Horror Movie

Published in 2024, Horror Movie is a metafictional horror novel by American writer Paul Tremblay. The novel was inspired by stories surrounding the production of the 1974 horror film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, directed by Tobe Hooper. Tremblay wanted to write a novel that echoed and escalated the danger of the production, allowing him to breach the topic of “cursed” movies. His experience adapting his 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World for film gave him firsthand insight into the way horror movies are made.

The novel revolves around the production of an arthouse slasher film, also entitled Horror Movie, as told by the film’s only surviving cast member. Though the film is never completed due to a grisly on-set death, legends surrounding the production give rise to the film’s cult following. The lone surviving cast member becomes involved with a studio reboot of the film, in which he is asked to reprise his role as the movie’s monstrous villain, “The Thin Kid.” The novel thus explores the line between art and reality, the ethics of art-making, and cultural legacies.

This study guide refers to the first edition of the novel, published by William Morrow and Company in 2024.

Content Warning: The source material for this study guide discusses violence, death by suicide, workplace abuse, and self-harm.

Plot Summary

The novel is presented as an audio memoir by an unnamed narrator, who had played the role of “The Thin Kid” in the production of an early 1990s horror film entitled Horror Movie. The novel frequently alternates between the narrator’s recollections of the original production and his experiences participating in a studio reboot of the film 30 years later. This summary presents the events of the novel in chronological order.

In the early 1990s, the narrator is approached by a college friend named Valentina Rojas, who offers him a role on the film project she is working on with her childhood friend, screenwriter Cleo Picane. The film, entitled Horror Movie, follows three teenage friends who use a strange mask to transform their disaffected peer, known only as “The Thin Kid,” into a monstrous killer. As a first-time actor, the narrator reluctantly accepts the role. He quickly finds comfort, however, in the potential the Thin Kid persona gives him to rewrite the story of his life. He commits himself to inhabiting the role as much as he can during production, sleeping over on set and refusing to speak to others to mirror his character.

The production of the film is set back by a series of escalating on-set mishaps. This culminates in the death of Cleo, who pulls a chainsaw onto her body while shooting the movie’s final kill scene. A court trial rules that Cleo died by suicide, and the surviving cast and crew go their separate ways, each one dying until only Valentina and the narrator are left. 

In 2008, Valentina, who is dying of pancreatic cancer, asks the narrator to help her complete the unfinished film by leveraging enough industrial interest to trigger a reboot of Horror Movie. Having held onto the Thin Kid’s mask prop over the intervening years, the narrator quietly accepts the task placed upon him. Valentina cuts off his pinky to spread an Internet rumor that he had lost the finger on the set of Horror Movie. She also uploads the screenplay and several edited scenes from the film to sow interest from the horror fan community. After Valentina dies, the narrator begins making public appearances at horror conventions, engendering continued interest in the film until it becomes a cult classic.

Producers approach the narrator to signal their interest in rebooting the film. The film is eventually greenlit by a producer named George, who has a reputation for seeing films through to completion. George connects the narrator to Canadian director Marlee Bouton, who indicates her intention to preserve Valentina’s vision for the film. She also shares her plan to involve the narrator in the production by having him reprise the role of the Thin Kid toward the end of the film.

The narrator undergoes preparations for the shoot, which include his visit to an industry effects and makeup studio where the artists prepare a life cast of his upper body. The makeup artists observe that the narrator’s body has transformed in ways that mirror the Thin Kid’s transformation in the plot of Horror Movie. Though the narrator dismisses their suspicions, it ultimately diminishes his role in the film, causing him to appear in only one scene toward the end of the film. Coveting the role, the narrator kills the new actor playing the Thin Kid for most of the reboot and assumes his form on set. He ends the novel by implying that he will change the ending of Horror Movie, allowing him to perpetuate his role and assume his new identity as the Thin Kid.