How do I even talk about Horror Movie? Let’s start with a great reaction on Goodreads.
That’s really how I feel about the ending.
The book flits between three narratives: the film script, the past, and the present (which is an audiobook in story). Mr. Thin Kid, now grown up and in his forties, is trying desperately to get the film he participated in as a twenty-something filmed. It’s all weaved together to show the progress of the film and how it has affected everyone involved, coupled together with graphic description of gore and suffering.
Now, I read this as an ebook, and it does suffer a bit for the format. The screenplay sections are laid out sometimes in unique fashion and I had to finagle the damn thing to read it.
Anyway. This is not what I was expecting. I mean. I thought, hey! Probably ghosts? Demons? No, dude, straight up weirdness. It’s a slow progression through the story, and the ending creeps up on you, just like the Thin Kid. It does suffer from a bit of near-pretentiousness in the script sections as they try to take apart the horror of watching and waiting in anticipation. It also ropes in the viewer/reader as an active participant in the violence of the book, which is an unsettling tactic on its own. It did annoy me a touch, but it’s interesting to see words used to artificially expand the “waiting” time that is described in the script.
I notice as well that we never actually learn the identity of the main character. He IS his movie character. He’s just “The Thin Kid”. And he went through it. The reader is left wondering what the FUCK happened. And I don’t mind it. I enjoyed the read but I don’t think I want to read it again.
