Genre: Horror
Length: 288 Pages
Publisher: William Morrow
Release date: June 11, 2024
Synopsis:
In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick.
The weird part? Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fanbase. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big budget reboot.
The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. As memories flood back in, the boundaries between reality and film, past and present start to blur. But he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors, and surreal fan conventions—demons of the past be damned.
But at what cost?
Horror Movie is an obsessive, psychologically chilling, and suspenseful feat of storytelling genius that builds inexorably to an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.
Review copy provided in exchange for an honest review
Having read Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and loving everything about it, I’m always up against that bench mark of great story telling from Paul Tremblay. Horror Movie was a slow burn, for me, but the juice was worth the squeeze. The books summary has it exactly correct, ‘….chilling, and suspenseful…an unforgettable, mind-bending conclusion.’ This mind-bending conclusion was what made this book worth the squeeze.
Having read a fair amount of Paul Tremblay’s work, he always throws something different at the reader. His range and ability to create something horrifying and gripping is easy to see. From the apocalyptic world in Survivor Song to a straight up horror story as in Disappearance at Devil’s Rock to a crafty and layered tale in Horror Movie. The reader is always shown something different.
Horror Movie was told in multiple layers, through the script of the movie itself, the story about making it then, and the story of the reboot now. Horror Movie is told from ‘The Thin Kid’s’ perspective. How much we can rely on his memory from then is up for speculation as he is the only member from the film still alive. It took ready a good portion of this book to get in the groove, this being why I say it is a slow burn. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was reading for a long while. The horror in Horror Movie is not just gore, it’s on a psychological level. Elevated as some call it. Horror Movie exists on a plane closest to Cabin at the End of the Woods. If you enjoyed that book from Paul Tremblay I’d say you will enjoy this as well.
Paul Tremblay, Biography-
Paul Tremblay is the author of the Bram Stoker Award and Locus Award winning THE CABIN AT THE END OF THE WORLD, winner of the British Fantasy Award DISAPPEARANCE AT DEVIL’S ROCK, and Bram Stoker Award/Massachusetts Book Award winning A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS. A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS is in development with Focus Features. He’s also the author of the novels The Little Sleep, No Sleep till Wonderland, Swallowing a Donkey’s Eye, and Floating Boy and the Girl Who Couldn’t Fly (co-written with Stephen Graham Jones).
His newest book is the short story collection GROWING THINGS AND OTHER STORIES.
His essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Times and numerous “year’s best” anthologies. He is the co-editor of four anthologies including Creatures: Thirty Years of Monster Stories (with John Langan). Paul is on the board of directors for the Shirley Jackson Awards. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts, has a master’s degree in Mathematics, and has no uvula. You can find him online at http://www.paultremblay.net. twitter: @paulgtremblay
The Scary Reviews 
Excited to read this one, David! I loved how A Head Full of Ghosts is to The Exorcist the way Scream is to Halloween: both a terrifying specimen of its subgenre as well as a fascinating deconstruction of its tropes. It’s a story about how manipulative stories can be. Tremblay is a real talent, the way his stories work simultaneously as both fiction and metafiction. That’s a tougher trick to pull off than he makes it seem. Really stoked for Horror Movie.
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