8 Captivating Horror Books About TV & Film

June, 1933. A team of guerrilla filmmakers spend a month making the disturbing arthouse film Horror Movie.

Oddly enough, despite the film only ever releasing three scenes to the public, a cult following has glommed on to the flick.

Three decades later, Hollywood is calling for a reboot. The original film's only surviving cast member—the man who portrayed “The Thin Kid” is on board.

But the memories of the first film plague him—the dark secrets buried within the screenplay, the unsettling events the unfolded during filming, and the tragedy that struck.

Now it seems that reality and film are blurring together, along with the past and the present.

Lois Cairns used to be a film teacher, but now she's working as a freelance critic while she struggles to raise her autistic son. Everything changes one night when she finds a sample of silent footage at a screening.

This silver nitrate is a slice of Mrs. Iris Dunlopp Whitcomb's early work. A spiritualist who collected fairy tales, Whitcomb disappeared without a trace back in 1918.

With a rekindled determination to leave her mark on cinematic history, she begins a project aiming to prove that Whitcomb was Canada's first female filmmaker.

While one might expect such research to twist and turn down a dark path, Lois finds herself wading into secrets that contain a blinding light.

A fairy tale has come to life. A noontime demon has a debt to collect.

And Lois can't help but find chilling parallels between her life and Mrs. Whitcomb's…

With World War II looming darkly overhead, Litchfield, Arkansas is quiet and grim. George “Jojo” Walker, a hotel detective, finds himself with all too much time on his hands to ruminate over his own personal demons.

But when a traveling picture show breezes into the dusty town, everything changes. The owners of this new film check into Jojo's hotel and organize a special midnight screening at a nearby theater.

As the film starts to roll, viewers are treated to a surreal, nightmarish carnival woven through with dark magic.

Jojo and the citizens of Litchfield are the stars of this display of madness and murder—and it may be their grizzly end.

Laura Warren flies to LA to visit the set of a new horror series. Now a journalist, Laura was once a child actor starring in the film the series is based on.

The second gets to the city, she knows it's happening again. A man plunges off a bridge to land right behind her car. The curse is back.

She's been running from this darkness since she was eight years old. Back then, eight members of the cast and crew perished in ways that paralleled the movie's deaths.

As the film grew a cult following, Laura grew up, changed her name, moved away, and dyed her hair. But now people have started to die, and she knows she can only outrun this cursed story for so long.

With her aspiring actress sister and a cynical psychic at her side, Laura may finally put to rest the worst script she's ever read.

Three decades after a horrible tragedy halted production of the children's TV show Mister Magic, the five surviving cast members are still struggling to move past it all.

The survivors—the Circle of Friends—are as fond of and devoted to the show as its cult following, clinging to memories of happiness, belonging, and the warm protection of Mister Magic.

Unfortunately, memories of this time are all that the Circle of Friends has. There is no surviving recording of the program, no evidence as to who produced or directed, and absolutely no documentation as to the the host truly was.

The castmates are brought back together by a twist of fate, gathering at the old filming compound in the remote desert. It may have been years since they've seen each other, but they know each other better than anyone.

They are the only ones who know the secret of the magic man in the black cape. The only ones who may have the answers to what happened that last dark day.

But have they come together of their own free will? Or were they lured here into a deadly trap?

The best stories come from the truth.

Max Maurey is a famed horror director, loved by actors, audiences, and Hollywood alike. He's pulling in more money than he knows what to do with.

But the audiences of the 80s only what cheap thrills from bloody slashers. Max wants to make real, artful horror, but his producer is disinterested in any of his fresh ideas.

Sally Priest is an actress who is determined to land a leading role. Despite being relegated to small parts, she knows she has the grit and talent to be a Final Girl.

Sally sets out to prove herself to Max. But Max is more focused on the old camera that capture a very real Hollywood horror.

Max feels like he absolutely must use this camera for his next film, despite the strange warning and wails that come with it.

With the filming of what is sure to be the scariest film of all time in full swing, the evil lying in wait within the camera has already taken its hold.

Montserrat is a talented sound editor who is overlooked due to the rampant sexism of the Mexico City film industry of the 1990s.

She's also overlooked by  her best friend Tristán, a charming soap opera star who she's been in love with for as long as she can remember.

After Tristán finds out his new neighbor is none other than cult horror director Abel Urueta, things change for the two of them. Just as Urueta promises they will.

The legendary filmmaker wants Tristán and Montserrat to help him finish the film which derailed his career with a vicious curse. A curse woven by a Nazi occultist who imbued silver nitrate with dark magic.

As they attempt to help Urueta lift a curse which sounds like a bizarre fantasy, Montserrat notices a dark presence following her. At the same time, Tristán starts seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

Maybe some magic exists beyond movies afterall…

Described by Kirkus Reviews as "a one-of-a-kind queer horror comedy for people who watch The Bachelor and The X-Files back-to-back,” this bool gives a quirky behind-the-scenes look at reality TV through a horror lens.

This season, the contestants on The Catch are fighting for more than their shot at love. They're fighting for their lives.

Battling it out for an aloof and sleazy bachelor, the four final women of the season are whisked away to a mysterious island.

They think they have yet another week of sleep deprivation, invasive probing, and contrived drama ahead of them.

But what's really waiting for them is Patricia, a moody and misunderstood local living in isolation in the woods, yearning for a connection.

The cast and crew of this media circus meet Patricia through a series of unfortunate twists and turns, turning their salacious search for love into an off-script thriller.