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Horror fans are down for a more faithful adaptation of Michael Crichton’s ‘Jurassic Park’

Spielberg's film was far tamer than the novel.

Dr. Alan Grant faces the T-Rex, Jurassic Park (1993)
Image via Universal Pictures

Jurassic Park is, without a helix of doubt, one of the landmark titles in the history of cinema. Audiences across the globe flocked to Steven Spielberg’s legendary sci-fi adventure back in 1993, their jaws dropping at the sight of all the dinosaurs brought to life on the big screen.

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Based on the 1990 Michael Crichton novel of the same name, Jurassic Park was underscored with some rather subversive horror elements. Putting aside the obvious carnage we did get, to say nothing of the tension-packed cat-and-mouse game we got once the dinosaurs broke free, it’s also a chilling instance of something so beloved and awe-inspiring, particularly for children, suddenly becoming the force that’s trying to kill you.

But it pales in comparison to the detailed horror elements present in Crichton’s novel, and r/horror has hijacked the Jurassic Park conversation, steering it into their dreams for a more faithful adaptation of the book in hopes that a true horror spectacle would come of it.

The suggestion was met with rousing positivity from its responders, with some, in particular, taking it a step further and suggesting that such an adaptation would fit best as a miniseries.

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Others recounted some of the more terrifying scenes from the book, including Nedry’s hapless surrender to his fate between the Dilophosaurus’s jaws, and the lengths a mother tyrannosaurus rex went to in order to ensure that her children got to feast.

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Others, however, reminded us that not all the book’s scenes were terrifying; some of them were even far too silly for the comparatively tamer Spielberg film.

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It’s a bankable franchise, so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility to get a more Crichton-esque screen adaptation of Jurassic Park. At the moment, though, the closest the franchise is getting to horror is the reviews for the current entry, Jurassic World Dominion, which is currently playing in theaters.