Paul Tremblay on HORROR FILM

Paul Tremblay writes what critics like to call “unfilmable” books. His fiction resorts to all manner of postmodern experimentation and trickery, often to undermine any sense of security. reality, and to expose the narrative apparatus itself. Even M. Night Shyamalan — who is well aware of the limits of narrative logic — had to come to terms with the ending of Tremblay’s novel. The cabin at the end of World, by adapting it as 2022 Knock on the cabin (and to the detriment of the story’s unsettling and ambiguous impact.)

His single passage through the Hollywood machine had harmful consequences for Tremblay. It also inspired his latest novel. Horror movie is the story of a group of young filmmakers in 1993 and the film that haunts their lives Never After. It is said by The Thin Kid, the only surviving member of the doomed shoot. Anyway, this is the back cover copy. Scratch just one a little deeper And Horror Movie is such a Tremblayian exploration of how creativity works, how films work are madeand how fear overwhelms us. It’s a scathing satire of leaders who don’t understand the wonders they’re sellingAnd a time capsule of a moment in horror cinema when everything seemed possible and potentially dangerous.

I spoke with Paul a few days before the book’s release to discuss the book, the film within it, and how both continue to illustrate his singular horror perspective.

It’s no secret that you found the adaptation of Cabin a stimulating experience. Is this book a direct response to that?

Well, it wasn’t like I was thinking, “Oh, I will write about my Hollywood experience. It turns out I had this idea based on danger The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was the set, and I wondered if something truly horrible had happened that had prevented this film from being made. But it turns out that I was live the adaptation experience. There were good points. I had to go to the set for two days, which saved me a lot of research.

It’s about fear, but it’s also your funniest bookin my opinion.

I am happy. I was hoping some parts would be funny. Certainly, there is a satire of Hollywood. The Thin Kid has sarcastic conversations with some producers who don’t seem very good at their jobs. I have a lot of anecdotal experience, but I have also drawn from a lot of writers that you and I both know. A few really big names, and it is surprising, but not surprising either, how often studios Really try to take advantage of the writers.

Wwhen I signed with me most recent film agent, he said to me: “I’m going to introduce you as a creator not one writer, because no one here respects writers. And I laughed because I thought he was joking, but, uh, no, he wasn’t. We, novelists and short stories, have no union to protect us. SOYou knowWe are talking … and sometimes we write (laughs).

Much of your fiction is a commentary on storytelling and writing itself. Do Horror movie do you have anything different to say about the nature of cinema in particular?

Horror fiction requires the reader to be active. But with movies, you’re usually a lot more passive. This book was for me a way of … not juxtapose the two, but think about them and break down their parts. Many of my favorite stories I can’t Really describe the emotions they arouse in me. The only way for me get to this feeling East by directing people to the book or film itself. That’s kind of what I wanted to do Horror movie. It’s a way of hopefully imitate or recall some of my favorites movies and stories.

In the notes you say that people often describe you as a film writer. Do you agree?

I am not sure What does it meanto be honestand this note partly reflects my own anxieties and lack of self-esteem as someone who had not studied English and had no training in writing. I was twenty-two when I fell in love with reading, and before that, my knowledge of history was almost entirely based in cinema and television.

The last 30 years have been a crash course in reading. I have a tendency to I read between 60 and 80 novels a year, far more books than films these days. But cinema remains the beginning of what I considered history. And as a novel writer I can always put that to good use, but it also worries me because I want to write a book How’s it going be, you know, a book. I don’t want to write a treatment. Nothing seems worse tome than writing something that looks like a screenplay, without the format of a screenplay.

But Horror movie includes a storyline. A long, discursive and descriptive book. How did it happen ?

This was partly due to the fact thatfunctionally, I had to tell the reader about the film. It would have been Really boring has just describe itso I thought I’d include the complete scenario, written in an almost novelistic way, but not quite. It’s a little a bit of novelistic necessity, and Cleo (the fiction screenwriter) says, “Hey, I know I wrote a screenplay that breaks all the rules, but I’m doing it on purpose because it’s the path It must be for this movie. It is type of an excuse.

Furthermore, partFrankly, was i a little a bit of a contrarian, bristling at the idea that a screenplay must have three acts and set rhythms every ten pages or so. That just leads me nuts. We don’t write haikus; we tell stories; there should be no marriage with a certain form. I mean, I have one of those studios executives watched asian horror, or horror films from Europe?

The movie is a very weird one disturbing piece of arthouse horror. Are you making fun of a certain type of horror film?

I I don’t know. I’m glad you read it that way. That’s great! I think I was just too close to Cléo and thought I would be really interested if I was 23. I I wanted to the film is disturbing and hopefully scary at the end. Although For for me, it’s always the the hardest part. I have no idea what it is scary. I just I know what makes me feel weird. And me just go with it.

There is a scene late in the script and book, in which you make the reader wait endlessly for a scare that, as horror fans, we need to know is coming. This becomes a whole meta-discussion about the machinery of fear cinema. Tell me about this scene.

Good thanks alot. I’m honored that it worked. For most of my books, I always have one or two scenes that I treat like the carrot at the end of the stick. I will never jump in front, because if I did, I would never write the other stuff. I do it so I need to write everything that is hard, to get to what I am Really excited about writing. This scene was my carrot, but I Really I had no idea what I was going to do once I had there, other than just work the overall settings from the tension of waiting for a character to appear from a dark area.

Oh man, a lot of my books have a scene where someone is alone in a dark room. Why the hell is that? I guess it’s such a simple setup, a simple scare. We all fear being in a dark room, but that’s the horror question: why do we keep going back to that room? This scene allowed me Really dig into it, which is fun.

If Horror Movie had to be adapted, do you think a filmmaker could get away with including this very, very long wait?

God, I hope they would be do it. Just like that I could observe people’s reactions.

Did you have any specific inspirations in mind when creating the film?

The book began with my descent from a Texas Chainsaw rabbit hole, although I certainly wouldn’t describe my scenario as very Texas Chainsaw. We were talking on the activity of reading and the passivity of watching films. I think the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the rare films that succeeds in making the viewer an active participant.

This movie has many characters with false memories. Memories of seeing Leatherface disembowel the kid in the wheelchair or something, which never happens on screen. That’s the power of this movie – and that’s why I think all of its sequels fail in comparison – because it’s just this magical, strange, dangerous thing that burrows into your head. So even though my film is probably not very Texas Chain Saw-y, how this movie made me feel was a big part of that.

I briefly thought about try to do something like the movie Borgman, for the end of the scenario. It is a very weird one, very worrying film, but in the END I went to a a lot different direction. Otherwise, it’s just a life spent watching movies.

What is your position on the phenomenon of “cursed” films?

It interested me like any horror fan, but I do not I think there is something like a cursed movie. There is a really good one show on Shudder (Cursed films) and they present the idea in a lascivious manner at first, but by in the end, no, it’s just horrible things happen to people on set because life happens. When there are that many people on set for six months, it’s almost a statistical probability that some things go happen to someone along the line, not necessarily on set, but later in their life maybe. But there is this strange desire for our art and our real lives to intertwine. Sometimes it’s in a healthy way, and sometimes it’s not so healthy.

Horror movie is now available in your favorite bookstores. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.