Half the time when I interact with a piece of art, I can’t help but think what it might look like when translated into another medium. When I watched the 2019 film adaptation of Webber’s Cats!, I wondered how I would remake it as a film (I’d turn it into a found footage existentialist horror). How would I take a BL manga like Breathless Momentum and turn it into a limited series for US consumption? What would the 1927 war film Wings look like as a musical? (I’m working on that one! Stay tuned!)

Imagination sparks imagination, much like desire creates desire.

With that in mind, I want to talk about 5 films that would make for excellent stage plays.

1 - Saw

James Wan’s sadistic horror film Saw is often brought up when talking about pieces with great potential for the stage. In part, this is because it doesn’t take much effort to do a nearly direct translation. Much of the film, and surely its most interesting moments, take place in a singular room. Two men are trapped together, and much of the film is simply conversation. Not much has to change to put this on the stage.

For whatever playwright secures the rights, you don’t have to worry much about smoothing out the fast-paced scenic changes inherent to most films. The scenes that take place outside the filthy bathroom can either be turned into monologue, skipped, or acted in some “separate” space on the stage. You can utilize some wonderful, disgusting stage magic for the more gory aspects.

Fans of the series would also find comfort in the ease of this adaptation. Since not much has to change (though a playwright absolutely should do whatever weird shit they fancy), they can imagine they’ll get that supposed desire of all fandoms: an “accurate,” “faithful” adaptation. Maybe they won’t whine on the internet (I’m joking. They definitely will. No one can be normal about adaptations for some reason lol).

2 - Late Night with the Devil

The Cairnes brothers delivered us this found footage exploration of fame and demonic possession in 2023. I watched it as I watch most films: whilst exercising in front of a TV, decidedly late to the game. I couldn’t shake from my mind that it would make for an excellent play. 

In part, this is because theatre simply doesn’t have enough genre fic within it. I welcome any piece of horror to the stage that’s willing to take it. More than that, for the most part, the film lends itself to the stage. It follows a late-night talk show, a medium filmed in front of a live studio audience. You replace the studio audience with the live audience. For the audience interaction parts, you have actors planted in a couple of seats.

There’s not too much work needed to mold the film for the stage. It primarily takes place on the late-night set. The backstage moments can easily take place on the edges of the stage or even in faux-backstage parts of the set, where the actors who aren’t “performing” can watch the show in character. Not even the “rewind and play that again” segments have to change drastically. You can pre-film these and play them on a screen. Or you can go a bit more theatrical and have the actor(s) do the scene over in the “correct” way.

The great fun in a production of Late Night would be in the technical elements. There’s plenty of potential for fun lighting, wire work, stage magic, and incredible sound design. Toward the end of the show, there’s a reveal/dream sequence that lends itself to interesting set and costume design.

I’m not a spectacle kind of guy. It’s generally one of the last things I look for in a show, especially when I’m directing. But! I can recognize a good time when I see one, and Late Night promises to be filled with bloody, weird, delightful spectacle. The last 20 or so minutes offer a chance for awe. I reckon that those you don’t manage to frighten will still enjoy themselves from the sheer audacity and fun you can pack into that ending, whether you choose to go a serious or a camp route.

3 - Heretic

Scott Beck and Bryan Woods deliver this dialogue-heavy horror flick that debates religion and how it’s used to control people. The subject matter alone is enough to make most people uncomfortable—the existential questions it brings up would be one thing, but the annoying tendency of the talk from any side that participates in it makes it all the more squirm-inducing.

This is a more complicated adaptation than the previous two. While Late Night presents some fun production challenges with stage magic and the like, Heretic provides some logistical challenges with its final moments. Until then, you’d think it’d be simple enough: You have the start of the film take place on the ribbon (very front of the stage), and then have a two-level set for the rest. The living room and library sections of the film take place on the upper level, and the basement section takes place on the lower level.

But then there’s the tunnel. And the chase. And the new room. And it all connects back to the upper level, so the final girl can return to the basement. Reading that, you’re probably thinking, “Well, that’s not too difficult to think of solutions for…”

Great! Good. That means you can adapt it, and I can watch a delicious piece of horror for the stage. Keep thinking like this. Keep imagining and solving problems.

4 - It’s What’s Inside

Let’s keep getting stranger.

Greg Jardin’s horror comedy film It’s What’s Inside follows a friend group who keep swapping bodies throughout a party night. Imagine all the fun a group of actors could have with this concept. Together with the director, they can figure out how “good” each person is at mimicking the original, what little tics they have that carry over, inflections, and gaits. You can either approach this as an awe-inspiring event of acting might or as a party of campy fun.

The body swapping starts off as a game: Who can guess who is truly who? Who’s in your body? Tension bubbles over. When someone dies, the person possessing their body is gone, and the original owner of that body is stuck in someone else. They’ll never be able to return to their own flesh. That’s delightfully horrifying as a concept. What if you must live, but you will never be you again? Are we our bodies? What is the self?

Those are the sort of questions I love in theatre.

5 - I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Those existential questions are the ones posed by Charlie Kaufman’s film adaptation of I’m Thinking of Ending Things (originally an excellent novel by Iain Reid). A woman gets dinner with the man she’s dating, Jake, whom she’s pretty sure she wants to break up with. What’s her name? It keeps changing. So does what she does. When she’s browsing his childhood photos, she spots a photo of Jake that she’s sure is actually a photo of her.

The basement seems horrifying.

Watching the film, I was struck by how play-like it already is, much like the other entries on this list (minus It’s What’s Inside). The film even speaks the language of theatre, making use of music from Oklahoma! and a dream ballet inspired by the same. It’s incredibly dialogue-heavy and reliant on incredible performances from all in the cast.

In the film, details are constantly changing. The camera looks at something. Looks away. Returns, and some detail is… off. This might be difficult to pull off in live theatre, but it’s also potentially fun. Block it so the actors pull attention while they’re talking. Utilizing magnets, strings, or something, make some small change to the set or the background. While they’re in the dining room, change something in the sitting room (perhaps the arrangement of photos on the wall or the colors of the lamp shades or maybe even the position of the furniture if you can manage it without pulling focus).

Both the film and novel are filled with dread and uneasy questions. As a lover of theatre, both making it and witnessing it, a theatrical adaptation of I’m Thinking of Ending Things thrills me.

Hopefully, you’ll watch these films, consider how they might look on stage, and find yourself thrilled as well. I encourage you to look at art you adore and imagine it taking some new form. How would you mold it? What challenges would you face in doing so, and what new shapes or colors would you use?