Read it and weep (with joy).
Today marks the official launch of the indie press DieDieBooks, which is currently raising funds on Kickstarter to publish a series of stylish, collectible books that bring different fans’ perspectives to their favorite horror movies. Created by and for horror fans, each book will focus on a different horror movie, with its initial run featuring Poltergeist, Threads, The Wolfman, Sleepaway Camp, and The Love Witch. As a note, the writer of this article, Mary Beth McAndrews, is publishing a book with this press.
The first books include a deep dive on the Hooper vs. Spielberg debate surrounding Poltergeist written by author Jacob Trussell, a primer on the nuclear apocalypse film Threads written by nuclear scholar and activist Bob Mielke, a queer perspective on the controversial slasher Sleepaway Camp by BJ and Harmony Colangelo, a portrait of Lon Chaney Jr.’s mental anguish during his performance in The Wolfman by Philip J Reed, and a love letter to The Love Witch written by filmmaker and editor Matt Latham.
The idea for DieDieBooks came from screenwriter Rachel Kempf, who previously worked at an erotic romance publisher. “I wasn’t a huge fan of romance, but I understand the appeal of genre writing because I love horror,” Kempf said. “It’s a genre with incredibly devoted fans, so we wanted to create our own press and connect with readers who share that love of horror.”
“Horror fans not only consume culture, they create it,” said co-founder Nick Toti, a DIY filmmaker, “so we wanted to create a series of books that feels very participatory. Some of my favorite horror movies are ones that I saw and thought, ‘Hey, I could do this.’ These books are not only fun to read, since they draw so heavily from the authors’ own backgrounds and expertise, but will hopefully also inspire readers to chase their own horror movie obsessions and add their voices to the conversation.”
Toti and Kempf, who are married, recently relocated from Los Angeles to rural Missouri to build their horror empire DieDieMedia—a parent company that not only publishes books, but also produces horror movies/documentaries. It will release its first feature in 2023.
The Kickstarter campaign ends on October 31, 2022. To make a contribution or learn more about the project, visit DieDieBooks on Kickstarter.
