Nightbitch, starring Amy Adams and directed by Marielle Heller, is equal parts dark comedy and horror. The story is a unique take on motherhood and the loss of identity, adapted from a novel of the same name written by Rachel Yoder, who was inspired by her own experience of Motherhood and the frustrations she had about how it changed the way the world perceived her. Rooted in her own life as a creative and a first time Mom, Nightbitch is a brilliant piece of magical realism that tackles harsh realities through the use of magical transformation and sharp wit.

The book was first published in July 2021, and considering its vast impact and popularity, it is no wonder that a film adaptation is hitting theaters only a few years after its initial release. Whenever a book is adapted into film, however, viewers will inevitably have the same question — how does the adaptation compare to the original?

Release Date December 6, 2024 Runtime 98 Minutes

The Story of ‘Nightbitch’
Searchlight Pictures

The story at the heart of Nightbitch is one in which a new mother who takes a break from her career as an artist to be a stay-at-home mom tries to adjust to the new chapter in her life. Things get complicated, however, when her new role as a Mom starts to manifest in unexpected and seemingly impossible ways. To put it bluntly, the main character starts to transform into a dog at night and her motherly instincts start to manifest in increasingly aggressive and animalistic behaviors.

Beyond the direct summary or the concrete plot points, however, Nightbitch, at its core, is a story of justified rage and the helplessness that women often face when becoming mothers. Once a woman becomes a mom, it can feel as though all other facets of her identity are stripped from her – whoever she was before, whatever other accomplishments or passions constructed her, cease to matter. It’s as if she is no longer seen as a fully realized person, but only as a mother to her child. This is a uniquely feminine experience, as men are not often denied their personhood after becoming parents in the same way – they still get to have an identity outside the home and their child(ren).

This frustration and anxiety doesn’t take away from the love a woman has for her child(ren) – but this frustration isn’t really about the child, it’s about the rest of the world. It’s about protecting the child from a world that isn’t safe or secure, and it’s about the way that the world will try to contort a woman into the box labeled “Mother,” even at the expense of who she was or could be outside that box. Even if it means removing pieces of her to make her fit. This is the powerful dissatisfaction that led to the writing of Nightbitch and that drives the story as the audience watches along.

The Movie Adapts Its Story and Characters Well
Searchlight Pictures

The film adaptation gets the central premise right, and it creates a world in which that premise can be explored and accentuated through the use of atmosphere and dialogue. Fans of the book will notice that much of what comes from Mother’s perspective, shown through the use of monologs and narration, is straight from the book. Mother herself — played skillfully by Amy Adams — is an incredibly accurate representation of the Mother of the book, and all that she represents.

Similarly, Husband and Son — so named for their relation to the central character and how she views them — are accurate to their book counterparts. Husband and Son may be less developed than Mother, but that makes sense when the story is from her perspective and is about her journey, so all other characters are defined by who they are to her and how she sees them.

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Although the story itself is less sharply presented than in the book, the important moments and broad strokes of the story are all there. Considering that all film adaptations have to cut where they can for time and clarity, Heller did a good job of telling the same story with the time and medium she had.

The surreal feeling of moments when Mother is transforming, when she starts to notice what’s happening to her, is also book accurate and is, perhaps, the most important thing for her to get right. Magical realism, as a genre, is most poignant in those moments where reality meets the impossible, and Heller did a good job of representing that. If only she had allowed that side of the story more time and attention.

‘Nightbitch’ Is Too Reliant on the Source Material

It feels contradictory to say that an adaptation’s greatest faults lie in being too accurate to the source material, but that seems to be what happened with Nightbitch. When adapting a book to a new medium, especially a visual one, everyone involved needs to be aware of how and where things need to change. Like many literary adaptations before it, and no doubt many after it, Nightbitch fell victim to the use of over-narration and the issue of telling the audience instead of showing them.

As mentioned previously, there is a lot of dialogue and narration taken from the book itself — but where these devices worked in the novel, where the reader is in Mother’s head, it didn’t translate perfectly to the screen. Although it feels weird to say that more should have been changed in the adaptation process, that is the truth in this case. The fact is that filmmaking is an entirely different way of telling a story from the written word, and the necessary changes that one would need to make for effective storytelling were not considered or made here.

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If Heller had leaned more into the surreal moments of Mother seemingly losing her mind as her transformation took her farther and farther away from her humanity, then the movie might be more effective at conveying its central ideas and would be a more interesting watch. It can be daunting when adapting such a unique story, because there is the pressure to conform to a more linear or easy to understand version of the story, but the film would have been more compelling if Heller had allowed the film to just exist and indulge in the more haunting and magical aspects of the story.

That being said, Nightbitch still feels like a highly relevant and important narrative. Although devoted fans of the original book might want to avoid the adaptation, there’s plenty within the movie that makes it worth checking out for viewers.

Nightbitch is currently in theaters.