Rami Ungar The Writer

I was not a fan of Tremblay’s last novel, The Pallbearers Club (see my review here), but when I first heard of his new book and saw its cover, I wanted to read it! And when I got my copy from the library, I got even more excited. You can’t tell from the photo I included, but the pages have red borders, which coupled with the black cover, makes it look like a restricted video from the age of VHS tapes and Blockbusters. So, almost as soon as I finished reading You Like It Darker (see that review here), I started reading this.

Hoo-boy, did I get on a rollercoaster ride.

In 1993,* a small team of amateur actors and filmmakers come together to make a movie tentatively titled “Horror Movie.” However, tragedy strikes on the last day of filming, preventing it from ever releasing. However, scenes, stills and scripts from the movie have made their way online, and as many of the original cast and crew die under mysterious or tragic circumstances, an air of mystique gathers around the mysterious film. In the 2020s, a reboot is in the works and the studio brings on our narrator, who also played the original film’s villain the Thin Kid and is the only surviving member of the cast and crew, to both co-produce and reprise his role.

Thus begins a journey through the past and the present that will answer a question the narrator, and many of us, ask often: why do people do terrible and fucked up things?

First off, this novel is incredibly well-written. Tremblay takes the unique storytelling he used in The Pallbearers Club and applies it here like an art. Jumping between the production of the original film, the process of creating the reboot in the present, and the script of the original, you essentially get two different stories woven together. I have to applaud Tremblay for writing both a script for a very scary and fucked up film and then writing a very personal story around the script and the movie that was supposed to come about from it.

I also really liked the narrator, whose name I can’t really remember because I’m not sure if it was ever mentioned. It’s easier just to call him by his character’s name, the Thin Kid, and that sort of makes sense, as another major theme of this novel is the blending of reality and fiction. Where does our narrator end and the Thin Kid begin? Is there even a difference? It kind of reminds me of Perfect Blue,** one of my favorite horror movies, and how that movie explored how quickly reality and fiction can combine under the right circumstances.

Anyway, our narrator doesn’t have a high opinion of himself, but he’s likable. Once he commits to the movie, he commits to it–the character, the reputation of the film, and its reboot–even at the detriment to himself. Towards the end, I wondered if maybe he might be an unreliable narrator, because some of what he describes both feels like something he would do and something he might make up. It’s just amazing to read his story (which he’s narrating as an audiobook or podcast), and I had a hard time putting the book down.

If I have one thing I didn’t like, it’s that the foreshadowing sometimes worked against itself. Since the narrator is technically speaking to an audience that presumably knows about the history of the titular film, he refers to things that have happened and kind of expects his audience to know. However, the audience in the real world doesn’t, so once or twice, he refers to something that appears to be common knowledge and I’m like, “Wait, did I read that and forget? Or is it something we haven’t read yet that he’s alluding to?”

It probably did not help that I could not remember if he mentioned the narrator’s real name (I think it was David, but don’t quote me on that), so that only heightened my confusion.

All in all, however, Horror Movie is an excellent novel and well worth the read. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 4.8. Horrifying, entrancing and full of twists, you’ll find yourself hanging on as you discover not only why people do terrible and fucked up things, but how much reality and fiction can blend in the worst ways. Just grab a copy and see for yourself!

*The year I was born, by the way. Coincidence? I think not!

**BTW, if you have not checked that one out, I highly recommend it.