The monster at the heart of a cult 90s cursed horror film tells his shocking and bloody secret history. Slow burn terror meets high-stakes showdowns, from the bestselling author of A Head Full of Ghosts and The Cabin at the End of the World.
Summer, 1993 – a group of young guerrilla filmmakers spend four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror film. Steeped in mystery and tragedy, the film has taken on a mythic, cult renown, despite only three of the original scenes ever being released to the public.
Decades later, a big budget reboot is in the works, and Hollywood turns to the only surviving cast member – the man who played 'the Thin Kid', the masked teen at the centre of it all. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the crossed lines on set.
Caught in a nightmare of masks and appearances, facile Hollywood personalities and the strangeness of fan conventions, the Thin Kid spins a tale of past and present, scripts and reality, and what the camera lets us see. But at what cost do we revisit our demons?
After all these years, the monster the world never saw will finally be heard.
Genre: Horror
Summer, 1993 – a group of young guerrilla filmmakers spend four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror film. Steeped in mystery and tragedy, the film has taken on a mythic, cult renown, despite only three of the original scenes ever being released to the public.
Decades later, a big budget reboot is in the works, and Hollywood turns to the only surviving cast member – the man who played 'the Thin Kid', the masked teen at the centre of it all. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the crossed lines on set.
Caught in a nightmare of masks and appearances, facile Hollywood personalities and the strangeness of fan conventions, the Thin Kid spins a tale of past and present, scripts and reality, and what the camera lets us see. But at what cost do we revisit our demons?
After all these years, the monster the world never saw will finally be heard.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"Horror Movie is a gift of a novel, combining creeping dread and slippery narrative twists with a palpable love for the genre. Paul Tremblay is unmatched in creating horror that feels at once outsized and disturbingly personal. God I loved this book." - Julia Armfield
"Scarringly good. Tremblay turns horror inside out with characters so complex and painfully human it makes the terrible things that happen even worse." - Lauren Beukes
"Nothing is predictable about Paul Tremblay except his unpredictability and inventiveness. Horror Movie is an inspiringly original take on the lost horror film, disturbing and challenging in ways few authors in our field can manage. The more he writes, the more it looks as if he's creating his own genre, the Tremblay. May it continue to surprise us." - Ramsey Campbell
"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 on what is a horror novel. It's bold, fearless, a bit sad and very, very scary." - Mariana Enríquez
"Tremblay's best work, now one of my favorite horror novels, period. Daring and original ... painful and emotional and filled with inexorable dread. The construction is masterful. This one is going to stay with me the way very few novels ever do." - Christopher Golden
"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
"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
"Another brilliant manipulation of our fears from the reigning master of dread. Horror Movie shows there's a monster lurking inside every one of us." - Alma Katsu
"A steadily escalating exercise in dread, shot through with moments of unexpected pathos ... With each new book, Paul Tremblay has continued to grow and challenge himself as a writer, in the process building one of the most substantial bodies of work of his generation. Horror Movie is a literary high-wire act, performed with aplomb high above the breathless crowd." - John Langan
"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
"A work penned by Paul Tremblay is always such an extraordinary gift. Probing, insightful, deceptively tender until it's not - until bodies are inevitably twisted, mangled and the blood begins to flow. His brand of horror is compassionate, nuanced, deeply intimate, and yet also spectacularly brutal. I dare you to turn the final page of any of his novels and claim that you are unchanged. To read a book by Tremblay is to partake in a sacred communion of the soul - to endure the terror and, more importantly, to learn about yourself." - Eric LaRocca
"Tremblay novels always twist reality, never giving you an easy read, and that's never more so than in Horror Movie. But the effort you put in, and what you encounter -surprises that terrorise you, gut-wrenching shocks, the mind-twisting turns and jumps the story takes -are all worth it. Because it's only a story, right? You'll be fine. Right? Read it and find out." - Tim Lebbon
"Paul Tremblay has made the 'Mandela effect' come to life. His writing is so convincing he's going to make people think they really saw Horror Movie and it's going to disturb everyone for decades after they read this book. A triumph." - Johnny Mains
"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
"Complex and insightful. Eminently readable and intelligent. Above all, disturbing ... Paul Tremblay has artfully crafted a dual narrative, and an absorbing story of creativity becoming mania, and the ugliness (and danger) of morbid self-obsession ... I left the story wondering if our secret, damaged identities should remain masked, secreted under a bed and left in the dark. Above all, you should remain in your seat until the end credits of Tremblay's Horror Movie." - Adam L G Nevill
"Paul Tremblay proves, yet again, that he is one of the brightest stars at work in horror today. Don't watch this feature alone. Bring someone to hold hands with in the dark." - Priya Sharma
"Sometimes things are lost for a reason, but Tremblay reminds us of our innate, irresistible urge to look even when we're likely to be turned into a pillar of salt. A meditation on horror, personal demons and how easily they erupt into everyday life, Horror Movie is a Pandora's box of a book." - Angela Slatter
"You may think you see some of the wheels turning inside Tremblay's bleak story about art, atrocities, and the callousness of teens, but as with A Head Full of Ghosts, you're only scratching the surface of his dark vision. The Thin Kid will haunt you." - Ally Wilkes
"Scarringly good. Tremblay turns horror inside out with characters so complex and painfully human it makes the terrible things that happen even worse." - Lauren Beukes
"Nothing is predictable about Paul Tremblay except his unpredictability and inventiveness. Horror Movie is an inspiringly original take on the lost horror film, disturbing and challenging in ways few authors in our field can manage. The more he writes, the more it looks as if he's creating his own genre, the Tremblay. May it continue to surprise us." - Ramsey Campbell
"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 on what is a horror novel. It's bold, fearless, a bit sad and very, very scary." - Mariana Enríquez
"Tremblay's best work, now one of my favorite horror novels, period. Daring and original ... painful and emotional and filled with inexorable dread. The construction is masterful. This one is going to stay with me the way very few novels ever do." - Christopher Golden
"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
"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
"Another brilliant manipulation of our fears from the reigning master of dread. Horror Movie shows there's a monster lurking inside every one of us." - Alma Katsu
"A steadily escalating exercise in dread, shot through with moments of unexpected pathos ... With each new book, Paul Tremblay has continued to grow and challenge himself as a writer, in the process building one of the most substantial bodies of work of his generation. Horror Movie is a literary high-wire act, performed with aplomb high above the breathless crowd." - John Langan
"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
"A work penned by Paul Tremblay is always such an extraordinary gift. Probing, insightful, deceptively tender until it's not - until bodies are inevitably twisted, mangled and the blood begins to flow. His brand of horror is compassionate, nuanced, deeply intimate, and yet also spectacularly brutal. I dare you to turn the final page of any of his novels and claim that you are unchanged. To read a book by Tremblay is to partake in a sacred communion of the soul - to endure the terror and, more importantly, to learn about yourself." - Eric LaRocca
"Tremblay novels always twist reality, never giving you an easy read, and that's never more so than in Horror Movie. But the effort you put in, and what you encounter -surprises that terrorise you, gut-wrenching shocks, the mind-twisting turns and jumps the story takes -are all worth it. Because it's only a story, right? You'll be fine. Right? Read it and find out." - Tim Lebbon
"Paul Tremblay has made the 'Mandela effect' come to life. His writing is so convincing he's going to make people think they really saw Horror Movie and it's going to disturb everyone for decades after they read this book. A triumph." - Johnny Mains
"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
"Complex and insightful. Eminently readable and intelligent. Above all, disturbing ... Paul Tremblay has artfully crafted a dual narrative, and an absorbing story of creativity becoming mania, and the ugliness (and danger) of morbid self-obsession ... I left the story wondering if our secret, damaged identities should remain masked, secreted under a bed and left in the dark. Above all, you should remain in your seat until the end credits of Tremblay's Horror Movie." - Adam L G Nevill
"Paul Tremblay proves, yet again, that he is one of the brightest stars at work in horror today. Don't watch this feature alone. Bring someone to hold hands with in the dark." - Priya Sharma
"Sometimes things are lost for a reason, but Tremblay reminds us of our innate, irresistible urge to look even when we're likely to be turned into a pillar of salt. A meditation on horror, personal demons and how easily they erupt into everyday life, Horror Movie is a Pandora's box of a book." - Angela Slatter
"You may think you see some of the wheels turning inside Tremblay's bleak story about art, atrocities, and the callousness of teens, but as with A Head Full of Ghosts, you're only scratching the surface of his dark vision. The Thin Kid will haunt you." - Ally Wilkes
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