Before Hulu Series, The Handmaid’s Tale Had a Movie That Everyone Hated
It took almost 30 years for Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale to save the reputation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel. Earlier, it was stained by a disastrous movie even Natasha Richardson couldn’t save — fans are here to explain why.
With Elizabeth Moss’ The Handmaid’s Tale remaining one of Hulu ’s biggest hits for years, there’s nothing left for Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name to worry about, though things were much different back in the day.
Published in 1985, the book received widespread acclaim and got its first movie adaptation just 5 years later, though it didn’t have much success to say the least.
It might be fair to say the film was cursed from the very beginning, and multiple problems during its production were nothing else but clear signs to just give it up.
Still, those signs went completely ignored, even forcing the movie’s writer Harold Pinter desperately (and unsuccessfully) try to remove his name from the credits.
The Handmaid’s Tale Movie Almost Ruined Its Source Material’s Legacy
Long before Hulu’s show came to rescue in 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale had one more adaptation of the same name released in 1990.
Starring Natasha Richardson in the leading role, the movie does in fact try to stick to the original novel at first, but then suddenly falls down to some kind of romcom with a love triangle being way more important to the storyline than its dystopian and pretty disturbing background.
Eventually the film bombed in the box office and garnered a solid collection of negative reviews calling The Handmaid’s Tale a senseless movie with the novel’s ideas lost somewhere on the way.
- On Rotten Tomatoes, The Handmaid’s Tale (1990) holds scores of 32% and 44% from critics and viewers
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 6/10
What Fans Say About The Handmaid’s Tale First Adaptation
It’s easy to feel the aversion towards the movie after having watched Hulu’s highly acclaimed and much better structured series, and The Handmaid’s Tale’s diehard fans are here to prove it.
“Don't watch this. Save yourself. Read the book instead if you haven't yet, or rewatch the series if you have to. But this was a mistake. I give it a 1/10 on imdb because it does not even hold up as a stand alone movie. I've simply never encountered a more horrendous book adaptation in my life that failed this miserably. It didn't even make back half its budget. If you have a thesis or project to make about the male gaze in media, that's the only context when I'd highly recommend this”, Redditor CrinoTheLord wrote after giving a full-scale review where there was no place for good words whatsoever.
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“I couldn't possibly agree more. I saw this movie when I was a kid, not long after I read the book the first time, and it was so bad that I simply couldn't trust the idea of adapting THT to any screen. It took a while for me to first check out the show as a result, to be honest. Such an offensively terrible film”, heyitsapotato agreed.
Where to Watch The Handmaid’s Tale Movie?
If you’re brave enough to go against most of the fans’ recommendations, Prime Video is where you can find the film right now.
