where are you going vs. smooth talk

Even though the movie "smooth talk" took some liberties, as all movies do, I found both decently comparable. Where they differ mostly, in my opinion, is in how believable they were. I found Arnold Friend more believably portrayed in the movie. Being able to see his expressions along with his dialog made the character seem more like a strange and persuasive person than the sort of alluded satanic being from the book. It may seem this way to me due to my visual learning type personality, or because I just don't pay enough attention while reading to pick up on subtleties...