*Please read the Backer Breakdown here BEFORE selecting a contribution level!*

If you do not live in the U.S., Canada, UK, Australia, or New Zealand and would like to become a backer please email me by clicking on the "Ask a question" link above. I'm unable to make changes to the campaign and add new countries for shipping, but we can work something out!

This may be fully funded, but that doesn't mean I don't still need your support! The more we can raise here, the more books and perks can be added. PLUS you are getting the book cheaper than what it will be sold for later.

OK, now to the STORY...

I'm sorry, you wrote a book about WHAT?

Years ago, I began a private list on Letterboxd of all of the films I had watched with a child killed. My only goal was to have the most comprehensive list on the app once I made it public. That was it. I was able to add quite a few to my list that I didn’t have after Fantastic Fest 2019 when Zack Carlson programmed a clip show of child kills called The Sweetest Taboo: 100 Best Kills (title by Lars Nilsen). Sometime later, I told Zack about the list I was working on, and through some kind of manic, hypnotic somersaulting of words and flailing, he convinced me to turn it into a book. So here we are.

Not many people will appreciate or even tolerate this kind of thing in a film, including publishers, and this is why I am crowdfunding this project. This is not a book for everyone; it will probably make some people mad, especially those who need trigger warnings and frequent doesthedogdie.com. But this book is not an endorsement of the act, it is an appreciation of those films which had the guts to break the taboo of killing a child in a film and my enjoyment of that. Remember folks, these are movies, not real life.

I set some parameters for what would be included, the most important one being that the child must be 12 or younger (though there are some exceptions, mostly included in the chapter entitled Too Old For This Shit). You won’t find animated, biopic, holocaust, or true crime films in this book, along with some other exclusions. Ok, maybe there are a few exceptions. But I have my reasons.

Did I get every single child kill in film that fits the parameters I set? Of course not. I have not seen every movie ever made. But I did the absolute most exhaustive research that I could and the result has been one of the most fun (and at times frustrating) projects of my life.

What’s in this book anyway?

• Over 1100 films, 700+ of which have either a write-up or are included as part of a sidebar, the remainder (mostly offscreen kills) are listed in the appendix. The films span from as early as 1914 to as recent as 2022.
• An introduction by author Zack Carlson (Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film, Bleeding Skull: A 1990s Trash-Horror Odyssey, and The Incredibly Strange Filmmaker Who Stopped Living And Became A Mixed-Up Legend).
• Cover design and layout by Justin Miller (Hauntlove); he does posters for Exhumed Films, t-shirt designs for Rough Cut Fan Club, and tons of slipcover designs for Vinegar Syndrome and I'm thrilled to have him working on this. Check out his work here: https://www.hauntlove.com/
• An original comic written by me and drawn by Lance Schibi. You can check out his work here: https://lanceschibi.bigcartel.com/

Still not sure? Here’s a full breakdown of the chapters:

1. Whoopsie!
2. Caution: Sharp Edges
3. When Animals (and Insects) Attack 
4. Vehi-Kills 
5. The Hand That Kills
6. Kill It With Fire 
7. No One Floats Down Here 
8. The Police Won’t Believe Us 
9. Guns Don’t Kill People, They Kill Kids 
10. Altar of Sacrifice 
11. Honey, I Blew Up The Kid
12. Altered States 
13. Dream a Little Dream 
14. Poison Ideas 
15. Too Old For This Shit
16. Maximum Overkill

And a complete list of the films included in the book is here on Letterboxd: 

https://letterboxd.com/hexmassacre/list/the-sweetest-taboo-an-unapologetic-guide/

What I need & what you get

• 100% of the funds from this campaign will go to paying for the book design, printing, legal fees, and shipping. 
• Your support is essentially a preorder of the book (AND you're getting it cheaper than what I'll be selling it for later). Please note that there are only different tiers in order to cover the cost of shipping depending on your location.
• Supporters (except for Off Screen Kills or general contributions not tied to a perk) will receive a copy of the paperback (full color, glossy pages), shipped within one to two weeks of when I receive them from the printer. I am not printing hardback editions or doing ebooks for this. All supporters will also be included on the Project Supporters page of the book.

Backer Breakdown!

The different tiers are based on your location because shipping costs vary. The only tier that offers additional goodies besides the book and your name listed on the Project Supporter page of the book is Untold Story:

• Off Screen Kill ($15 USD) = General support and DOES NOT include a copy of the book
• Assault on Precinct 13 ($25 USD) = For Austin, TX residents only who can pick up the book in person
• Jaws ($35 USD after shipping added) = ships to United States residents
• The Brood ($45 USD after shipping added) = ships to Canadian residents
• Dark Age ($45 USD after shipping added) = ships Australian and New Zealand residents
• Suffer, Little Children ($55 USD after shipping added) = ships to UK residents
  • I know this one is steep, but shipping costs are crazy right now. Want to save money here? Get some of your local friends to pitch in for their book as well and I will ship to one address. For example, if you get three friends who would also want the book, you would do one Suffer, Little Children and three Assault on Precinct 13. Then just use the same name & address for all four and it will get shipped in one package.
• Untold Story ($55 USD after shipping added) = ships to United States residents only and includes a bookmark, a magnet, and an Anthony Wong pot holder in addition to the book and your name on the Project Supporters page

Other Ways You Can Help

• Besides becoming a supporter, you can:
  • Share this campaign on social media
  • Pitch in at the “Off Screen Kill” level or general contribution if you want to help but maybe are not comfortable having a book like this on your shelf.
  • Share the site to order the book once it’s live. Unless something changes, I will not be selling through Amazon or other large retailers. The only plan at the moment is to set up a Big Cartel store for folks to order the book directly from me. Heck, I’ll even take Venmo if someone wants to pay for the book that way!