If I didn't recognize the name of the characters, I wouldn't even know the movie and the books were related. There were some many differences that the plot was practically unrecognizable.
MOVIE AND BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD
The way Mother Malkin was freed from the pit, which was a huge part of the first book, was a very small and insignificant detail in the movie. Supposedly, Mother Malkin and the Spook were in some sort of relationship way back when (but in the book, Spook didn't have any love relations with her).
One detail that most disturbed me was how passionate the Spook was for burning witches. It was made very clear in the book that he thought of burning as a very cruel way to kill someone, and his compassionate nature had rubbed off on Tom, which is why he stopped Alice from burning Mother Malkin. But in the movie, the Spooks is more than willing to burn them. When Tom was sympathetic to witches, the Spook became angry. Tom had said he wasn't like the Spook, and the Spook he replied that if he didn't learn to burn witches, he was of no use to him.
This was wrong on so many levels. There are so many ways a Spook can be useful and deal with witches without killing them (e.g. putting them in a pit, because they usually can't break out like Mother Malkin did in the movie). In the end, Tom burns Mother Malkin, finally becoming more like the movie Spook, which is far from a good thing.
Other less significant differences include the death of Tom's mam by Mother Malkin and the necklace (which wasn't in the book at all), Tom's and Alice's ages, etc.
MOVIE AND BOOK SPOILERS END
I understand that there are some necessary changes when going from a book to a movie. The change in the ages of the characters, for example, is understandable. But when the important qualities of characters are changed to the point where they're unrecognizable? That's unacceptable.
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