We were given an excellent opportunity to speak with Paul Tremblay, the Bram Stoker Award-winning horror novelist and author behind The Cabin at the End of the World, which was adapted by M. Night Shyamalan in 2023.
Tremblay took the time to talk with us about his writing influences, experiences in the horror writing world, and his involvement with ETCH’s docuseries, First Word on Horror.
The series was released exclusively via Substack on February 7, 2025.
Horror Geek Life: In First Word on Horror, you talk about trying to find a good balance between realism and supernaturalism. Do you think that balance makes a bigger and more relatable impact on the reader?
Paul Tremblay: I hope it does, but the cool thing about horror is that there are so many different ways you can do a horror story, it’s just that I tend to be obsessed and attracted to those kinds of horror stories. I love it when it feels real because I feel like that affects me more. That tends to be my default setting.
But also, in real life, I don’t believe in the supernatural, so I feel like if it were to occur, I would have a hard time identifying it, but at the same time would be totally weirded out and wondering what my behavior would be like afterward. So, I think those are the kinds of things I think about when I write those stories.
HGL: Realism was obviously very evident in Survivor Song, which saw a pandemic hitting the world, much like it did that same year. I know that personally, reading the book during 2020 made it that much more terrifying for me, but how did that make you feel as the writer?
Paul Tremblay: It was such a strange experience. If the book felt prescient and realistic, it’s because I leaned on my sister, who’s a nurse at a big hospital in Boston, for a lot of research. There were points where I didn’t like thinking about the book.
One of the first interviews I did was with Rolling Stone online, and the headline said something like “the author feels sorry for his readers,” and my editor called and was like, “stop apologizing for the book.” I just didn’t know what to do with all these big emotions, so I just sort of felt that way. I am proud of the book, but it was definitely a strange experience.
Related: Book Review: Paul Tremblay’s ‘Survivor Song’ Teaches Us to Keep Pushing Forward
HGL: Moving to The Cabin at the End of the World, what was your reaction when M. Night Shyamalan wanted to turn it into a film?
Paul Tremblay: At first, it was disbelief, because if you’re lucky enough to get something optioned – most things get optioned and never made, and I’ve been down that road a whole bunch of times, like hearing exciting names for A Head Full of Ghosts. So, when I first heard his name, I was like, “Yeah, there’s no way that’s going to work.”
Then slowly, I was like “Oh, it is going to work,” and that got very exciting. I think the most exciting part was that first phone call I had with Night, and that’s when it felt like it was really happening. I’m talking to the guy who did The Sixth Sense, and I watched that in the theaters as a baby writer who was barely writing at that point.
HGL: What’s your favorite aspect of the film adaptation?
Paul Tremblay: I love all the actors. I think they did an amazing job. The look of the movie is amazing too, but I think all the actors really nailed the emotional tone and lives of those characters.
HGL: Dave Bautista was exceptional in that role!
Paul Tremblay: You know, when he was cast I was like, “ehh,” because in the book Leonard was like a 23 or 24-year-old, but no, he was great. He really brought the vulnerability necessary to that big, scary character.
HGL: Which of your books has the biggest piece of you in it, and which are you the most proud of?
Paul Tremblay: Definitely The Pallbearer’s Club, because the first third of it is a memoir. The second two-thirds are like a weird imagining of what an alternate path could have been if I had become a failed punk musician. Actually, I think I may have put too much of myself in that one. But, all my books end up with a part of me in them, which I think is the case for most writers.
As far as the one I’m most proud of, that’s really hard to answer. Maybe I would say A Head Full of Ghosts, probably because that really saved my writing career. I had a couple of crime novels that didn’t go so well, and we had a little bit of a hard time selling A Head Full of Ghosts because of the poor sales record that I had prior.
So, it was nice to have that book do well and sort of validate my hopes for it. That book will always have a soft spot, and it was the book that Stephen King tweeted about, I mean come on. I still remember August 15th, 2019, was the day he tweeted about it.
HGL: In First Word on Horror, you talk about how some of the first horror films you watched were Hammer films, kaiju movies, and how The Exorcist was inspiring for A Head Full of Ghosts in its own way. What are some of the more modern horror movies that continue to inspire your writing?
Paul Tremblay: So, I wrote a book called Disappearance at Devil’s Rock that definitely had Lake Mungo in mind. It actually was inspired by a trio of Australian movies; one older one, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Lake Mungo mixed with Snowtown Murders, which is an amazing movie, but the kind of movie you can (or should) only watch once.
Horror Movie kind of riffs on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and other stuff. Things that I enjoy inspire me, and I try to take a little piece of that spark to try and build a different flame.
HGL: What are some of the horror books, and who are some other authors who influence your writing regularly?
Paul Tremblay: I mean, all four other authors on First Word on Horror are friends, but also people I deeply admire. After Stephen King, I’ve read the most books by Stephen Graham Jones – over 30 at this point. Laird (Barron), Liz (Elizabeth Hand); Mariana Enriquez’s Our Share of Night which came out a few years ago is my favorite novel of the 21st century.
Another favorite is John Langan’s The Fisherman. There’s just so many. It’s really cool to be a horror writer when there are so many great books and stories being written by so many awesome writers.
Related: Stephen Graham Jones Discusses ‘First Word on Horror’ & Terror on the Reservation (Exclusive)
HGL: In First Word on Horror, you talked about really enjoying the challenge when writing. Which of your characters did you find the most challenging to create and develop?
Paul Tremblay: Maybe Wen in The Cabin at the End of the World. Having her backstory about her being born in China and adopted, I really tried to be careful with her story.
I leaned a little bit on a friend whose son hasn’t had the same adoption experience, but similar cultural experience. I didn’t want to step too heavily on that; I didn’t want to write about her cultural experience per se, but I wanted it to be in the background. She was definitely a challenge. All the characters are challenges, but I would go with Wen.
HGL: Lastly, do you have anything on the horizon that you’d like our readers and your fans to keep their eyes open for?
Paul Tremblay: Sure! I should mention that Horror Movie just came out, but if you haven’t gotten a copy, for Independent Bookstore Day, which is the last Saturday in April, independent bookstores are going to have a special edition of Horror Movie. It’ll have a different colored cover, green-sprayed edges, and some other things.
As far as new stuff goes, I have a middle-grade novel coming out this summer called Another. It’s not like a full-time career pivot, I just happened to have this idea for this lonely 12-year-old who is visited by this weird mannequin clay boy, and I wrote it. Hopefully it will creep out kids and parents alike.
We would like to thank Paul Tremblay for taking the time to meet with us. If you’d like to follow him, you can follow him on Bluesky, Instagram, or his personal website.