Brad Anderson2001 movie Section 9 has earned its status as a modern horror classic. This is the story of a group of asbestos removal workers working at the Danforth State Mental Hospital, an abandoned place haunted not only by memories of abuse and cruel psychological experiments, but also by the ghosts of its most violent patients. What makes it special is its subtlety. The film excels at keeping the ugliness mostly off-camera so that viewers can fill its darkness with worthy horror. It’s a masterclass in tension and fear, and now it’s been adapted into a film novel by the author Christian Francis (According to Anderson and Stephen Gweden).
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie, the story is about a man named Gordon who is the head of an asbestos removal team. Gordon is a desperate man. He had a wife and children at home, but he was barely making ends meet and the pressure was mounting. Finding a job in an abandoned asylum, he bids hard to get it and makes impossible promises on a timetable to secure the contract. His team gets a mission, but the sanctuary itself faces unknown challenges. Strange patient records reveal horrific histories, and disembodied voices haunt the asbestos removal team’s already fragile psyches (for it’s not just Gordon who enters the job with deep personal struggles).
Because of the ambiguity of the narrative, the film lends itself well to prose. Christian Francis (who also turned wishing master and vamp Going into the novel) it’s clear that this approach underlies the story’s scariest elements and the intentionally unstable haunting at its heart. As a result, new character details or new patient revelations are treated with the same minimalist mentality that makes this film so unsettling.
That said, Francis adds just enough to allow each character to share in and absorb Gordon’s so intensely anxious energy. Phil, Hank, Jeff, and Mike (the rest of the Asbestos team) all delve further into their psyches to resolve their own existential crises. Phil’s reveal in particular adds a very unique dimension to his character, making his reasons for taking the job seem all the sadder, even pathetic. It even changed a key scene in the movie to make it more representative of how Gordon viewed him within the team. While the film only hints at personal troubles, Francis validates these problems and makes them all the more terrifying.
Essentially, the movie shows us a group of lost souls taking advantage of their desperation by holding a job in a seedy place that no one in their right mind would want, while Francis’ novel shows us A bunch of broken people with no one else to help them.
There are differences between the two, and Francis successfully ensures that one does not conflict with the other. Therefore, people entering Section 9 First of all, novelization still ensures that it will be scary and disturbing to read. It’s not written specifically for movie buffs. Those who have seen it before will only have the added benefit of identifying and enjoying the extra bits that didn’t appear in the movie. Additionally, there are dialogue and patiently recorded sequences that speed up the action in a way that mimics the film’s editing style. They are impressive and achieve the desired effect.
The only part of the book that I had some doubts about was the ending. It goes on for a while and gives a clearer conclusion to one of the characters. I’m not entirely sure it needs it, but it’s well executed. Fans of the film may struggle with this, but I don’t see it as a huge development that changes the story into something else entirely.
Christian Francis achieves impressive feat Section 9 Novelization. That’s not to say he just effectively moved the story from celluloid to prose. Rather, he created a work based on nuance and built upon it without violating its core principles. There is considerable new information in this version of the book, but it is all presented with a careful appreciation of the original ideas. Francis expands on a work that values reasoning and explanation by providing just enough to allow readers to imagine something more sinister. In the process, he ensured that novelization became an important part of the novel. Section 9 experience.
For more on Part 9, read Zack Quaintance’s take on the film as a meditation on the horrors of work.
