Midnight Movie

[caption id="attachment_781" align="aligncenter" width="317" caption="Midnight Movie, a novel by Tobe Hooper and Alan Goldsher"][/caption]

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Do I really have to say it?  A book by the creator of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Alan Goldsher wrote Paul is Undead, which is next on my list to read.  It got really good reviews on Amazon.com. I've noticed that every ad for the book touted that.  And all I could think is: really? Do people really need to be reminded that Tobe Hooper created The Texas Chainsaw Massscre.  I was excited about the book, and couldn't wait to download it onto my Kindle.

It's a work of meta-fiction.  That means Tobe Hooper tells the tale himself, for the most part.  We glean the rest of the story from notes from a government agent, the blog of a twenty-something girl, the tweets of home terrorists, the scribbling of a madman, and the main characters themselves.  The book reminds me of Max Brooks' World War Z (my favorite book-ever) in that it blends other people's stories together, along with just enough real-life fact to make you wonder.

Long Story-Short:

Tobe is invited to speak at the showing of his never-before-scene first movie, Destiny Express(I won't lie, I googled this, hoping it really existed).  The movie is creepy, but more than anything, just terrible.  But things begin to happen to the people who attended the viewing. Before long, people are dying by the thousands.  Tobe's movie, one he doesn't even remember making, is causing people to become zombies.  Tobe gets together with a few people, and the original cast of Destiny Express(those still alive) to recreate the movie and understand what is going on.

I loved this book.  Tobe took the best of grindhouse and mockumentary and made it into a gruesome and sometimes humorous novel.  On a personal note, I'm always tickled when a story or movie takes place somewhere I've actually been to, and as a fellow Texan, I've been to a few of the places he mentioned.