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The found footage immersion of The Blair Witch Project meets the scope and emotion of Stephen King in The October Film Haunt.
The 336-page debut novel from Shirley Jackson Award nominee Michael Wehunt will be published in hardcover, e-book, and audio book on September 30 via St. Martin’s Press.
In the book, a woman is pulled into a cult horror film that is determined to have a sequel. Here’s the full synopsis:
10 years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt – a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons – perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez – everything unraveled.
Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry ― hysteria, internet backlash, and the death of a young woman ― Jorie has put it all, along with her intense love for the horror genre, behind her.
Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” – Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director – begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.
As the dangers grow even more unexpected and strange, Jorie must search for answers before the Proof of the movie’s title finds her and takes everything she loves.
This riveting and layered horror novel unleashes supernatural terror in a world where truth can be manipulated, and nothing is as it seems. Beautiful and horrifying, with an unforgettable cast of characters, The October Film Haunt will shock and delight readers all the way to its breathless final page.
“Intelligent, emotional, and very very scary. One of the best books I’ve read in years,” said Clown in a Cornfield author Adam Cesare. “It begins personal, zooms out to epic, and then ends with you and the book curled alone, in the dark, with someone or something standing, unwelcome, in the corner. Wehunt’s prose is beautiful and his observations about horror film fandom and horror filmmaking… hit a little too close to home.”
“Michael Wehunt’s rabbit punch of a novel is as beautifully written as it is affecting,” said A Head Full of Ghosts author Paul Tremblay. “Cleverly deconstructs horror stories while at the same time constructing one that is so unique and steeped in 21st century paranoia and dread you won’t be able to read this alone at night.”
“The written equivalent to the feeling you get when you’ve entered a space you hadn’t realized was occult, alarmingly occult, truly occult,” said Bird Box author Josh Malerman. “This is an extraordinary book, carried by an unsettling baritone hum, not dissimilar to the whir of a VCR that should never have been plugged in to begin with.”
The October Film Haunt is based on Wehunt’s short story October Film Haunt: Under the House from his 2016 collection Greener Pastures.
