THE GOOD SON by Todd Strasser, book vs film

PUBLISHER: Pocket Books, 1993
MY GRADE: 4 stars

SYNOPSIS: Here is the chilling story of a young boy sent to live with relatives after the death of his mother, and of his prankish cousin, who is responsible for increasingly dangerous "accidents".

MY THOUGHTS: Though I'd seen the film a few years ago I didn't realize until recently it was novelized at the time of its release. I read it since I like the film. The novel's better. I don't like Macaulay Culkin in this role at all. I think he's quite awful. Fortunately when I read it I didn't have trouble picturing someone else as Henry/Macaulay. Henry comes across as more sinister in the novel and that's another reason why novel is better than film. Since the novel is only 212 pages, it's pretty condensed, going from one incident to another. Had it been longer, with more dialogue between incidents, I think it could have been a 5-star read for me.

-There's a scene in the novel when Mark is climbing the tree where Henry is and the piece of wood he's stepping on breaks, causing Mark to dangle. He later looks at the piece of wood and sees that it had been partially cut with a saw, making it easier to break when stepped on. That part with Mark discovering what Henry had done wasn't in the film.

-Richard, Henry's dead two-year-old brother who died in the bathtub, his whale toy that he'd play with in the tub was changed to a yellow rubber duck in the film.

-Henry and Mark are playing on train tracks before Henry hurts the dog. A train's coming and Henry waits until the last minute to get off but that scene's not in the film at all.

-Later, Mark threatens Henry with a screwdriver but in the film it's changed to scissors. I think it's during that scene in the novel when Henry threatens to harm his mother but it's not really said in those words in the film.

Henry's Freddy Kruegeresque green and red jacket wasn't lost on me.