26. Wild Card: Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay

List Progress: 3/30

How much of yourself do you give to your art? How much should you give? Paul Tremblay’s horror novel, appropriately enough named Horror Movie, tells the story of a group of young artists who tried to put everything they had into a single project, and the damages that rippled out through the rest of their lives. It’s a haunting, chilling novel that delves into obsession and consumption, and will be a special treat for lovers of horror media in many forms.

In 1993, a group of young twenty-somethings set out to make a low-budget horror movie titled “Horror Movie”; in the 2020’s, the only surviving cast member is the novel’s unnamed narrator who played the also-unnamed Thin Kid, the movie’s monster. The group’s unfinished film has gained a cult following and the narrator is approached about being involved in a remake that would finally bring “Horror Movie” to full life. He wants to complete the story, but that also involves dealing with his recollections of the now-infamous original film set. He and the original group poured their hearts, souls and bodies into their art, and thirty years later, the Thin Kid is still living in it. While there could be supernatural elements at play, the danger of dedicated people fueling each other’s mania is more than enough to bring about tragedy. 

Both “Horror Movie” and Horror Movie are enveloping and incredibly engaging; while the temptation to make a film adaptation must be strong, the novel feels like the perfect format for the story Tremblay is telling, with its narrator’s strong voice, quick flits between time periods, and use of “Horror Movie”’s script and stage directions to tell part of the story. This novel will be a special treat for fans of horror films and essays on media history, but there is enough here for anyone who wants to travel down an atmospheric and absorbing descent into obsession.

Would I Recommend It: Emphatic yes!