"Paul Tremblay's Horror Movie is a brilliant piece about the masks we know about and the masks we don't, the ones we're forced to wear for a lifetime because of our depression and the things we create to make sense of terrible things. He captures the fugue of being young, of finding a bridge to immortality when you're invulnerable, of making mistakes you can't take back. It is intimately heartbreaking and beautifully written, and it's scary in a way that attaches itself to your shame and self-loathing and just starts eating away. It's extraordinary." — Walter Chaw, author of A Walter Hill Film
“Paul Tremblay is one of the most terrifying horror writers of his generation and his new chiller, Horror Movie, is a reason for excitement.” — Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“In the hands of Paul Tremblay the story of a lost movie becomes a reflection on fear, the monsters we all are, and an investigation of what is a ‘horror novel.’ It’s bold, fearless, a bit sad, and very, very scary.” — Mariana Enriquez, author of Our Share of Night and Things We Lost in the Fire
“Horror Movie is not only a haunting, unsettling, and utterly absorbing novel—it is also a twisted manifesto for art and the parts of ourselves we shed in order to create it. It messed with my head and I loved every minute of it.” — Clémence Michallon, internationally bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant
“Macabrely funny and incredibly smart, Horror Movie cements Tremblay's place as a master of horror. It encapsulates the unease of right now — a runaway culture of self-reference with bloody hands. It's everything a horror novel ought to be: lean, mean, and genuinely scary.” — Sarah Langan, author of Good Neighbors and A Better World
“A profound, heart-wrenching, terrifyingly honest novel that’s also a cinematic page-turner. Horror Movie zooms in on creation and consumption, integrity and ego, admiration and obsession, and how the desperate search for connection through art can be beautiful, or disastrous. This book is a gift and a curse.” — Rachel Harrison, nationally bestselling author of Black Sheep
“Uncertainty is Tremblay’s stock-in-trade. Over the last decade, he has grown from hot new thing to horror icon without compromising on his uniquely inexplicable nightmares.” — Esquire
"More than a dozen horror stories—weird, self-referential, expertly told. [The] quirkily magisterial title entry delivers a grim vision of hubris and collective apathy . . . It is all, frankly, riveting. . . . What seems to matter, in all these stories, aren’t the specifics of a grisly end but the emotions they conjure, the way they tinge our own reality after we turn the page.” — New York Times on The Beast You Are
“A tremendous book―thought-provoking and terrifying, with tension that winds up like a chain. The Cabin at the End of the World is Tremblay’s personal best. It’s that good.” — Stephen King
“The Cabin at the End of the World… will shape your nightmares for months—that’s pretty much guaranteed. That’s what it’s built for. And there’s a very, very good chance you’ll never get it out of your head again.” — NPR
★ 02/01/2024
Known only as "the Thin Kid" in the script, the only surviving cast member of an indie horror film made in 1993 is invited to assist with its big-budget remake. The original has its devoted fans, even though only three scenes from the film were ever released; there's a rabid online following, full of rumors and myths about the unfinished 1993 film. As the novel's protagonist becomes more involved with the remake, secrets buried in the past start to resurface, including details of strange events during the original filming and the tragedy that occurred on set. Narrated with a sardonic tone and Gen-X sensibility, Tremblay's (The Beast You Are) novel shifts between the filming of the original movie and of the present-day remake, sprinkled with excerpts from the films' scripts. Unease and terror rapidly build in the book as readers learn details of what happened on the original set and how it threatens the present. The novel is as unsettling and gripping as a slasher while also managing to be funny and thoughtful. VERDICT Balancing a terrifying cursed film with examinations of artistic creation, fandom, and truth, Tremblay's latest is smart and well-paced and will have broad appeal. Recommended for fans of Tremblay's The Pallbearer's Club as well as Clay McLeod Chapman's The Remaking.—Lila Denning
2024-06-15
When an unreleased cult movie is rebooted, the surviving member of the original film’s crew grapples with psychic whiplash.
Even though it’s not steeped in horror lore like the bangers being cranked out by Stephen Graham Jones or Grady Hendrix, this captivating take is tailor-made for fans of Stephen King and Jordan Peele alike. A cautionary tale with elements of indie movie darlingsThe Blair Witch Project,Blue Velvet, andRiver’s Edge, this chronicle of hometown kids trying to make a cheap slasher flick is shockingly memorable and deeply disturbing. Our unnamed narrator is the last survivor of the eponymous movie, filmed in the summer of 1993. TheirHorror Movie concerns teens who torture one of their own—the narrator’s role is that of the Thin Kid, akin to the Slender Man of urban legend—and suffer the consequences. In the mix are the film’s obsessive director, Valentina; a handful of cast and crew; and the film’s ethereal screenwriter, Cleo, whose presence is most fully felt within the pages of her unusually personal screenplay. After a bewildering tragedy, the film was never released. Decades later, Valentina uploads a few scenes, some stills, and the screenplay to the internet, inspiring the modern-day reinvention. With his crewmates long dead by mostly natural causes, the narrator reluctantly agrees to capitalize on his infamy, eventually agreeing to participate in a hot horror reboot. Revolving between the original production and the big-budget reimagining, Tremblay deftly sidesteps genre tropes and easy laughs for a truly disturbing experience inside some very troubled heads. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s going to be a great movie,” cautions our Thin Kid. “You’re all going to see it. Most of you are really going to like it.…Will the movie be something you take with you, that stays with you, burrows into and lives in a corner inside you? That, I don’t know.”
A fever dream about despair and regret that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.
