is more faithful to the book. Cuz when I saw the this movie on TV it was pretty short.
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I also want to know if there are any different front covers, that doesn't show the spider. Cuz, I seriously do have arachnaphobia and I can't stand looking at a novel or any book that has a spider on it, for the fact I might have nightmares for months. I only want to imagine, not take a look.
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