Rating: 1.96 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.5/5
-Cover: 3/5
-Story: 1.75/5
-Writing: 3/5
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
-Horror: 1/5
-Mystery: 2.5/5
-Thriller: 0/5
Type: Ebook/AB
Worth?: Eh

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I am glad I waited until after the book was published to pick it up. Listening to the AB while reading kind of helped the overall experience.

Kind of sad this is the first book I read by him since it was such a disappointment. It was more gore than horror. (I find the two on separate ends.) I had been waiting for this curse film kind of thing or something more in general. What we got was a lack luster story about (view spoiler) And then to top it all off it was just sad and depressing. (view spoiler) Parading that about while calling this a horror is not something I would do.

Overall I was just sad. Sad for a character and for the fact that the whole book was just a flop.

Overall, this book was enjoyable. However, I feel the pace was too slow, especially for a relatively short book. The screenplay in the middle of the book I feel distracts from the story that the narrator is trying to tell.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely worth a read! It could have been that I read this one immediately after the new Peter Swanson & Riley Sager titles. But I was expecting it to be a five star read! Don't get me wrong, I really liked it! But probably should have read it further away from two of my favorite authors. But your horror and thriller fans should definitely give it a read!

Description:
A chilling twist on the “cursed film” genre from the bestselling author of The Pallbearers Club and The Cabin at the End of the World.
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.

I really wanted to love this book, but it fell short for me. I enjoyed the read, for the most part, but I struggled getting through it and found it didn’t fully meet my expectations.

Back in the 90s, a group of young and hungry filmmakers created an indie horror film that they wanted to change the genre. Except, the film never came out. Years later a few scenes and the screenplay were released to the world, and the fan base grew with them. Now a new group of people are trying to remake the original, and the sole survivor of the original production is here for his insight and perspective. Except as more is revealed, the urban legends around the original production seem less and less like just "stories."

As a huge horror movie fan and fan of Tremblay's other works, I wanted to love this more. The book flips back and forth in time between the original production and various pre-production elements of the new movie, allowing the reader to slowly put the pieces together of what may have happened in the 90s until it is finally shown. Tremblay did an excellent job placing the reader in the various meetings, fan conventions, and film sets that make up the story. The book also includes the screenplay of the original movie, which was a fun break from the other chapters. The issue for me is that it didn't come all the way together for me. Some of the scares in the screenplay or tension in the past and present scenes was well done in isolation but the ending made me realize that my expectations for the book and its potential insights on horror and cult films were not really what Tremblay was going for. I would recommend this to fans of his other works and it was a fun ride (especially if you can swing the audiobook for the screenplay sections), but it did not work for me.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley who provided me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the first half of the book. The second half was kind of disappointing and anticlimactic. The ending didn't really live up to what I wanted for the characters. The book was fun and I liked the breaking the fourth wall aspect.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

A fantastically fun, meta book! You are pulled in, tied down, and forced to peel back the layers of insanity that Paul Tremblay has masterfully crafted. The man keeps putting out hits like he's Taylor Swift and I am here for it. Not to be that person but M. Night made a movie off of Tremblay's storytelling for a reason! Now you do have the choice to read Horror Movie the conventual way or through the audiobook and I highly recommend you take the audiobook route, the cast of narrators did a brilliant job of really bringing you into the story, giving you the feeling that you were the one looking through the mask. But like all reviews should be this isn't a perfect shiny book, there are some flaws which aren't a big deal unless you are super picky about certain things. For example, sometimes the pacing in between chapters can be a little slow. There will be something dark and unsettling followed by a lot of inner dialogue and story explaining when I wanted to get back to the guts of the story. Other than that I hope you decide to pick this one up and buckle in for quite the ride! Happy Reading! x

Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay is a delightfully weird, disturbing, and thought-provoking novel in mixed media and multiple timelines. A little bit Blair Witch Project, a little bit Creature from the Black Lagoon, and a little bit Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s possibly my favorite cover of 2024 and the ending gives readers plenty to chew on. This one will be fun to booktalk with students who are up for something scary with a found footage vibe! 🧌 📼 🎥 🎬 🎞️ 📕

Paul Tremblay does it again. I'm a big fan of his books and I love the horror he injects into the pages. His books are generally a slow burn for me, but well worth it.

This book is difficult for me to rate because there were some parts that I really very much enjoyed. There were also parts that I felt totally took me out of the story and confused me. Although I liked the in between screen play reading idea, I felt that it really disrupted the story and would throw me off. I think the thing that I very much appreciated were the regular references to the old horror movies, like Jaws. The skinny kid says one of Broady's lines, "Thank Christ." And I think there are many little references in the book like that, that unless you are a big horror fan would pass you right by. I did enjoy the plot of the story and I loved how Paul Tremblay worked in the kind of classic urban legend how horror movies are cursed and bad things happen to people on set. There was so much good but I felt that it was disjointed at times and the timelines and screenplay writing really took some of that enjoyment away. So I am settled on a 3 star.

This was not a supernatural horror like I thought it was going to be (I probably should have read the description better). Gruesome, Dark, and Weird, I don't think I was the target audience for this book.

Horror Movie is weird and unsettling. It started off slowly and I spent time wondering where this one was going. Is this a ghost story? A slasher? I had many thoughts and feelings: confusion and shock were the dominant ones. The narrator is unreliable and while the reader can figure this out quickly, I didn't realize the extent of it. Definitely kept me thinking though, even if it weirded me out a bit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

There were some things that I liked and then some things that I wish were better. While I liked the differences in narratives, with part of the story told as a film script and part as a traditional narrative, I felt that the narrative was full of extremely long paragraphs. I felt myself losing concentration. I found myself getting confused by the “Now” and “Then” timelines, as the distinct periods were sometimes hard to follow when characters’ names were used. The ending was INSANE. I wanted more information about the trial, as it was often discussed but never in detail. This was my first novel by Paul Tremblay, and while I liked it, I wasn’t obsessed; without the crazy ending, I might have even given it a lower rating.

A big thank you to Netgalley, William Morrow, and Paul Tremblay for the eARC.

This was one of the better Tremblay novels I've read. The story moves quickly enough to keep the reader invested, but maintains Tremblay's usual cadence and tone (ie slow, drawn out, somewhat mind-numbing). This one, at least, was satisfying.

The way that this novel moves from novel to movie script was very unique. It was compelling and suspenseful.

I wanted to love this more than I did. I think reading by it digitally maybe skewed the reading experience for me but I know so many people loved it. It hit the nail on the head by being very disturbing! I just wanted more explanation!

This was great! My first Paul Tremblay book and I'd be happy to read another. I wouldn't say I was scared while I was reading, but I was fascinated the same way it's difficult to look away from a car crash (later, after I'd finished reading and everything had set in, I was definitely a little scared in the dark). I would definitely recommend this book to any horror reader, particularly horror fans who like cult classics or who loved horror movies before books. The audiobook was also incredible - I rarely enjoy an audiobook enough to recommend that version specifically, but it really added to the overall experience.

This was a deeply weird novel that I didn’t find all that scary. The end was even more deeply weird but by that point I wasn’t finding much to be scared about. The narrative technique was interesting but didn’t lend much to the story. I listened to the audiobook version.

This book was an absolute no-go for me. The writing was a tangled mess, like trying to follow a conversation in a noisy bar—confusing and downright hard to follow. At no point did I feel even a flicker of interest or investment in any of the characters.

If this literary disaster ever made it to the big screen, I’d tear it apart with more enthusiasm than a toddler in a ball pit. It wasn't just your typical horror story; it crossed a line into a sick, abusive vibe that left me feeling more disturbed than entertained. And trust me, I live for the horror genre—but this? This was a hard pass.

In the end, I’m dishing out a measly 1.5 stars, and that’s me being generous because the cover was the only thing that didn't make me want to hurl it across the room. Sorry, but this one’s going straight to the “don’t bother” pile.

So first off I'll start by saying that although I liked it, I do NOT think this book will be for everyone.

Don’t go into this expecting there to be some "supernatural" element cursing them all to their deaths. I was kind of expecting something similar to SILVER NITRATE.

I thought the movie itself was actually unsettling and tough to read. During the telling of the script it did have the "creep" factor a bit. Reminding me of Iain Reid's writing style so I enjoyed that.

Unfortunately, this was not what I was expecting but still worth a read. This is a simple retelling of how HORROR MOVIE came to be, how it went, and how it was remade.