New Book "Hater" Gets Genre-tastic Viral Campaign

The series of tubes has been percolating recently with the pending release of a new apocalyptic novel that has taken an nontraditional path to store shelves. British author David Moody took to the internet when he was ready to publish his latest novel, "Hater," and just let it all hang out. After self-publishing the book in 2006, he was able to sell the film rights to Guillermo Del Toro and Mark Johnson who will produce a forthcoming film version to be directed by Juan Antonio Bayona of "The Orphanage" fame. Officially, the book hits shelves on the 17th, but recently several websites have been posting chapters from the book for fans to check out and get a little taste.

The plot of "Hater" runs in the same vein as Stephen King's "Cell" or the recent indie-horror "The Signal." Violence breaks out like a plague, with random assailants attacking others for seemingly no reason. Moody takes us down to the personal level to experience the madness with an everyman named Danny McCoyne, from whose vantage we'll watch the violence unfold.

With the book on its way in less than two-weeks, publishers Thomas Dunne have started to roll out a viral campaign with a decidedly horror influenced flavor:

The clip is reminiscent of the worthwhile parts of "Diary of the Dead" and several other apocalyptic films from recent years. I think we can all agree, though, that with Del Toro and Bayona on board, there's a chance for this to be something pretty wild. Beyond that, Moody mentions on his site that "Hater" is actually part one of a trilogy of books presumably all dealing with the same event. The second, "Blood Dog" will hit shelves a year from now, with a third as of yet unnamed book also on the slate. Del Toro has shown with "Hell Boy" that he's game for sequels, so who knows where this is headed if everything works out.