HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE AND SURVIVE by Craig DiLouie – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

How To Make a Horror Movie and Survive by Craig DiLouie
Published by Redhook on June 18 2024
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An imaginative take on the cursed movie trope, How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive is a bloody, shocking and surprisingly humorous story about a director who is determined to make the perfect horror movie.

“Now that is how you make a killing, baby.” – Max Maurey

There’s been a slew of recent books centered around horror movies—a trend I love, by the way—and now Craig DiLouie has added his version to the mix. How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive feels very different from DiLouie’s other work, and I had a great time with it. Most everything worked well for me, although there were a few elements that didn’t. But still, this was a solid four star read, and if you’re a horror movie fan, especially if you love slashers and edgier horror, you should definitely pick this up.

The story centers around horror film director Max Maurey, who is best known for his movie Jack the Knife and its two sequels. Now that Jack the Knife 3 has just been released and the trilogy is complete, he’s eager to finally make the horror movie that he wants. Box office success is great and all, but Max’s true vision is to create visceral, “real” horror that will terrify theater goers, not just entertain them. Max is obsessed with a movie that was never released called Mary’s Birthday, in which director Arthur Golden inadvertently caught a freak accident on film, an accident where every one of the cast and crew were killed (for real!), except for a few survivors. To Max, this event—which is little more than urban legend, since no one has seen the footage—is the type of horror he’s striving for.

Max gets his chance to finally break away from mainstream horror when he discovers an old Arriflex 35BL film camera at Arthur Golden’s estate sale—the very camera that Golden used to film Mary’s Birthday—and when he tries it out one day, he gets some very…unexpected results. Max has finally found the vehicle to make his ultimate horror movie and fulfill his dream of making something “real,” but at what cost?

Meanwhile, we meet Sally Priest, an up-and-coming horror actor who dreams of being cast as the Final Girl. When she hears about Max’s new movie If Wishes Could Kill, she knows that if she can secure the Final Girl role in the movie, it could take her career to the next level.

But the actors are in for a surprise, because Max has his sights set on something completely different and shocking.

This was so much fun! DiLouie’s story is full of black humor and wry commentary on horror movies and the movie business in general, and I think the humor was the surprise element for me, since I wasn’t expecting it. A couple of trigger warnings first: Max has a dog and the dog dies, so do be aware if you’re a dog lover (although I have to say, despite my loathing of killing off dogs in stories, it actually made sense here, and the scene is a perfect example of the black humor I was talking about). There’s also lots of graphic violence, which honestly, you should expect, but some of the descriptions are very disturbing, especially when you find out what Max’s camera does.

Max was an interesting character, although I can’t say I liked him that much. His motivation to create horror movies stems from a terrible childhood memory of his father sitting at the dinner table one night and telling a joke—and then dying of a heart attack right after. This juxtaposition of humor and death colors his life from that point on, especially when he learns he has the same heart defect that his father had. In this story, Max is approaching the age his father was when he died, so the timing is particularly poignant, and Max is more determined than ever to make his movie. When he acquires the cursed camera, or “occult” camera as he calls it, he’s both horrified and elated at what the camera can do, and here is where his manic personality really comes through. DiLouie did a great job with Max’s character, a man who seems to be under the camera’s spell and is unable to resist its power, which makes him both vulnerable and a monster.

Sally is the other main character, and DiLouie spends a lot of time with her, building up to the events during the shooting of If Wishes Could Kill. At first I didn’t enjoy her chapters as much as Max’s, but Sally ended up growing on me. There’s an emotional backstory about the relationship between Sally and her mother, who pushes her daughter to sleep her way to the top, but Sally has too much integrity for that, and she honestly believes she can make it on her own talent. Once Sally and Max meet, their relationship takes on a dangerous tone (I can’t really say any more due to spoilers), which added lots of tension to the story.

But really, the camera is the star of the story, and while I’ve read a bunch of “cursed movie” stories, I haven’t read one quite like this. DiLouie’s idea is horrifying but brilliant, and I cringed every time Max picked up the camera.

The author is obviously a big horror fan, since the story is packed with horror movie trivia and interesting details about the genre. There’s also lots of introspection about the meaning of horror and what makes it real, and here’s where the message became a little too heavy-handed for me. Both Max and Sally have lots of thoughts and opinions about horror, and sometimes all those thoughts interrupted the flow of the story.

We also follow Max as he’s making his movie, from conception to casting to production, and I did love that DiLouie included lots of information about the nuts and bolts of movie making. However, I didn’t like that he felt the need to explain all the movie terms to the reader, like “treatment,” “final cut” or “martini shot,” terms that most readers probably already understand. If he really felt these needed an explanation, it would have been much better to include a glossary at the end of the book.

But aside from these minor issues, this was a blast. The final section was perfectly done, and even though this isn’t technically a slasher story, it’s got the same energy and vibe. There’s a lot more I’d love to talk about—there are some really funny scenes that involve ghosts, for example—but I’m trying to avoid spoilers so you can experience the surprises for yourself. How to Make a Horror Movie an Survive is a worthy entry in the “cursed movie” trope, don’t miss it!

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.