Thrillers About Cursed Movie Sets

The summer after their high school graduation, a group of teenage filmmakers travel to Romania to make one last short film: a Dracula retelling, shot on location in a crumbling castle. But when Go Hunt Me begins, only one of the crew, Alex, has made it out alive. From there, the novel shifts between Alex’s testimony, the screenplay she and her friends were trying to bring to life, and the interpersonal tensions playing out behind the scenes.

The crew of a ghost-hunting reality show find themselves in dire straits in this 2023 title from the author of Suffer the Children. Filming an episode inside the infamous Paranormal Research Foundation is a dream come true for Matt Kirklin, who plays the Mulder to his wife, Claire’s, Scully on the show each week. This place is haunted — like, haunted haunted — and that’s exactly what Matt needs to convince Claire and the rest of the skeptics that there is life after death. What could possibly go wrong?

Another reality TV-inspired outing, Into the Drowning Deep, tells the story of a documentary team sent to research a mockumentary film crew’s mysterious disappearance in the Mariana Trench. It’s been seven years since the Atargatis disappeared with Victoria’s sister onboard. The only evidence of the missing crew’s whereabouts were a few grainy clips that appeared to show their murders at the hands of killer…mermaids. The videos were swiftly dubbed a hoax, largely due to the fact that a horror producer was responsible for the Atargatis‘s expedition. Now, Victoria’s out to learn the truth, even if it means suffering the same fate.

OK, so Demon Theory isn’t exactly about a cursed movie set. Instead, this thriller takes the form of a novelization of three horror movies, which were based on a book inspired by interviews with psychiatric patients. The story here largely plays out in the footnotes, which seek to clarify the myriad connections between those layers. It’s masterfully done — just what readers know to expect from Stephen Graham Jones.

Marissa’s just taken a job that could change her whole career trajectory: editing a prominent director’s newest film. The movie’s already shooting on a remote island in Delaware when she arrives, and Marissa soon finds she’s walked into a minefield. Half of the crew is gone, and everyone is on edge. Adding to the web of whispered rumors, a couple of determined teenagers crash the set in a bid to solve the murder mystery that inspired the film. Things are only about to get worse in this slow-burn thriller.

Another editor takes center stage in Silver Nitrate. This time, it’s Montserrat, a sound editor struggling to break into the Mexico City film scene in the 1990s. She gets her chance when she’s introduced to a cult horror director who faded into obscurity after he got his hands on a film reel cursed by a Nazi wizard. The director needs Montserrat’s help to restore his career. Doing so could give her own profile a much-needed boost…if she survives the ordeal.

Including this novel here is a little bit of a cheat on my part since there’s not an actual film set here. Audition centers on Aoyama, a widower, who sets up a screening process to find himself a new wife: auditions for a fake movie put together by a friend in the film industry. When his casting call attracts Asami, he thinks he’s met Ms. Right. But this shy 24-year-old is hiding a dark secret, and Aoyama is about to regret ever looking for a new mate.

Years after everyone in her grandmother’s village vanished without a trace, a documentarian returns with her team to investigate the tragedy. The settlement has been abandoned since the incident…or so they think. It doesn’t take long for them to realize that someone doesn’t want the village’s story told. But who? And to what lengths are they willing to go to prevent the film’s completion?

After her husband discovers a link to a forgotten film at a brutal crime scene, a horror influencer attempts to track down a cult figure in this novel from Stoker Award winner Cynthia Pelayo. YouTuber Paloma has long been a fan of Grand Vespertilio and the horror films he hosts on his show. If anyone will be able to help solve the murder with an obscure silent movie connection, it’s him. But when her autistic son’s life is put in jeopardy, Paloma will be forced to re-evaluate her involvement in the case.

Inspired by the behind-the-scenes story of a legendarily cursed found-footage film, We Eat Our Own follows its unnamed protagonist deep into the heart of the Amazon rainforest. There, he learns that his predecessor quit upon reading a script that may or may not have ever existed. To make matters worse, the cast and crew are working under intolerable conditions, and the whole project is at risk of being scrapped. And that’s if they survive their run-ins with the local mobsters and militia.

Former child star Laura has spent her life trying to escape the shadow of The Guesthouse: a ’90s slasher in which her character had the uncanny ability to predict victims’ deaths. Eight people died during the filming, catapulting the movie to instant cult status. Now working as a journalist, she’s headed back to Hollywood to cover The Guesthouse‘s streaming series reboot…and the Needle Man murders have picked up right where they left off.