"The classroom is cloudy with smoke. The teens cough and grunt and burn the Thin Kid with their cigarettes until finally (this scene lasts an uncomfortably long time; the first burns shocked and thrilled us, but now we don't know what we want, don't know what we must endure) the pack of cigarettes is empty."

Presented to us in an extremely unusual format, Tremblay's Horror Movie is a slow burning yet intensely feverish, extremely fun and highly enjoyable horror novel. Going in to this one, you're almost set to expect a haunted movie set, but, that's absolutely not what you get. This novel is a shocker, it subverts every expectation. Despite it being a bit of a challenge to read, given the way the book is plotted, it's so utterly engrossing and addictive. From the very first page of Horror Movie, it's clear that things can not, will not, end happily, it's clear that this story is heading towards disaster, yet, it's impossible to peel your eyes away. Like a car wreck in slow motion Horror Movie carefully exposes us to horrors best left imagined.

Horror Movie is constantly switching between the present day (the reboot of the movie) the past (the filming of the unreleased movie that started it all) and the screenplay for the movie itself. It's all so very sad, and bleak and soul-destroying. Perhaps, at times, it could be even considered, scary. But the real horror here isn't some monster, it's the brutal, cloying, absolutely ruinous nature of the story itself. Initially, this book is a lot to figure out, but, when it gets going, when the pieces fall together, it's absolutely brilliant. Fearless and wonderful, this story is a total mindfuck. Disorienting and confusing, feeling as if it's about to swallow you whole, Horror Movie is a manipulative little novel, toying with us readers until it feels satisfied enough to make its grand reveal.

 

Tremblay's work leaves me with mixed feelings. Some of his novels I've adored, and others, not so much. Horror Movie sits somewhere in the middle - it was an immensely enjoyable experience, but I wasn't in love with the book as a whole. Almost every single thing in this entire novel screams unreliability, it's a twisting, screaming, labyrinthine nightmare. The real issue is, the actual screenplay itself is something so harrowing, so brilliantly surreal and grotesque that, you want that to have been the story instead. However, this novel does have a uniqueness not often found in the mainstream horror scene, it's macabre and highly disturbing, in fact, it's entirely soul crushing. Horror Movie requires you to invest time into it, it's a slowly unraveling tale, but, in the end, it pays off.

"That the houses are well kept and front lawns and shrubs groomed are the only visible signs of human occupancy. This suburban neighborhood is a ghost town - no, it's a picturesque hell so many desperately strive for, and so few will escape."