u/SouthDragonEsq

Since it's a parody of academic articles, why not have the adaptation also be academic? I'm thinking of those History Channel documentaries specifically. Those shows have multiple "experts" (legitimate or not) putting in their two cents on historical events, it would be a great way to adapt at least the Navidson Record portion.

Since none of the experts actually exist, or claim to have seen the supposed film, perhaps those roles could be filled in by Zampano and the various women who would come to read to him. Have the actors be new and maybe even amateur, both for further immersion in the film, and to show that Zampano wasn't strictly professional. Perhaps even having the camera angles being slightly off kilter; a sort of juxtaposition to the constant mention of how well Navidson shoots the film. Maybe you never even fully see the face of Zampano, his face as much a mystery as the rest of him.

The house is never shown in the book, so it should remain the same for the adaptation, at best it should have crude illustrations done by either Zampano or Johnny. For the word "house", and all other words that contain it, have some sort of emphasis. Maybe make the word slightly louder, or zoom in on the mouth of the person speaking for a split second, fast enough that the viewer thought they were blinking.

The record is fragmented and partially destroyed, so the adaptation would have to reflect that. It would have been filmed on VHS, so by the time that Johnny finds it, the quality of the surviving tape is inconsistent; the audio is constantly going out or getting higher and lower in pitch, or the color sort of fades away briefly. And since Johnny would have to copy the tapes onto a new VHS, the quality would get slightly worse, like how it would when recording shows off of the TV.

Johnny will need to put his two cents in, so he gets a video diary that he'll mix in with the Record. Sometimes they'll be at the end of a certain segment. Sometimes, it's in the middle of a sentence, cutting out so that Johnny can talk about whatever is on his mind (Thumper, the growling, etc), only to cut right back into the film, allowing the "expert" to finish their analysis.

You never see anything besides Johnny in his room during these segments; there truly won't be a way to know if a lot of what he says is true, unless you go off by how he looks, which I imagine has become more disheveled as time goes on.

Ed. could be more like the editors notes you see on amateur translations of anime back in the day. Cutting in on the screen to show a translation, or to correct Johnny after the fact. The documents supplied at the end of the book could also be supplied by Ed. at the end of the adaptation, only giving enough time to pause on each piece, before moving on to the next.

Ed. will also put some sort of disclaimer at the beginning: "This film was put together by Johnny Truant, we are unable to verify the legitimacy of the film's existence. Viewer discretion is advised. This is Not For You." Something like that, anyway.

This ended up being a lot longer than intended.

TLDR: Late 90s/ early 2000s History Channel style documentary may work for an adaptation.