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Dark Tide Horror Novellas #21
24 Frames Per Second: Three Hollywood Horror Novellas
Step into the terrifying world of Hollywood horror, where the line between fiction and reality blurs, and the consequences of cinematic creation become all too real. In 24 Frames Per Second, three chilling novellas bring to life the darkest corners of the movie industry—where horror isn’t just confined to the screen.
"The Last Zombie Movie" by Tim A group of student filmmakers embark on a project to create a zombie holocaust script—but soon, their fictional nightmare begins to unfold in real life. As their imagined horrors come to life, they must face the terrifying reality of their own creation.
"I Am the Rainbringer" by Andrew A woman is transformed into a serial killer by her father’s dying wish, and her husband turns her deadly past into a movie. But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them both, blurring the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that can’t be escaped.
"This Is Not My Movie" by Gary A. After a movie theater is consumed by fire, the charred ruins become a nexus for ghosts and alternate realities. A haunting tale of how a beloved movie theater's destruction births a dark, sentient force, trapping the souls of those killed in the blaze.
In 24 Frames Per Second, horror reaches beyond the screen and becomes part of the fabric of reality, where the true cost of creation is more horrifying than any fictional tale. Each novella is a unique exploration of terror, art, and the boundaries of reality, set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s darkest secrets.
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Where Stories Come Alive!
"The Last Zombie Movie" by Tim A group of student filmmakers embark on a project to create a zombie holocaust script—but soon, their fictional nightmare begins to unfold in real life. As their imagined horrors come to life, they must face the terrifying reality of their own creation.
"I Am the Rainbringer" by Andrew A woman is transformed into a serial killer by her father’s dying wish, and her husband turns her deadly past into a movie. But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them both, blurring the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that can’t be escaped.
"This Is Not My Movie" by Gary A. After a movie theater is consumed by fire, the charred ruins become a nexus for ghosts and alternate realities. A haunting tale of how a beloved movie theater's destruction births a dark, sentient force, trapping the souls of those killed in the blaze.
In 24 Frames Per Second, horror reaches beyond the screen and becomes part of the fabric of reality, where the true cost of creation is more horrifying than any fictional tale. Each novella is a unique exploration of terror, art, and the boundaries of reality, set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s darkest secrets.
Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Where Stories Come Alive!
282 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 17, 2025
19 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Tim Waggoner
274 books754 followersTim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then, he's published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, Conan the Barbarian, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Grimm, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Ti West’s X-Trilogy, Halloween Kills, Terrifier 2 and 3, and Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. He’s also the author of the award-winning guide to horror Writing in the Dark. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a one-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a two-time finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 15, 2025
This is a very good collection of three original horror novellas. The book doesn't include a table of contents (nor is an editor credited), so: The Last Zombie Movie by Tim Waggoner starts on page one, I Am the Rainbringer by Andrew Nadolny starts on page forty-nine, and This Is Not My Movie by Gary A. Braunbeck begins on page one-fifty-seven. You're welcome. Waggoner's story is the most traditionally told of the three, though if you want to quibble you could say it doesn't live up to the "Hollywood" part of the subtitle since it's set at a film-making course of an unnamed college campus. (The description made it seem like Wright State to me... Go Raiders.) It's a well-told dark and surreal tale with a twisty and twisted slant here and there, as long time Waggoner fans have come to expect. (He's been my main man since long before he got a hat. And this time he does provide a cookie-sweet ending.) I was not familiar with Andrew Nadolny but enjoyed the story. There were a few more cinematic references than I would have preferred, but it -is- a book about movie making so it's all good. Part of the story is told in film-script format, which works pretty well here. It's a very involved story about a woman becoming a serial killer because of past family abuses that continue to haunt her. It's a horrific situation, but there's a kind of nobility in her perseverance when surrounded by such a collection of evil crazies. On page 64 of the story there's this line: "I remember this fantastic writer sometime somewhere penning this marvelous story of the trauma and aftermath and all that muck of being the one who gives the order to pull the plug on a parent, and I wonder if that's really the way those sorts of things work." Well, that writer, of course, was Gary A. Braunbeck (who's also been my main man since before Tim started wearing a hat), which brings us to the final, longest story. It's a very non-traditional story, with lots of type-setting anomalies (I was reminded of Ellison's The Region Between, or some of the odd New Worlds new wave stories from the late 60s), and a series of incidents seemingly happening simultaneously around the central plot of a theater burning down and trapping the victims as ghosts. Like the previous story, there were a lot of cinematic references that grew a little overwhelming; Braunbeck's store of movie trivia is unmatched. The story grew confusing in places, and I'm not honestly sure I got everything that I was intended to, though I enjoyed the reading. There were lots of references to obsolete technologies and customs, like cameras and newspapers for example, and I wasn't sure if it was set in the present or the past. I'll give it a few months and read it again and see if it's clearer. Altogether it's a fine collection, recommended both for horror fans and film buffs.
July 13, 2025
"The Last Zombie Movie" by Tim Waggoner-A group of student filmmakers embark on a project to create a zombie holocaust script—but soon, their fictional nightmare begins to unfold in real life. As their imagined horrors come to life, they must face the terrifying reality of their creation. Overall, this was a fairly strong and enjoyable story. The initial story, offering a fun commentary on the nature of consumerism and the exploitation of the masses through the confines of a jungle cannibal film homage on school, causes this to be a fun starting point. The way this comes about through the filming of a special short film, trying to make fun of the whole subject involving the students being out in the jungle shooting, but being way too critical about the whole experience, not seeing what's going on. This offers the kind of behind-the-scenes interactions that provide the kind of antics familiar to most basic film-school interactions to help bring the story along with some fun scenarios.
It's when this goes into the second half that the experience turns into a psychological rumination on the experience that had taken place over the first half of the novel. Since there's some fun in-depth notice on how the desire to incorporate his childhood needs into his art and what it means to be an artist, this explores a rather fun idea where this takes him into the film itself to confront the characters in the novel as if he had to navigate through the film he was making to escape and leading into the discovery of what the experience is telling him about his life. This is strong and generally effective at what it's setting out to do, even though it comes off quite rushed and out of nowhere as if it could've been built up a little more smoothly compared to the rest of the story as the ambiguous ending seems to be at odds with the rest of the story. Still, it's what the main flaw here comes off as, this is a strong start.
"I Am the Rainbringer" by Andrew Nadolny-A woman is transformed into a serial killer by her father’s dying wish, and her husband turns her deadly past into a movie. But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them both, blurring the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that can’t be escaped. Overall, this was a troubling and generally underwhelming story. The main setup, exploring her detailed backstory with her father, the relationship they share, and what they have that led to the mentality and lifestyle she exhibits, gives the whole thing a fantastic starting point to move along into more brutal, explicit territory when she starts to let her guard down to become more open with the guy she’s dating. That lets her feel incredibly human and relatable, far more than anything else in the story, but at least lets the horror develop from a grounded location that keeps the realistic features together rather nicely.
Beyond that, though, the story tends to meander along quite heavily with a bizarre approach to why the story is here. The connection to wanting this included in a package that honors old-school Hollywood and horrors from the screen is limited here to seemingly pretentious acknowledgments about situations or scenarios that remind a character of something from a classic movie, regardless of genre. Sometimes it sets up for a horror movie recognition, but others are based on underground arthouse features that make sense as to why it's being referenced or acknowledged, and it makes the characters unlikable due to making the reference solely for the sake of showing off film knowledge. Moreover, the idea of that being the gimmick of why it’s included here is a bit odd, where it doesn’t fit naturally into the collection, yet this bizarre real-world issue might not be genuinely bothersome or noticeable for some, so it might not even be a factor.
"This Is Not My Movie" by Gary A. Braunbeck-After a movie theater is consumed by fire, the charred ruins become a nexus for ghosts and alternate realities. A haunting tale of how a beloved movie theater's destruction births a dark, sentient force, trapping the souls of those killed in the blaze. This was a generally frustrating and barely worthwhile entry to the collection that makes for a challenging experience. The general air of pretentious attitude, film-school terminology, an avant-garde structure that’s trying to depict action as if it’s being observed through a screenplay, or the confusing philosophical musings that are in place, trying to ensure that the pseudo-intellectual material here makes any sense or forms any kind of storyline is a tough sell. It is immensely creative that it tries to include these elements together, especially when it becomes apparent that there’s a genuine plotline in the second half, but it’s such a hard immersion that it might not matter.
3/5
It's when this goes into the second half that the experience turns into a psychological rumination on the experience that had taken place over the first half of the novel. Since there's some fun in-depth notice on how the desire to incorporate his childhood needs into his art and what it means to be an artist, this explores a rather fun idea where this takes him into the film itself to confront the characters in the novel as if he had to navigate through the film he was making to escape and leading into the discovery of what the experience is telling him about his life. This is strong and generally effective at what it's setting out to do, even though it comes off quite rushed and out of nowhere as if it could've been built up a little more smoothly compared to the rest of the story as the ambiguous ending seems to be at odds with the rest of the story. Still, it's what the main flaw here comes off as, this is a strong start.
"I Am the Rainbringer" by Andrew Nadolny-A woman is transformed into a serial killer by her father’s dying wish, and her husband turns her deadly past into a movie. But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them both, blurring the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that can’t be escaped. Overall, this was a troubling and generally underwhelming story. The main setup, exploring her detailed backstory with her father, the relationship they share, and what they have that led to the mentality and lifestyle she exhibits, gives the whole thing a fantastic starting point to move along into more brutal, explicit territory when she starts to let her guard down to become more open with the guy she’s dating. That lets her feel incredibly human and relatable, far more than anything else in the story, but at least lets the horror develop from a grounded location that keeps the realistic features together rather nicely.
Beyond that, though, the story tends to meander along quite heavily with a bizarre approach to why the story is here. The connection to wanting this included in a package that honors old-school Hollywood and horrors from the screen is limited here to seemingly pretentious acknowledgments about situations or scenarios that remind a character of something from a classic movie, regardless of genre. Sometimes it sets up for a horror movie recognition, but others are based on underground arthouse features that make sense as to why it's being referenced or acknowledged, and it makes the characters unlikable due to making the reference solely for the sake of showing off film knowledge. Moreover, the idea of that being the gimmick of why it’s included here is a bit odd, where it doesn’t fit naturally into the collection, yet this bizarre real-world issue might not be genuinely bothersome or noticeable for some, so it might not even be a factor.
"This Is Not My Movie" by Gary A. Braunbeck-After a movie theater is consumed by fire, the charred ruins become a nexus for ghosts and alternate realities. A haunting tale of how a beloved movie theater's destruction births a dark, sentient force, trapping the souls of those killed in the blaze. This was a generally frustrating and barely worthwhile entry to the collection that makes for a challenging experience. The general air of pretentious attitude, film-school terminology, an avant-garde structure that’s trying to depict action as if it’s being observed through a screenplay, or the confusing philosophical musings that are in place, trying to ensure that the pseudo-intellectual material here makes any sense or forms any kind of storyline is a tough sell. It is immensely creative that it tries to include these elements together, especially when it becomes apparent that there’s a genuine plotline in the second half, but it’s such a hard immersion that it might not matter.
3/5
June 27, 2025
In the terrifying world of Hollywood horror, where the line between fiction and reality blur, life may never be seen the same. There are thre novellas in this collection. In The Last Zombie Movie" by Tim Waggoner, a group of student filmmakers start a project to create a zombie holocaust script—but soon, their fictional nightmare begins to unfold in real life. As their imagined horrors come to life, they must face the terrifying reality of their own creation. Will thy survive their creation? The next novella is Am the Rainbringer" by Andrew Nadolny where a woman becomes a serial killer by her father’s dying wish. Her husband turns her deadly past into a movie. But the ghosts of his parents—and her brutal history—soon rise to haunt them both. It blurs the line between the living and the dead in a nightmare that can’t be escaped. In the last novella “This Is Not My Movie" by Gary A. Braunbeck a movie theater is burned to the ground. This makes the ruins into a center for ghosts and alternative realities. The theater’s destruction births a a dark, sentient force, trapping the souls of those killed in the fire.
In this collection horror goes beyond the film. The cost of horror is much more than you think. Each novel is unique This collection is excellent. I enjoyed the “Hollywood” aspect of the novellas.
Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the publisher. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
In this collection horror goes beyond the film. The cost of horror is much more than you think. Each novel is unique This collection is excellent. I enjoyed the “Hollywood” aspect of the novellas.
Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book from the publisher. I wasn’t obligated to write a favorable review. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
June 27, 2025
Three authors, three novellas, triple the fun and suspense. A devilishly good read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews