Founded by a DIY filmmaking team, the press will partner with filmmakers, bloggers, academics, and artists to publish stylish, research-driven books by and for horror fans.

This weekend marks the official launch of the indie press DieDieBooks, which is raising funds on Kickstarter to publish its first five books, each of which will bring a different expert perspective to a different horror movie, including Poltergeist, Threads, The Wolfman, Sleepaway Camp, and The Love Witch. All five books are available as perks on Kickstarter for donors to the campaign.

The press was founded by screenwriter Rachel Kempf and her husband, indie filmmaker Nick Toti, who recently relocated from Los Angeles to rural Missouri to build the horror empire DieDieMedia—a business that not only includes a publishing arm, but also a horror film production company.

“Before moving, we had some good momentum on our filmmaking careers, but when the pandemic hit, the industry came screeching to a halt,” Kempf explained. “The most interesting things happening in film were very DIY, and we knew if we left LA, we could live for a fraction of the cost and use the money we saved to start producing our own work, on our own terms.”

The decidedly unglamorous, DIY move is fitting for the horror genre, which famously spawned ultra-low budget cult hits like The Blair Witch Project that outperformed major Hollywood studios at the box office.

“Horror fans not only consume culture, they create it,” said co-founder Nick Toti, “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.”

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 founders hope to publish the first book later this year and the others throughout 2023. More information is available on DieDieBooks’ Kickstarter page.

About DieDieBooks

DieDieBooks is the publishing arm of DieDieMedia LLC, proudly located in Kirksville, MO. DieDieMedia explores the horror genre and all aspects of the larger horror subculture by publishing books and making movies. Hit us up at contact@diediebooks.com, join our mailing list, or check out our Letterboxd for ratings on every horror movie we’ve watched this year.