The books are almost always better. Nothing, IMHO, can scare you more than your own imagination.
I had the opposite experience with ‘Jaws’ and ‘The Exorcist’. Reading the books didn’t bother me much, but once the films came out with all the hoopla, I didn’t want to go into the ocean or even think about demons and exorcism.
Maybe some kind of ‘collective consciousness’ energy at work; or maybe I have a very pedestrian imagination.
In general, though, the books are always better.