First and foremost I want to thank the Redhook and Orbit team for allowing me to read an early copy of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive. The opinions in this review are my own.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this at about 50%. I understand that building tension in a horror novel can be beneficial to the climax, but every chapter became a struggle to read through. I also found it hard to understand the main character, who bounces between being okay with murder, to feeling bad, then throws away all guilt to pick up the murder camera again. I know we’re not meant to root for him, but I found myself actively hoping the people who are meant to look like enemies somehow thwart him and end the book early. The only character I enjoyed was Sally, who is not any more likable but is at least complex and interesting.

There were some things I liked, like the sprinkling of horror film history. I enjoyed the way the author inserted Max’s film planning, so that we can see his artistic vision.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read and review.

This was great. Any fan of horror movies...and novels will love this. I love the references throughout, and the whole feel of the novel. I've been a huge fan of horror my whole life, so this was just right for me. I really enjoyed Craig DiLouie's previous book 'episode thirteen' as well. When two of my favorite forms of media come together. Whether it be a podcast and books, or in this case horror movies and books. It makes me extra happy. I think this will make horror fans happy this year. Make sure you don't miss out on this one.

I really enjoyed this book. If you like the 80's style of slasher films and all the intricacies, nuances, and politics of movie making, you'll love this book. It's great story about a haunted/cursed object and takes a few twists and turns along the way., and slides just a bit into meta territory. If these elements appeal to you, you will like this book and I recommend it.

3.5 stars

Craig DiLouie's "How to Make a Horror Move and Survive" is clearly his love-letter to horror, but also to 70s and 80s horror movies. I feel strongly that you could take passages from this book where he waxes poetically about this genre and string them together to make something akin to Brady Hendrix's paperbacks from hell

The premise is simple: Max Maurey, a 'successful' horror director is lamenting the blockbuster status of his latest franchise entry "Jack the Knife 3". He hates how his latest flick doesn't move people the way he feels horror should move them, especially after having his agency taken away by producers who are only thinking about castrating his art to give it more broad appeal (an act that he himself was made consipriator due to contracual obligations.

He wants to make something more visceral, more real. He happens to come across the estate sale of Arthur Golden, obscure director of "Mary's Birthday" (a film that was shot but never screened as horrible accidents had befallen the cast during shooting - with only the director and a single actor as survivors.

At Golden's estate sale, he comes across the very camera that was used to shoot "Mary's Birthday". And then Max has a wonderful

And he got an idea. An awful idea. Max had a wonderful, awful idea: he would use the camera to shoot his masterpiece (the very same camera that slowly starts to whisper to him and send him dreamscapes to plan). Oh...and it may turn out that this camera may also kill the people it captures in its celluloid gaze.

Max works to get the financing and the perfect cast to shoot that which will be forever remembered, not as a blockbuster, but an indelibly tainted mark on the history of Horror Cinematography.

The book does get a bit goofy at times, and the irony is not lost on here: a film director and cast begins to live the B-movie plot (a killer camera!) that is exactly the marketable schlock he is trying to elevate himself beyond.

One gem of this book is Sally Priest, I like pretty much every scene she is in.

The author's aims seems to diverge from what the book delivers in the end. Once again, I would still recommend it for the passages about horror that hodl the genre to such a high pedestel (see below for some examples):

"[An ancient mythic script now rendered in history’s most wonderful optical illusion, the product of persistence of vision when viewing a series of images flashing by at a high rate. In this case, film recorded at twenty-four frames per second and played back at the fusion frequency of forty-eight hertz]...[By buying a ticket, the audience had summoned the players back to life like reanimated souls haunting a stretch of film. The living sat stacked behind him, them and the whole human race, all of them playing out their own dramas, similarly doomed. Each of them alone but also not alone. The screen the campfire, the movie a story about survival, the surrounding darkness filled with predators that still lived in the genes. They’d come for horror, a psychological room where they could share and face their collective fears, traumas, and taboos—both the rational and mundane kinds inflicted by the current zeitgeist and the illogical kind lurking deep in the soul.]"

["The cherry crowning a long, venerable history of horror cinema. From the experimental early shorts exploring the medium’s innate strangeness to the silent horror films, flicker and shadow, murky and ominously mute, which led to the dreamy desolation of German Expressionism following the Great War. Universal Studios birthing the monsters of the Great Depression in the thirties, from Dracula to Frankenstein, making horror less artistic and more accessible until the horror-comedies of the forties and the next innovation: psychological horror. On to the mutant monsters of the atomic fifties, the psychos and witchcraft of the psychedelic sixties, and the closer-to-home terrors of the paranoid seventies. Right up to the romping eighties with its slashers and seemingly everything else on the menu.
One could read the dark and stormy history of the twentieth-century American psyche in these films, which like bad dreams purged the nation’s lusts and fantasies and paranoias and collective fears. All of it led up to tonight, this movie, where the story was real and the real was story and you were a part of it. Where reality and fiction rutted to become a surreal waking nightmare, a nearly two-hour night terror, a psychic tattoo you’d carry with you forever like a liminal STD.]"

The slasher genre is an interesting subset of film: in one aspect painting a picture of the world as it exists, with serial killers a well documented piece of history, and in another aspect so self aware at points as to be breaking the fourth wall (think Scream), that the obvious entertainment values therein somewhat break the tension.

This is where Max Maurey finds himself: a wildly successful horror director who sees his films being taken as mere popcorn fodder and not true horror, much to his chagrin and disappointment. With no help from higher ups, Max makes it his mission to create the ultimate horror film, replete with things so truly horrific that no one will find themselves cheering, too consumed with genuine terror. When he stumbles upon a camera used by infamous director Arthur Golden, known for directing a purportedly cursed movie that resulted in actual on screen deaths, Max knows he has to have it. Once he figures out what it’s actually capable of, Max makes it his mission to finally create the ultimate horror movie: one complete with actual on screen horrors.

The vast majority of the novel is the lead up to Max’s ambition, with other major character Sally Priest a prime focus, a budding actress who wants to attain the role of the perfect horror character, the Final Girl. With help from inner turmoil and a desire to ensure her mother’s acceptance, we see Sally grow during the novel, becoming someone readers genuinely love and root for.

With this novel, it’s obvious that DiLouie either learned, or already knew, a great deal of how movies are shot, up to and including how shots are actually imprinted on film (a fascinating sidebar when he mentions it), and his clear love for cinema. The main gripe I have with this novel, however, is the pacing. There’s so much focus on Max’s inner turmoil and what he’s thinking that when truly horrific events start occurring, readers aren’t necessarily horrified but rather just casually entertained, the complete antithesis to what Max himself is striving for. I’m not typically one of those readers who needs a lot of action to enjoy a novel, but with a premise like we have here, the lack of “action,” or rather the lack of much horror, is disappointing. Max and Sally as main characters are fascinating and will keep readers interested with their personal plights, but with a title like this, it’s disappointing that there wasn’t more: had the author done what Max was trying to do, this one could’ve been a slam dunk. Having said that, it is still a well written novel deserving of a read, just a tad underwhelming with such a premise.

I was looking forward to this after loving DiLouie's Episode Thirteen, but while the writing holds up in How To Make a Horror Movie and Survive, the story is... bleh. Meh. DiLouie talks a lot about film and horror and story-telling, all of which interest me (and I do like all the little facts sprinkled throughout), but then the story itself is derivative in like a really boring way? Everything was predictable, from characters to plot point. Very formulaic.

It also doesn't end when it should, going on for several chapters longer than it should have, with each additional chapter feeling like yet another ending. It gave me flashback to working at a movie theater when Lord of the Rings: Return of the King came out, and all us staff were so excited to watch the film the night before release at the employee only screening, only to hit hour 3 and the first of 50 endings at almost 4am the night/morning before my last winter final that senior year. By the time we DiLouie reaches the climax I was drifting, and after the first ending I had to push myself to finish those last 15 or so pages. 15 pages! And I was like "noooo."

But I did it. And that's only because DiLouie is a good writer at the end of the day.

I do think this story would make a better movie haha

Some moments in this book are genuinely gripping and certainly horror but overall it doesn't feel like a horror title beyond the discussion of horror tropes. The book talks about all sorts of horror stereotypes and how the movie being made with subvert them all to simply make those moments in the book. There is also a disconnect in the end where we have followed Max's psychosis develop only to miss the pivotal part. We see Max at the end through Sally's perspective and it simply wasn't enough to be invested.

I didn’t love this as much as I’d hoped.

I did very much enjoy much of what happened with the old camera, but I think I’m just not into movie making enough and it was very, very much about that.

Sally was my absolute favorite and I found myself wishing the book was more Sally and less everyone else.

As for the reason behind everything? It was certainly interesting, but just not quite for me.

I do enjoy the author and am looking forward to his next offering. This one just didn’t hit for me.

• ARC via Publisher

A novel for fans of horror. Not the 'for entertainment' horror, but the kind of horror that makes you think about what you should really be afraid of --- things that go bump in the night, or the person sitting next to you.

This book was definitely a chilling read and I loved getting the different perspectives. Getting to see the slippery slope from passion to obsession was all too real and human, which was scarier than any occult camera could be all on its own.

The story did suffer from some pacing issues --- it started slow, would build up, an establishing horror scene would happen, but then the tension just dropped off again. While lulling the reader into a false sense of security is great, I feel like that underlying tension should still be maintained instead of completely dropping off to the point of forgetting anything horrific even happened.

That said, the ending sequence really pulled it all together in fast paced, cinematic worthy events and I flew through the last 70 pages or so.

Overall, I enjoyed the read and would give it a 3.5/5! Will definitely be recommending to fellow lovers of horror movies.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie

Summary:
Max Maury, a renowned horror director in the 1980s, commands Hollywood's attention with his lucrative but shallow slasher films. Max yearns to create genuine artistry in horror despite his fame and fortune, yet his unscrupulous producer stifles any attempts at innovation.

Sally Priest, aspiring to become the ultimate Final Girl, sees her chance to seize the spotlight when she meets Max at his latest wrap party. Determined to showcase her talents, she sets out to impress him and claim the lead role she knows she deserves, even though her mother says otherwise. However, when Max stumbles upon an ancient camera with a chilling history of capturing real-life horrors, he becomes consumed with using it for his next project, unaware of the evil it unleashes.

Review:
The author has dissected horror movies and their usual formula for this book. The character, Max, knows everything about making horror movies, so it gives a background in the film industry. The story plot was unique and had a novel premise. I enjoyed references to other great horror writers and horror movies. It was a fun way to relive the 80s- 90s slasher film you loved growing up. I love the final girl trope, so this book was an excellent fit and had me onboard at the get-go.
The lead-up to the climax of the book was fantastic. It was like reading a horror movie, and you feel the anxiety and the terror of the characters. It was somewhat gruesome but nothing terrible. I loved it up until the twist came in at the end. The book's last two chapters could have been cut from the book because it lent to over-explaining. It was a fun ride, and the author did a great job creating the characters and death scenes.

In exchange for my honest review, I received an ARC copy of the ebook from Netgalley and Redhook Books. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Redhook & Orbit team for the chance to read this arc! :)

I really enjoyed this book. It started off kind of slow and in some parts kind of dragged out and I feel there was some unnecessary explaining of things which is the reason for the 4 stars. But all in all it was a great book that I think would make such a good scary movie! Super ironic huh? 🤣 But I can’t stop thinking about how I would run to the theater to watch this book come alive on the big screen, minus the actual deaths of course!! The last several chapters were so captivating, I could not stop until I finished. I really enjoyed Sally Priests character. This was a fun read with some gruesome parts. I will definitely be recommending this to my fellow horror reading friends!

Now this? This is how you write about horror cinema.

This novel is chock-full of great thinking points about how and why we engage with the genre while covering some larger issues with film production as a whole.

Horror as we perceive it through media is an untraumatic ans contained way of experiencing fear. Rarely are we haunted for life with what we see in a Blumhouse film. As I've personally noticed though, the violence we tolerate in horror film is getting more and more extreme. With each Final Destination and Saw, the body count isn't high enough, the gore insufficient to scare.

At what point do we start justifying exposure to the real horror in our media?

Enter protagonist Max Maurey, horror director and the embodiment of rage for the "ineffectiveness" of horror.

This is just a blip of the many thoughts that have wracked my brain since reading this book.

Most of the time these researched moments into the narrative feel organic, save for a handful of moments. I can excuse that though in favor of the quality of the information paired with the narrative structure.

The story here is just as compelling and has so much to work with and write about, I could go on and on about it.

We've also got some great research put in here on horror film from DiLouie, points from me for referencing Le Grand Guignol.

This isn't a novel for those who wholly idolize the genre. The current state of horror is a bit of a punching bag from some characters' perspectives. Instead it is for those who see the flaws in the structure of horror yet engage with it anyway.

Famous 80’s director, Max Maurey, has just released another fan favorite in his Jack the Knife series but he’s unhappy. Max doesn’t want to make the cheap slasher films that are popular with his fan, he wants to create a truly terrifying film. When he discovers an old cursed movie camera that captured a very real tragedy he has to have it. He soon discovers the camera came with a warning for a reason. Max decides the camera is the key to filming the scariest movie ever…if anyone survives.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is a horrifying new tale by author Craig DiLouie. This novel follows 80’s horror film director Max and his new muse Sally Priest. Sally dreams of one day being the final girl in a horror film and Max has the perfect role for her in his new film. This novel seems to be on trend with a theme I have been seeing quite a lot of lately (Cursed films/equipment, directors with a sinister agenda, and final girls). I typically enjoy DiLouie’s novels but I have to admit this one wasn’t my favorite. I still enjoyed the characters, plot, and gruesome deaths. What I don’t enjoy, and am finding with other books of this theme, is a lot of information about film making. For me, it starts to feel a bit like reading a documentary on horror films and it takes away from the story. I know this isn’t the case for everyone so if film studies is your thing then this will be right up your alley.

"If you aren’t horrified, you aren’t paying attention. If you aren’t terrified, you aren’t really living. That’s what Max Maurey believed."

Like many others, Max Maurey leaned on horror films for comfort; preferring the fictional horrors to the horrors of reality. Feeling called to be a director, he worked his way through film school at UCLA—where even his peers and professors thought of him as uncultured and a fool for wanting to create horror films— and through odd jobs in the film industry until he finally caught his big break. Now, it’s 1988 and Max has just created and directed the most anticipated horror film of the year. <I>Jack the Knife</i> is a series of slashers that have been as big and as brilliant as <I>Halloween</i> and <I>Nightmare on Elm Street</i>. But Max and the producer are having creative differences… While the producer wants to make films that appeal to the public—cheap and predictable—Max is dying to get back to making <u>real</u> art, real horror.

"Horror is only horror if it’s real."

Enter Sally Priest. A B-list horror movie actress who is trying to prove herself worthy of the role of her dreams—The Final Girl. When the pair find an old camera that once filmed a real, horrific, Hollywood accident, Max considers it as “an omen from the movie gods” and uses it as his golden ticket to make the scariest movie viewers have ever seen.

Thoughts:
This book is set in and around the Hollywood hills and, for me, it made it feel all the more real as it struck close to home—mentioning cities and landmarks that I conduct my own life around. I wouldn’t consider myself film buff so I was worried that a lot of this book and its lingo might go over my head but I was genuinely pleased with the way DiLouie brought it down to “normie” level while still making it interesting and I even found myself learning a few things.

All of the references to real-life beloved slasher films and the making of slashers were, of course, welcomed by me and reading this has me dyyyying to go watch my favorite slashers.

This book takes on a slower pace and readers spend a lot of time getting to know Max and Sally which will be problematic for some but it wasn't for me. Parts of the story got a little convoluted and I didn’t understand some of the MC's decision making process but overall… Loved the characters, loved the plot, loved the writing. Thank you to Redhook Books for the digital copy! Out 06/18/2024!

Max wants to make the best and most authentic horror movie ever made. Sally wants to be a Final Girl and show everyone just how talented she actually is. When Max finds a camera that is very certainly haunted and kills the people it captures on film, he sees his chance to make his dreams come true.

The best part of this book is the clear love and respect DiLouie has for horror films, especially those from the slasher genre. He structures the book in a mirror of the filmmaking process and gives readers a good inside look at how films are made as well as how directors and actors operate. The premise is reminiscent of Avram Davidson's short story, "The Montavarde Camera", but expanded upon and updated into the making of motion pictures in the late 20th century instead. The deaths on page will remind millennials of the Final Destination film franchise in their Act of God scope and feeling of inevitability, and while gory, they often feel almost comical, much like horror film deaths often do. A solid horror read with a slightly humorous bent.

Thank you to Redhook and NetGalley for the opportunity to read How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive early in exchange for a review.

Life as a horror Director in the 80's is filled with disapointment and chaos. everyone wants more blood and less artistry. one day. An old camera is found with a cryptid message, and everything begins to spin out of control!

A non-stop, pedal-to-the-floor crash course thrill ride in horror, low budget filmmaking, navigating Hollywood, and all the careful-what-you-wish-for sentiments in the world.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is a tantalizing journey filled with jaw dropping moments, but also full of delight.

This book is a horror fan's delight.

Found this to be a so-so read. I read Episode Thirteen by this author and really didn’t like it so I wanted to give him another try. That being said, I don’t think I’ll be reading from him again after this. It had some good moments but it dragged a lot for me.

At 10%, nothing has really happened 🤷🏻‍♀️ the found footage scene recharged my interest, but then we fell back into this pseudo-biographical 'the real history of the slasher film.'

I think I'll come back to this title later because I'm holding out hope it ramps up; I just don't have the care to muscle through all the exposition.

Craig DiLouie's latest novel is bleak,gore-soaked, and all-around amazing!

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is told in such a creative way. The areas of production for an actual movie are the segments in the book and each of the plot elements revolve around these critical roles. This allowed this book to hook your attention and kept my interest throughout the whole book.

In addition to this creative story-telling, the characters in this book were just deviously delicious and realistic. Max, our movie director, was so much fun to follow. He had so many motivations and issues that as more was revealed I could not get enough of his storyline. As he slowly but surely interacts more and more with the camera his personality starts warping, and then you can see the slow descent into madness. And don't even get me started on how terrible our Final Girl was. As someone obsessed with the concept of the Final Girl, watching Sally work her way into the role was so entertaining. And then how everything ended up had my jaw on the ground as the final parts started playing out.

Craig DiLouie has truly created another exceptional piece of writing with this book and readers are going to love it!