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!

I loved this. After reading Episode Thirteen, and it being my favorite book of the year, I was excited for this new release. This is a regular horror novel without the mixed media in case you were comparing. I am finding I really like Craig Dilouie's writing style, and plotting. We get a horror story involving a horror movie, cursed object, and Hollywood drama. Please check this out if you love Movies, and horror.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is not just an homage to the horror genre, it’s a love letter to horror. This book had all the earmarks of a classic eighties slasher while still offering us little bites reminiscent of movies like Wishmaster, Leprechaun, and even Chopping Mall. Horror has always been my comfort genre, and I often play seventies and eighties horror in the background while I write. This story gives a horror lover everything they could possibly want out of a horror story while adding horror filmmaking in as a nice bonus. And while most of the characters were a little stereotypical of the genre (purposely so), they were still well done. Clare reminded me a lot of Taryn from Dream Warriors. I loved her character. Sally and Max made the perfect slasher protagonist/antagonist match. Unlike most slashers though, both of the characters had a change in character arc (although I’m sure it didn’t go the way Max planned it!) Needless to say, if you’re a horror lover, read this book!

Huge thanks to Redhook Books and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Thanks to NetGalley, Redhook Books and Orbit Books for an eARC of How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive.

Max is a director specializing in horror films. After the third installment of his horror franchise is released in theaters, he realizes how Hollywood politics have watered down his creativity, and it upsets him because he wants to create REAL horror. Horror that is drawn from real life. When Max meets Sally, an aspiring "Final Girl" horror-movie actress, he learns about her connection to a director he idolized, who filmed the gruesome deaths of his entire cast before he ended his own life. Max is able to gain access to the camera the director used to film those gruesome deaths, and he realized that this camera may be the key to his magnum opus. Will Max's obsession lead him down the path of his demise? Will Sally ever be cast in the Final Girl role she desires?

I was drawn into this story from the beginning. Max and Sally were such well-written, complex characters. Max, with his obsession to create the edgiest, most terrifying horror film, and Sally, who spent her life pretending she was someone she's not because she wasn't sure who she really was or what she desired in life. Sally had a great character arc with a lot of growth, which you don't see too much in horror/slasher-type books/movies, and I really enjoyed how she came full circle. Both main characters were lost and unhappy with their lives...and I loved how the paths they chose either lead to their downfall or their growth. I also enjoyed the author's take on horror and what it means to different people and how they view it. Horror is such a diverse genre with so many layers, it was interesting to see how the different variations were discussed. The last 20% of the book was also pretty gnarly, with so many creative death scenes.

That being said, there was a TON of information about how movies were made and the politics behind it. I feel like this book dragged on a bit covering this type of information, and as interesting and enlightening as it was, it took me out of the horror aspect a bit and most of the action and tension were more towards the back-end of the novel. I also would have liked more background information about the camera itself. The "horror" wasn't as scary as I hoped it would be, but it was a very thought-provoking novel with many layers and I love that about this one in particular. This was definitely well-worth the read.

*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the digital ARC!*

Over the last number of years, I’ve been blazing my way through Craig’s horror-centric bibliography and loving it. Craig also has released some critically acclaimed military fiction, but that’s not something that I really read much of and so I haven’t explored any of those. Craig’s writing has run the gamut of subjects, themes and has always provoked visceral responses from readers – good and bad. If you scroll through Instagram or, lately, Tik Tok, you’ll see his novel ‘Suffer the Children’ mentioned in 99% of every video titled – ‘Horror Novels That Emotionally Destroyed Me’ – and for good reason. His novel ‘One Of Us’ is easily one of the most powerful horror/dystopian novels ever released and he’s managed to conjure cults, Djinn’s and haunting ghost hunting shows that will stay with each reader for the rest of time.

But, if you follow him on Facebook, one thing that you’ll notice is his affinity to motion pictures. When Craig posts about a movie or TV show he’s recently watched, you’ll notice that the promotional poster/image is always accompanied by a very in-depth and engaging discussion on what worked and what didn’t for Craig. It’s never a simple short paragraph, it’s a scholarly look at what he’s absorbed, and I say that positively.

Which meant, going into his newest, ‘How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive,’ I knew I wouldn’t be reading a simple slasher. A formulaic, by-the-numbers story of a horror movie and a quaint cast of characters who were specifically there to play their part before the knife beheaded them and we moved on.

No, what Craig ended up doing was flipping the ‘horror’ aspect and gave us a deep dive into the 70s slasher boom in film, where horror fits into the pantheon of genre – both in film and an introspective approach about writing horror novels – and the lengths some auteurs go in the hopes of being remembered forever and finding their place in cinematic history.

What I liked: The novel initially focuses on Max, a director who has just wrapped up his trilogy of movies titled ‘Jack the Knife.’ It started small, low-budget and dark. Now, he’s realized its become campy and too popular. Film goers are laughing when they should be screaming and he’s determined to make a horror movie so frightening it’ll make him a legend.

This of course comes with a set of problems. A producer who wants more Jake the Knife, not art-house. And the reality that most horror had been done before. Then he meets Sally Priest, a young woman who happens to be sleeping with – and attending acting classes taught by – the sole survivor of a horrifying mass death that happened on a film set. Sally and Max become unlikely sole mates, even after Max acquires the very camera that was used to film that cursed movie. A camera that is cursed itself.

DiLouie walks a really fine-line between fiction and meta-ness. If you’ve written anything before, you’ll relate to a lot of the banter and internal struggles that Max has, that Sally has and that those they interact with have. As well, as Craig dives into the making of movies, the struggle to get greenlit and have something financed and made is one of the hardest things to pull off. Add in the headbutting between Max, the director, and the producer, who each have different views on how things should be done, we get Craig injecting the novel with an unexpected psychological turmoil. Max, who desperately wants to direct and film his magnum opus turns to this cursed camera, a thing that begins to speak to him and show him how he can make the most terrifying film ever made.

In the beginning, Max is a clear cut main character, but as the story progresses, Sally herself gets elevated from a secondary starlet to co-headlining. It mirrors her transformation from sultry, blonde, eye candy, to the bad girl, the final girl, the role she so desperately desires.

Once we get to the final 25%, DiLouie has set the domino’s up perfectly to watch them all fall. There’s so many really unique aspects to this novel, but to share them would be spoiler domain and I just don’t want to ruin that for any future readers. Safe to say, there is plenty of gore, buckets of blood and some truly harrowing scenes – both physical and psychological.

It all leads to a really well executed finale and a worthy closing to this novel.

What I didn’t like: I think, for me at least, was I was more invested in Max’s journey and Sally’s transformation that I never truly found myself scared or unnerved. I was more in this for the dynamics and the ‘we can do this’-ness of Max and Sally together that the haunted camera and the horror movie making and the events that occur didn’t make for unnerving moments, not in the way ‘Suffer the Children’ or ‘Episode Thirteen’ did, and we didn’t get the emotional impact moments that were so prevalent within ‘One Of Us.’

Why you should buy this: DiLouie really has outdone himself with this one, though. ‘How to Make…’ is a novel that transcends just fiction. It speaks to those who read, watch and consume horror. It’s a love letter to the fans who don’t care what producers say. To those who don’t want a part four but a new take on an old trope. With this one, DiLouie showcases his ability to craft phenomenal characters that take you along on their journey, a journey you care about, and a journey not purely there to have them killed off by a nameless knife-wielding maniac.

Loved this one.

Craig DeLouis may be a new horror author for me, but I see why he has droves of fans. This was a scary and humor 80’s vibe throwback slasher type book that I truly enjoyed. Making a horror movie with a haunted camera is an attention grabber for sure. There is a lot of information about horror movie production and the seedy underbelly of Hollywood. This is a fresh and original take on a horror book. This is not a keep the lights on all night horror book, but a good creepy, add in humor and it was very enjoyable.

A perfect blend of dark humour and demonic horror, this was such a fun read. It portrays perfectly how obsessions shape us and the places it can lead us. A perfect read for cinephiles and horror story lovers.

Episode Thirteen was one of my favorite reads last year, so my expectations for this book were high. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to them. How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is a love letter to filmmaking. There is so much detail about film production and all the steps and stages and techniques. If you're a lover of the technical details of making a film, you'll enjoy this one a lot. For me however, it was a lot of boring information that I didn't need to know, and it slowed down the plot considerably. Sally was an interesting character and I liked her a lot, but Max was awful. He started out okay, but as he becomes obsessed with making the perfect horror movie, he becomes insufferable. Once the action finally starts happening, the pace picks up and it becomes a lot more interesting. I liked the way things come full circle at the end. Overall, this isn't a bad book, but the slow pace and overabundance of technical detail bog it down. I look forward to reading Craig DiLouie's next book.

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC!

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive
4 stars: This book was incredibly entertaining (especially for horror, which is not usually my forte). I loved that it switched POVs because it made for a much more interesting story than if it had just been Sally or just been Max’s POV. My one criticism is that the ending was sooooooooooooooooooo cliche. For a book that is all about a director trying to subvert audience expectations and fight against the stereotypes of the horror genre, I was expecting the book to have a more innovative ending. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of reading this book, but the end definitely left me feeling disappointed.

If you love horror movies and 80's slashers, this book is for you!

I'm a huge fan of Craig DiLouie's writing, I fell in love with Horror as a genre because if his books. So, unsurprisingly, as soon as I heard about How To Make A Horror Movie And Survive, I couldn't wait to read it. Sometimes, when you look forward to a book for so long, it falls a little flat - but not this time. This book did not disappoint! I have a physical copy pre-ordered, and I can't wait for it to have a place on my "favourites" shelf.

Craig DiLouie said, "Horror thrills us" and I couldn't have said it better myself, this book was thrilling.


Thank you to NetGalley and the Redhook & Orbit team for the chance to read and review this ARC.

Craig DiLouie’s _How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive_ is filled with eccentric characters and details of filmmaking and the horror genre that will delight fans and readers with its menacingly fun plot. Successful horror director Max Maury wants to deliver actual horror to moviegoers, and finds a camera that recorded the tragic deaths of actors on set—a tool that will allow him to capture authentic shock. Sally Priest is an up-and-coming actor, and wants to make her mark as the “final girl” in Max’s masterpiece. Told from the perspectives of Max and Sally, the reader is guided through a story of a seemingly possessed camera, Max’s dark vision, and Sally’s struggle to survive in this fun read.

I'm sorry, but after a few chapters, I just knew I wasn't going to like this book. I was not at all interested in anything that was happening and had so many issues with the writing quality within those first few chapters that I couldn't see myself struggling through over 400 pages to finish it. I hope others have better experiences with it. Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read it.

For me, horror has always been a way to explore my own fears in a safe environment and I think this book perfectly encapsulates horror lovers appreciation of the genre and the ability to allow us to face the monsters that haunt us, the sub genre of horror literature that's aimed at horror lovers in all its forms are my favourite, very much a love letter to the slasher genre of the 70s/80s this marries dark humour and final girls in a way that fans of Hendrix and SGJ will appreciate, the cursed item trope is also up there with tropes I particularly enjoy (think Gothic by Fracassi) in this case the camera serves as a metaphor for the dark underbelly of Hollywood and what people are willing to do for a good scare, theres a lot of attention paid to character development which creates an evocative experience, a fun and self aware horror that takes an unflinching look at the way we relate to our protagonists, Craig's writing is incredibly suspenseful and I really enjoyed this, highly recommend especially if you enjoyed My Heart is a Chainsaw, The Final Girl Support Group, Silver Nitrate or Gothic

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

I'll start by saying that I have loved his work before. Suffer the Children and Episode Thirteen were two of my favorite books last year. This is why I was so bummed when I didn't love this one.

The concept of making a horror movie with a haunted camera sounded great. The beginning had me hooked. My horror loving heart was so happy with everything I was reading. The references to other movies/slashers was so much fun. My problems started around the 25% mark. I felt that the character development was overdone. We spent so much time hearing the thoughts of Sally and Max. It got dull quickly. This is a slow paced story and it was slowed down even more when we get so much detail about the film industry and details about the technology of making a movie. I understand we needed some basic idea of how it works, but we didn't need THAT much detail.

On a positive note, I did enjoy Sally's character. Many of the events of the story were cool to read. The ideas he came up with were solid. I wish the execution was better.

Craig DiLouie's latest novel How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive takes readers on a chilling journey through the dark side of Hollywood, where reality and fiction blur in the most terrifying ways possible.

In How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive, Craig DiLouie introduces us to Max Maurey, a renowned horror director who is struggling to find his creative voice in a world obsessed with cheap thrills and gore. When Max stumbles upon an old camera that captured real horror on film, he sees an opportunity to create something truly groundbreaking. However, as he delves deeper into the camera's mysterious origins, he realizes that he may have unleashed something far more sinister than he ever imagined.

Sally Priest, an aspiring actress who dreams of becoming the Final Girl in one of Max's films. When she crosses paths with Max at a wrap party, she sees her chance to prove herself as a scream queen worthy of the title. As Max embarks on his ambitious new project using the haunted camera, Sally finds herself thrust into a nightmare she never could have anticipated.

While How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive offers readers a unique premise that blends horror with Hollywood glamour, some may find that the pacing falters at times. The focus on character development occasionally detracts from the main plotline of creating the ultimate horror movie. However, DiLouie's vivid descriptions and knack for building suspense keep readers engaged.

How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive offers readers a captivating glimpse into the dark underbelly of Hollywood and the price one must pay for chasing fame at any cost. While not without its flaws, this novel is something fresh and original.