Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

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SUFFER THE CHILDREN Optioned for TV

May 11, 2023 by Craig DiLouie 3 Comments

I’m proud today to announce my horror novel SUFFER THE CHILDREN has been optioned by Perro Azul for potential adaptation for Netflix, Vix, or another venue.

Perro Azul is a Mexican production house with a solid track record developing Spanish-language TV series and movies. Their work ranges from zombie series to cop dramas to political dark comedies.

Published in 2014 by Gallery Books, SUFFER THE CHILDREN is about a disease that kills the world’s children only to bring them back requiring blood to stay alive a little while longer. The kids are vampires, but the true monsters may be the parents who will do anything to keep their children alive. As the blood supply wanes, their only source may be each other…

This book has been optioned before but failed the funding test due to its grimdark material. I’m hoping this time will be different and this story will finally be brought to life on a screen. Fingers crossed!

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Craig at Work, CRAIG'S WORK, Film Shorts/TV, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Movies, Movies & TV, Suffer the Children, The Blog, WRITING LIFE

THE RETREAT Audiobook Omnibus Now Available

May 11, 2023 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

Get it while it’s hot! And by “hot” I mean on fire, emitting screams, and surrounded by laughing, machete-wielding maniacs. The Retreat, the apocalyptic military fiction series by me, Stephen Knight, and Joe McKinney, is now available as an audiobook omnibus narrated by the great R.C. Bray.

The world would die laughing….

When a new disease turns people into sadistic, laughing killers, a light infantry battalion fights to maintain order in Boston. As infection spreads, the Army loses control, and the soldiers find themselves fighting the people they once swore to protect.

As the country slides into violent collapse, the lost battalion learns the last bastion of the federal government is still holding out in Florida. Harry Lee, its commander, decides the only hope is to lead the survivors there.

But first, they must cross more than a thousand miles of an apocalyptic America, hunted by a savage and merciless enemy.

Inspired by The Anabasis and written by a team of best-selling zombie authors, The Retreat: The Complete Series for the first time brings together all six volumes, chronicling a horrific vision of the apocalypse and a brutal depiction of courage in the face of impossible odds.

This omnibus includes the following works:

The Retreat: Pandemic
The Retreat: Slaughterhouse
The Retreat: Die Laughing
The Retreat: Alamo
The Retreat: Crucible
The Retreat: Forlorn Hope

I was very happy to contribute Pandemic and Alamo and have a chance to work with these great authors.

Click here to check it out at Audible.

And of course, there’s always the eBook option.

Filed Under: Apocalyptic, APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, CRAIG'S WORK, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, The Blog, The Retreat Series, Zombies

DJINN Now Available for Pre-Order!

May 11, 2023 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

I am excited to announce that DJINN, my supernatural military thriller, is now available for pre-order for Amazon Kindle. This novel reimagines the witch for the War on Terror era, taking the reader on a journey into the heart of darkness that is both human and supernatural.

Here’s the synopsis:

In the violent aftermath of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a photojournalist arrives to learn the fate of the Witch Doctors, a fabled Army occult warfare unit. Holly believes her father, reported missing in action, ran this mysterious outfit that sought to weaponize black magic to win the War on Terror.

As the Taliban advances and the national government crumbles, Holly makes a harrowing journey into the deep desert to an abandoned base, which houses a terrifying secret. There, along with a group of American ex-soldiers, themselves cursed, she will face the ancient evil the Witch Doctors unleashed…

The terrors that live in the world of the djinn. The horrors that lurk in war itself.

DJINN releases June 16 in eBook and trade paperback exclusively through Amazon. Read by Garrett Michael Brown, the audiobook releases the same date.

You can get it here. I hope you’ll check it out. Thank you for reading!

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, CRAIG'S WORK, Djinn, HISTORY, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, Other History, The Blog

PHASMAPHOBIA

April 8, 2023 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

When EPISODE THIRTEEN, my found-footage novel about a paranormal reality TV show, came out, I was asked in interviews about sources of inspiration for it. A big one for me was PHASMAPHOBIA, a computer game. This is the scariest, most enjoyable horror game I’ve ever played.

When I first heard about it, I was skeptical. The game’s graphics and game play looked pretty janky to me. You don’t have any weapons, which feels weird when you’re used to playing first-person games that have a combat element. You move slowly. Most of the houses you explore aren’t creepy mansions but instead regular suburban homes. What’s scary about this?

A lot, it turned out. It scared the crap out of me.

Okay, here’s how it works. You’re a member of a team of up to four professional ghost hunters. You travel to haunted houses and explore them to 1) locate where the ghost is, 2) identify the type of ghost based on the evidence you collect, and 3) do optional actions like get the ghost to blow out a candle or get a picture of it. The only problem is the ghost generally remains unseen, so you have to use a variety of detecting equipment to discover physical evidence the ghost leaves. Another problem is the longer you’re in the house and depending on what you say over the mic to the ghost or your teammates–the game uses voice recognition–the ghost starts to get agitated. This is good, as its activity leaves evidence, but bad, in that the ghost may decide it’s time to hunt and kill you. The lights flicker, the door slams, you’re trapped, and you have to hide and pray the thing doesn’t get you.

The detective work is fun, but what makes this game work is the atmosphere of dread–something I tried to bottle in EPISODE THIRTEEN–in this case achieved with darkness and subtly with sound along with your own willing suspension of disbelief. The moment you go into the house, you know you’re on the clock for the ghost getting angry. There are jump scares, but they’re sparse and earned, such as when you’re just about to leave the house and the door slams in your face, signaling the ghost is coming for you. Out of all the games I’ve played, this one comes closest to the experience of reading, where the player’s imagination does a lot of the work. Like watching a horror movie, if you tell yourself it’s only a game and doesn’t matter, it likely won’t affect you much; but if you run with it and let yourself be immersed, it will very likely freak you out.

PHASMAPHOBIA is a classic game that is virtually unique among horror games, though it has had many (poor in my view) imitators. I recommend it if you’re looking for a horror experience you can enjoy solo or with some buddies online.

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, CRAIG'S WORK, Episode Thirteen, GAMES, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, The Blog, Video & Board Games

SONS OF THE FOREST

April 7, 2023 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

I’m a gamer, though I’m pretty particular about it. One game I’ve had a lot of fun with lately is SONS OF THE FOREST, the sequel to the popular survival horror game THE FOREST. It’s savage, offers game play fairly balanced between action and grunt work, and features a lot of weird elements to find, explore, and use.

Picture MINECRAFT set on the island of LOST populated by savage cannibals, and you’ve basically got the concept. The story: You’re a corporate mercenary hired as part of a team to travel to an island owned by an enormously rich family, where elites go to golf, attend luxury spas, and hang out. Your mission: find out why the island went dark and what happened to the family, and while you’re at it, try to survive as everything tries to kill you. Behind all this is a ton of lore about otherworldly artifacts that form a backstory. Otherwise, the story continues elements of the original FOREST, though knowing these is not necessary to enjoy the ride.

The island is pretty big and offers multiple environments and interesting locations to explore. As you start with very little, basic survival is the top priority, as you need to build shelters and other structures that will help you, craft weapons and armor until you find better ones, source food and water, and so on. There is a variety of monsters here trying to kill you, from packs of mud-covered lunatics stalking the woods to tribes of cannibals to horrific mutants lurking in caves. The combat is tense, exciting, and brutal.

My base

One thing I really love about the game is the cannibals, which even more than the mutants puts the horror in this survival horror game. Formerly guests on the island, they’ve been reduced to utter savagery. Their behavior is incredibly realistic. Each tribe has different customs, treats you differently, and you can find them patrolling, hunting, worshipping their grisly idols, and fetching water. From the tents to their totems, their camps are basically made from human body parts, so be prepared for plenty of horror over the idea of being caught by them.

Overall, I’ve run through it a few times, and I’ve loved every experience. If you’re into gaming and want to try Minecraft on horror crack, check it out.

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, GAMES, The Blog, Video & Board Games

My Deal with Hachette for HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE

March 24, 2023 by Craig DiLouie Leave a Comment

I could not be happier today to announce I have signed a deal with Orbit, the speculative fiction imprint of Hachette Book Group, to publish my next horror novel, titled HOW TO MAKE A HORROR MOVIE. This is my fifth novel with Hachette, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work again with my awesome editor and such a great brand.

A slasher film director makes a horror movie with a cursed camera that kills anyone he cares about. The scream queen he loves wants to survive the night. Together, director and Final Girl, they’re about to make movie history.

No details yet on publication date yet, but it will be available pretty much everywhere, bookstores and so on. Get ready for a deep dive into horror movies and in particular the eighties. Can’t wait for all y’all to read this one. Stay tuned for more soon!

Filed Under: APOCALYPTIC/HORROR, Books, Craig at Work, CRAIG'S WORK, How to Make a Horror Movie and Survive, MEDIA YOU MIGHT LIKE, WRITING LIFE

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