Horror icons never die, they just keep coming back for more. It’s fitting, then, that horror retrospective book Scream Deconstructed: An Unauthorized Analysis by Scott Kessinger is being released again a mere two months after it made its debut in print: this time in e-book form.
Hoping to attract the millions receiving e-book readers as Christmas gifts, Scream Deconstructed hits the respective digital marketplaces for Kindle and Nook on Dec. 26 for a retail price of $3.99 USD. Until now, Scream Deconstructed was an exclusive to Amazon, and has continually topped the online retailer’s Film History & Criticism bestseller list.
The book’s publisher, new independent imprint Stinger Books, had given the book only a modest online ad campaign and attributes the book’s success mostly to word-of-mouth among Scream and horror fans. Rodrigo Kurtz, editor of Scream fansite Hello Sidney said, “Scream Deconstructed gave me a completely new perspective about a subject I thought I knew so well.” Kurtz called it, “a mind-blowing lecture that goes very deep into the philosophy encapsulated in the movies. It is a must-have to the fans of the franchise.”
John Valeri is a writer for Hartford Books Examiner and recently interviewed Scream Deconstructed author Scott Kessinger. Valeri is a self-proclaimed Scream fan and said the book is a “penetrating and insightful analysis (that) just may cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew.”
The success of Scream Deconstructed is all the more surprising because it was achieved without the backing of the film studio behind the Scream movies. As the subtitle “An Unauthorized Analysis” suggests, Scream Deconstructed was not licensed by The Weinstein Company, who own the rights to the films, nor filmmakers Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson. In his interview with Valeri, Kessinger said he made sure “to be respectful of the fact that Scream isn’t my property.” Kessinger continued, “It’s not trying to repackage the films’ content and sell it back to you. My review, the analysis, is the content of the book.”
The Scream film series started in 1996 and has had four installments: the latest, Scream 4, was released earlier this year. The films quickly became some of the most influential in film history and are considered a genre landmark.
What’s next for Scream Deconstructed? Going worldwide. The Kindle release marks the first time the text is available to countries all over the world, but Stinger Books confirms that it is negotiating with printing companies abroad in order to make the print version of the book accessable to international markets in the coming year.
