Any good horror movie promises monsters, and this book delivers monsters of all kinds - both human and…not. As both a Tremblay fan and a horror movie fan, there was little doubt I was going to love this book. And love it I did. It’s not quite the head-fuck of Headful of Ghosts, or the gut-punch of Cabin at the End of the World, but it was definitely visceral and unsettling in a way that none of his previous books have been.

I was excited to get to read this one via Netgalley.
I've never read anything by Tremblay before so I didn't know what I was getting into. I did enjoy things about this book but I think I was expecting more to happen. I liked the format of the book, alternating timelines and story vs. screenplay. I thought the characters were interesting, especially seeing into the mind of the narrator/"Thin Kid" as he told his story of what happened in 93 while filming. But the build up did not get the payoff I wanted. I feel like the ending just kind of fell flat for me.

My library is likely to purchase this title due to the author. Tremblay is a popular horror fiction writer and I get it, I could see it. But I did not enjoy this book. The script portions felt clunky, and giant dialogue chunks grew tiring to read after a while.

I don't have anything positive to say about this book, so I'll end my review here.

Two stars for the script notes in Karson's final scene only.

The writing format was very interesting and I really enjoyed reading the script sections of this book! I thought the thin kid was a really cool and creepy character in the beginning but overall I really disliked the main character and the writing felt a bit pretentious and very slow. About 40% into reading this it started to feel like a chore and it was hard to enjoy unfortunately.

Paul Tremblay is a skillful and thoughtful writer whose novels often break my heart, creep me out, or make me think long and hard about a theme or topic (sometimes all at once). But this novel just wasn't for me.

Tremblay is a writer who knows his craft and can write meta-horror like no one else (see, HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS). This novel is absolutely a love letter to horror movie fans, independent artists, and unflinching creators, and I love it for that! Tremblay comes at the filmmaking art and experience from so many thoughtful and multidirectional angles that it is a delight. (A better reviewer than myself could write multiple essays about themes and ideas brought up in this one novel)

And Tremblay's ability to bring the pervasive horror AKA "creep factor" was definitely front and center in HORROR MOVIE. There are plenty of skin crawling scenes in this novel that will stick with you long after you close the book.

Having said all that, HORROR MOVIE just wasn't my favorite. On paper, this novel should have been a slam dunk; meta-horror about filmmaking/cursed films, set in the nineties, a mystery at it's core AND with elements of a psychological thriller...YES, PLEASE! But, the flip-flopping back and forth in time and the experimental format (a found footage/mixed media style) made it difficult for my ADHD brain to hang onto the narrative thread. Several times, I found myself disoriented and unmoored in either time or place.

But, the main reason this novel fell flat for me was because, more than any other storytelling element, I read for emotional connection, and I was simply unable to connect with either the narrator or the supporting cast. To me, they were all unlikable and unsympathetic. And, don't get me wrong, I love a good villain or unreliable narrator... But this crew kept me at arm's length emotionally.

But HORROR MOVIE is definitely worth reading, especially for fans of slasher films and creepy-pasta-era horror. I would never NOT recommend Tremblay as his writing is excellent, his storytelling is imaginative, and his themes are always deeply intellectual. He is a master of his craft.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review. I really thought I knew what I was getting into with this one only for Tremblay to flip the story on its head just when I thought I knew what was going on. This story was captivating and the inclusion of the original movie script was my favorite part. It's no secret that I am a huge Tremblay fan but this one might be my new favorite. I read it so rapidly and really could've read it in one sitting if I didn't have silly life responsibilities like working and sleeping. The pacing was perfect with the breaks in the middle of the narrative for the script and the characters, especially the narrator, were standouts. I really have nothing but positives to say about this one and it is everything I wanted from a Tremblay book and more I didn't know he was capable of giving me. This would be a fantastic story to read during spooky season!

Im not sure what i just read. This is bizarre and crazy! One minute i was bored and the next I couldnt stop reading. Four teenagers get together to make a horror movie but things go terribly wrong! OR was it in the script? Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay comes out June 11. Thank you Netgalley.

Wow… where to start with this book.

Before I go any further I just want to say how excited I was that a portion of the book took place in RI. I loved hearing about the characters meeting up at Fish Co. and grabbing food at a diner in North Kingstown. I also loved the reference to “Fire Walk with Me.” I always appreciate a Twin Peaks call out.

Now to my thoughts on the story… I was expecting a typical horror story with the expected jump-scares and supernatural elements, but what I got was more unsettling and disturbing. This is definitely a slowww burn with dense material which adds to how unsettling it feels.

The book switches back and forth in time from the Thin Kids POV - during the original movie shoot and walking us through his headspace during the terrible events that take place and then leading up to and during the present day reboot. I feel as though the Thin Kid was slightly an unreliable narrator, but I don’t want to give any spoilers so I will leave it at that.

Most of the main characters come off as slightly unhinged (in the screenplay and in “real life”) and the story really delves into the underlying evilness and ability to cause harm that is lurking just beneath the surface. The screenplay in the book is meant to play into the viewers (and now readers) most basic fears and how evil and death are lurking just around the corner. If the movie was ever made it would for sure be extremely unsettling and horrifying. I really enjoyed the portions of the book that were taken from the original Horror Movie screenplay. I feel like it gave really good insight into Cleo and Valentina’s characters.

That ending… I don’t want to give anything away so I will say this - It was totally unexpected (for me) and appears to be up to reader interpretation. Little moments sprinkled throughout the book definitely foreshadow what comes to be… but it still was not what I was anticipating at all.

I would definitely recommend this book for horror movie fans and for anyone who loves a slow burn with emotional moments sprinkled throughout and some disturbing and twisted elements.

Thank you for the opportunity to preview Horror Movie. Paul Tremblay is truly a master of the horror genre. This novel is no exception.
The novel centers on 4 young people who are going to make a movie. And of course it is a horror movie.
The narrator is one of these characters and his POV drives the book while giving the reader a perspective on each of the characters.
The book goes back and forth so you have to pay attention as there are many moving parts. This movie was written by Valentina, Cleo wrote the screenplay and Karsen does the “extra” things needed to be done. They call upon a guy they know as “weird guy”!to play the role of the “thin kid”. The monster. These are our characters. But we learn soon enough that this movie was never made. But fokelore has consumed the internet. Because this film that was never made is a horror story as well.
Our narrator. The weird guy or thin kid tells us the past and now and the present. There is a desire to get this movie made in the present time. And our narrator will be part of this “reboot”.
So what’s wrong with that. Well read on as each page reveals the past and the future.
This is very different. Dark and gloomy. But what Tremblay does not disappoint and this is not the run of the mill scary book. It’s truly one of his best.
4.5 stars.

There is a desperate loneliness to this novel that gets deep under the skin. It appears languid and still, but that is only hiding the way it burrows down deep and festers, simmering with the terrifying violence of an unsprung trap.

If you have read other work by Tremblay, this is, narratively, more similar to "A Headful of Ghosts" than "The Cabin at the End of the World." The narration is all from the perspective of the last surviving actor of the film, a decidedly unreliable narrator. It goes back and forth in time from the actual making of the film to the present, with a few stops in between. Simultaneously, most chapters end with some pages from the actual screenplay of the film, though Tremblay has done himself the favor of having the screenplay’s author acknowledge how unconventional it is, which is to say that in place of stage directions there is a decent amount of narration and fourth-wall breaking meta-questioning of the characters, which lets Tremblay let these sections be more evocative and compelling. I enjoyed the constantly shifting narration, it left me feeling a little unmoored and always expectant. I didn’t love the inclusion of the screenplay at first, but it grew on me, becoming an interesting device to convey the emotional reality of the characters.

The secondary characters, at least those featured in the segments focused on the past, are interesting, but kind of open-books. They don’t feel phoned in or like simple stereotypes, but they do feel kind of hollow, in a haunted kind of way. They feel like avatars for people you know, for your peripheral experiences brought to the forefront. The main protagonist is the one telling this story, it is his experience of this story that we get to share, and yet we maybe understand him the least of all. What he does represent is an unfulfilled restlessness, an out-of-place-ness, a loneliness that doesn’t know how it can be fulfilled. Stories often live and die by characters, for me, I want characters to feel real and lived in and genuine… Here, though, I can’t say the characters scratch that itch, but they aren’t trying to, Tremblay is doing something else here that is beyond naturalism, something lost in the wispy purgatory between memory and imagination, and it worked for me, for this story.

The writing was crisp and believable, and the pacing spot-on. To constantly jump back and forth in time is to decide what parts of the narrative to omit, which are as important as what is shown. Every chapter felt like it was deepening my sense of dread while gripping me tighter, urging me to keep reading, the devil on your shoulder quietly admitting you want to see in the dark corners for yourself. I will say the story wasn’t wildly surprising, insofar as once the parameters were set up in the early chapters it wasn’t hard to predict where it would go. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t original, though, and when the ending can be forecasted from the beginning and yet you still find yourself invested and on edge that is a sign of great writing.

There is a pandemic of disaffection and loneliness right now, and a desperate clinging to nostalgia that feels in many ways part and parcel of that loneliness, of the constant feeling of being unfulfilled, unsatisfied, and cast out. Whether Tremblay is intending to comment on that or not, those felt like the dark forests this story found itself traveling, in my experience of it. It was dark and mesmerizing, and a journey that will stick with you long after you think you have put it away.

I want to thank the author, the publisher William Morrow, and NetGalley, who provided a complimentary eARC for review. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

ARC releasing 6/11. In 1993, teens created a horror movie that was never released but has a cult following and the sole remaining member of the cast and crew want to reboot the project. The format took a bit to get used to because it's part then, part now, part screenplay, part the narrator is actually doing an audiobook that you're reading. However, once you're in, you're ~in~. This was spooky and weird. Once you got to the ending, you knew there was only one way out, but you're still shocked.

In 1993, a group of teenagers set out to make a horror movie, but only select scenes were ever released. Years pass, and the scenes garner interest from filmmakers who want to create a reboot. Problem is, most of the cast is already dead. The only survivor? The “monster” in the film.

I finished this book yesterday, but I took a little while to try to figure out my feelings for this book. Paul Tremblay certainly has a way with creating characters with interesting psyches. This book was no different. The main character, known as Thin Kid, throughout a majority of the book, was the most interesting of them all.

It’s hard for me to put my finger on how I feel about this one. It seems to explore the idea of the human monster, and the darkness that can lurk in the human psyche. The way that mob mentality can infect people to act in ways they wouldn’t normally act. Throughout the book, the characters gradually begin to act worse and worse until things reach a hellish climax.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

Was terribly excited for this one - I've enjoyed Tremblay's work, particularly his short stories, and "haunted and cursed films" is one of my favorite sub-genres of horror. I was somewhat assuming that "Horror Movie" would play out like Gemma Files's "Experimental Film", but with more of a focus on the cast/crew. I was wrong, and initially that excited me. The story goes back and forth between the early 1990s and modern day, with inserts of the screenplay of the fated film. It's a slow-burn of a story, and one that absolutely relies on the strength of the characters to keep the reader hooked.

Which is, for me, where it fell apart.

Our POV character is just SUCH a pretentious jerk. Written to be awkward, angry, and always looking for a power play, he's supposed to be unlikeable and boy, does Tremblay succeed. There's a lot to like about "Horror Movie" - Tremblay knows how to write an atmosphere, and he doles out little secrets so well to keep you hooked. Unfortunately, the book ultimately fell flat to me because the characters themselves were so nasty. You just couldn't really feel for them - and so when horrific things began to occur, I mostly shrugged. Yes, it's all written very scarily, but if you don't mind when someone dies, it lacks an impact.

So yeah, this one was not for me. I'd recommend others give it a go - it's certainly well-done. But I could not find an emotional path inside of it.

Tremblay does a great job of moving multiple narratives and timelines in a way that's unsettling and satisfying. You're never really sure where it's going and maybe you never really do have all the pieces of the puzzle, but it creates a debate much like the film that is the center of the book.

Another great book from Trembley. This one concerns a horror movie that never got released, but that has, thanks to social media, nonetheless gained a major cult following. Thirty years later, a reboot is in the works. Told in dual timelines from the perspective of the remaining cast member (of only four), the story of this lost film is tragic, heart breaking and deeply disturbing.

Highly recommended.

I did not care for this book at ALL. Super weird and didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Disappointing because some of Paul Tremblay’s books I REALLY like! Oh well - give it a try, because it may be the book for you even if it’s not for me.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for this digital ARC of 'Horror Movie' by Paul Tremblay.

I've been a fan of Paul Tremblay's since reading 'A Head Full of Ghosts' nearly a decade ago and 'The Cabin at the End of the World' remains one of my favorite books of all time. I was disappointed in 'Survivor Song' - didn't really click for me - but he got back on track with 'The Pallbearer's Club' so I was interested to read 'Horror Movie.'

I would say he's right back on song (no pun intended).

That unsettling feeling which was there throughout 'A Head Full of Ghosts' and which reached nuclear levels in 'The Cabin at the End of the World' returns with a vengeance here. It's ostensibly a 'haunted movie' take where we're introduced to a cast of characters who populate the real world and the screenplay of a film that was conceived and produced by a group of friends/associates but - with a couple of clips, still photos, and the screenplay excepted - never saw the light of day. The novel's structured in such a way that you soon (at least I did) lose a true sense of whether you're witnessing the screenplay or the real-life characters. It's very effective (though some people might think it distracting).

Several decades after the original film was made and never shown, the actor who played 'The Thin Kid' in the film is being courted left, right, and center by producers who want to jump on the myth to reboot/remake the original from the screenplay that was posted online by the original director.

The pacing of the story is superb. Little by little throughout the book we find out what happened during the filming of the original and what's happened since to the protagonists. Tremblay draws it out in a delicious way and in doing so ratchets up the tension and the unsettling atmosphere. All along we're getting clues that all is not what it might seem - in the present day, with the original shoot, and in the intervening years. The 'Thin Kid' actor's development from start to finish is really subtle until it's not.

While much of the horror is psychological, some readers might have to metaphorically turn away for some of the more graphic scenes of the book, none of which are particularly gratuitous, they need to be there.

There's a theme throughout the book of digs at the whole Hollywood machine which makes me wonder if it reflects the author's experience with the making of the film of his 'Cabin' book - it's an interesting thread and one that plays out a certain way in the end. I wonder if that's an allegory for what Tremblay would like to do with the 'Hollywood types' and their ways!

Highly recommended.

2.5 stars ✨
Horror Movie is Directed by Valentina and penned by Cleo, the story ambitiously intertwines the lives of three school teens—Valentina, Cleo, Karson, and a marginalized “Thin Kid.” Set against the eerie backdrop of an abandoned school in the woods, the plot hinges on the thin kid's transformation via a green mask, an act that symbolizes his descent into a realm of horror. Years later, “Thin Kid” actor is the solve surviving cast member from the Horror Movie and is asked to act in the Reboot.
Horror Movie aimed to combine innovative storytelling with timeless horror conventions, yet fails short to meet its high ambitions.

Horror Movie
By Paul Tremblay
75 to 80 % in, I thought “This bitch.”
This bitch right here be changing up the game. What game exactly, right. I’m not scared. Everyone saw this coming as it was directed in the script. Damn. You really went there. It was scripted but damn. You. Went. There. ARC was provided by William Morrow Books via NetGalley. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Hours after finishing this book, I’m still slightly confused. Horror Movie is written in screenplay style writing while also jumping timelines. Because of this, I had a really hard time following along in the beginning. I have never read anything like this style of writing before.

The book is definitely a slow burn, it took me almost half way through to actually get into the book and want to keep reading. Which was hard because I really was intrigued by the plot but I just kept waiting and waiting for something dramatic to happen and it never seemed to come. I think there was too much setting up the environment to get an emotional connection to the characters so by the time the climax of the book comes you’re just not invested in the characters.

I’d rate this 3.5 stars because although it was a slow burn and I had a hard time connecting to the characters, it was a great plot idea and although it took me a while to get into it, it kept me intrigued until the end.

Thank you NetGalley and the William Morrow Team for providing me with the ARC in return for my review!