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.

I am a huge fan of Paul Tremblay and Horror Movie, although not his best is still very entertaining. I feel like there are a few too many tropes I've been seeing recently in the past couple years that I'm already starting to get tired of. But overall the sense of dread that Tremblay is able to create is excellent. And his use of an unreliable narrator is superb. 3.5/5

Reminiscent of Clay McLeod Chapman's "The Remaking" "Horror Movie" sets the stage of an indie horror film that developed a cult identity after many learned of the tragic story that was the ending and all the things that had gone wrong and continue to go wrong. We never find out the name of our narrator, just Weird Guy or Thin Kid which adds an aloofness to his character. Do we ever really know him? Is this story real? Is it all just promotion for the remaking of Horror Movie? Told between the original time line, filming of the movie, the inbetween of after the film and now, and now, you really feel disjointed as you're not sure if he is just having feelings of nostalgia, or if these parts really happened. We learn that something terrible happened on the set, but it isn't until the final chapter we learn what really happened, or what was supposed to have happened. The best part is that as the narrator plays Thin Kid, he's never allowed to speak, and that silence allows the narrator to really become Thin Kid. None of the legend behind who Thin Kid is or how he changes is really ever explained, but like most of Tremblay's books, in the end you're not sure if this is some ancient horror or a true psychotic break. The interspersed section of the movie script add so much to this story. A slow ramble of unease the builds with each subsequent table reading. An uncomfortable but entertaining story.

Horror Movie is pure, dark, visceral horror. I have to be honest - even as a horror fan, at times I had difficulty getting through this and had to set it down - not for lack of quality, but for how brutal and unrelenting it can be. The violence was not obscenely gory or gratuitous, but its senselessness, consensuality, and inevitability was jarring. As has come to be expected from Paul Tremblay, the novel was beautifully and cleverly written, and the story moving between past and present and the screenplay kept things engaging and clearly served a narrative purpose. If anyone is willing to delve into a darker, more nihilistic side of the horror genre, I’d highly recommend Horror Movie. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital ARC!

A stunning novel. As a fan of horror movies, especially indie ones, this was right up my alley and it did not disappoint. Highly recommended.

This was absolutely a book that was so outside of the realm of genres that I typically read. More along the line of films or film adaptations that I'm willing to watch. This was so different for me and I was not expecting it to get as dark as it did. Maybe the only thing that could've been better was the pacing since at times it felt kind of slow but it was still such an interesting story that was so different than my usual go-to. Maybe there were other things that could've been done to keep it fresh but still, it was really fun!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I think the concepts in this book were interesting, but the execution left something to be desired for me. Maybe, much like the movie itself, it’s simply not for me, but I couldn’t help but feel like Cleo’s movie was just kind of poorly written and wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense lol. The book starts off interesting, but feels maybe too slow in its plot, and I couldn’t really find myself invested in any of the characters.

The final chapter really wrecked things for me in particular. I’m not sure if we’re supposed to take it as is or assume our narrator is unwell (which is probably the point!) but either way, I just wasn’t really a fan of it.

Thank you to William Morrow, HarperCollins, and NetGalley for the eGalley to review!

If you like the really cool writing format of making a fiction novel look like nonfiction, then you're going to like this book. It's written as though the man who played "The Thin Kid" in a Blair Witch-style guerilla movie from 1993 called Horror Movie is narrating his audiobook memoir about making the film. He is the only one left of the original cast to tell the tale about its disastrous, cursed production and he wants to make sure that it is told properly. It's also laced with the movie's script, making it even cooler.

Unfortunately, it's just not that creepy or scary. It's more "well these are some ignorant kids" and a lot of edgy cheese. The ending is too goofy for my taste and and took me out of the whole narration. More than anything the story reminds me of the "cursed film" lore we get from real-life examples, but then dialed up with a weird ending that is attempting to go for a shocking twist but just falls flat.

That said, I still enjoyed my time reading it and if you're a fan of Paul Tremblay's work or like a little cheese with your gore, then pick this one up!