A Grab Bag of Horror News, 6 to 12 Jul 2025

A selection of things that caught our attention in the world of horror this week

Bite-Sized Horror News

Vale

Condolences to family, friends, and fans of composer Mark Snow. Snow created The X-Files theme, and provided music for many other shows, including The Ghost Whisperer, Millennium, Harsh Realm, and Nowhere Man. RIP.

Horror Book Bits

Monika Kim’s serial killer horror novel The Eyes are the Best Part is getting a movie adaptation.
Clay McLeod Chapman’s supernatural novel Ghost Eaters is getting a movie adaptation.
Congratulations to all the nominees who made the World Fantasy Awards 2025 shortlist.
Congratulations to all the nominees who made the British Fantasy Awards 2025 shortlist.
George Lucas will be at San Diego Comic-Con on 27 Jul 2025 to talk about the power of illustrated storytelling and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art which will open in the near future in Los Angeles.
For a selection of free horror, fantasy, mystery, sci-fi, and thriller books, see The Fiction Giveaway Extravaganza 2, Horror Readers List.

Horror Movie Morsels

Shudder and Independent Film Company have bought the rights to Tina Romero’s zombie comedy horror movie Queens of the Dead and will release it in cinemas in Fall 2025.
A 2-part horror movie based on Aladdin is in production with a planned 2026 release.
The stageshow adaptation of Paranormal Activity opens in London on 5 Dec 2025 for a 12-week run.
Voting is open until 20 Jul 2025 for the 2025 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards.
Hero Complex Gallery’s Pulp Fictions is a new collection of original artworks from artist collective Billing Bloc that reimagine “iconic pop culture scary movies as 1960s and 70s classic detective/mystery comic book covers”.
Peter Sarsgaard says the upcoming Maggie Gyllenhaal movie The Bride!, loosely based on Frankenstein, will be controversial.
Writer-director Gerard Johnstone says an unrated version, with extra scenes, will be part of the home video package of M3GAN 2.0.
San Diego Comic Con attendees will get sneak peeks at upcoming horror movies Keeper, Together, and Shelby Oaks at NEON’s Next Wave of Horror Panel.

Horror TV Treats

Netflix is producing a live-action series adaptation of South Korean supernatural monster-hunting anime Solo Levelling.
San Diego Comic Con attendees will get an exclusive look at footage from the first episode of IT: Welcome to Derry. There’ll also be free rides on Pennywise-inspired pedicabs and brand ambassadors handing out sweets.
Although Monster, Season 3, has yet to get a release date from Netflix, and there’s been no official announcement about a renewal for a 4th season, apparently Season 4 will be about Lizzie Borden. Season 3 is about serial killer Ed Gein.

Horror Podcast Pieces

The Movie Crypt podcast’s 9th annual YORKIETHON takes place from 25 to 27 Jul 2025 and streams live on the ArieScope Pictures website. This year’s live screenplay reading will be Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton’s never-produced screenplay for Halloween Returns. The event supports the Save a Yorkie Rescue.

Horror Game Goodies

The Walking Dead’s Rick, Michonne, and Daryl are being added to Dead by Daylight.

Horror Music Moments

Ice Nine Kills released a new music video for their new song The Great Unknown, inspired by The Matrix. The video is more like a short film and continues the story of the missing singer from previous videos.

Horror Festival Fare

Universal Studio’s Halloween Horror Nights will include a Terrifier-themed haunted house.
Joe Bob Briggs is doing his first ever Indoor Halloween Jamboree on 31 Oct 2025 in Dallas, Texas, from 7pm to 7am. The event includes 5 movies, tons of shorts, and a live spook show. Everyone in the audience has the chance to “win a dead body”.
UK’s FrightFest announced its 2025 lineup of movies. The festival runs from 21 to 25 Aug 2025 and will include 69 movies from across the world. The Home will open the festival and Influencers will close it.
The Popcorn Frights Film Festival released its first wave of programming. The event runs from 7 to 17 August with both in-theater and online movies.
The schedule and tickets are now available for Access:Horror, the festival that celebrates disability in horror and genre cinema. The event takes place in New York City and online on 1 Aug 2025.

“That's what fiction is for. It's for getting at the truth when the truth isn't sufficient for the truth.”
Tim O'Brien

Writing Horror

Crystal Lake owner and CEO Joe Mynhardt and author Robert Ford are presenting a 31-day Short Story online workshop. For just $50, you get expert coaching, live group training, and a personal feedback session.

Some places accepting submissions

Mysterion
Pays: 8 cents per word for original fiction, 4 cents per word for reprints
Theme: Speculative stories – science fiction, fantasy, horror – with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology
Submissions close: 30 July 2025

Ghost stories (Flash Frog)
Pays: $25
Looking for: Ghost stories under 1000 words
Submissions close: 31 Jul 2025

Merganser Magazine
Pays: 8 cents per word
Looking for: Strong, well-written pieces across a wide range of material

Upcoming submission calls

Novels and novellas (Crystal Lake Publishing and imprints)
Pays: 40% on digital and paperback/hardcover, 50% on audio and 3rd party rights sold (translations, etc.)
Looking for: Dark fiction, horror, suspense, fantasy, and speculative genres
Submissions open 1 Aug and close 30 Sep 2025

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of.”
Joss Whedon

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror TV Trailers

Alice in Borderland, Season 3. Japanese psychological horror. Arisu and Usagi are now married. Their memories of the borderland were erased, but they see glimpses of it in dreams and hallucinations. Then, Usagi suddenly vanishes as Banda hands Arisu the final card: the Joker. Netflix, 25 Sep 2025

Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy. Serial killer horror. Peels back the twisted layers of Gacy’s life while weaving in heartrending stories of his victims, and exposes the systemic failures, missed opportunities and societal prejudices that fueled his reign of terror. Peacock, 16 Oct 2025

Twisted Metal, Season 2. Apocalypse horror. John and Quiet enter the deadly Twisted Metal demolition derby. Peacock, 31 Jul 2025

Wednesday, Season 2. Supernatural horror. Here we woe again. Netflix, 5 Aug 2025

Horror Movie Trailers

Animale. French body horror. A woman trains hard to win the local bullfighting competition, but after she is mauled, she starts to notice disturbing changes. VOD, 8 Aug 2025

Bambi: The Reckoning, trailer 2. Slasher horror. After a car crash, a woman and her son are hunted down by a mutated grief-stricken deer on a deadly rampage seeking revenge for the death of his mother. Cinema, 25 Jul 2025

Blood Red Beach. Pirate slasher horror. A cursed demon pirate hellbent on revenge makes anyone who sets foot on his island pay the price. Blu-ray, DVD, VHS, 1 Aug 2025

Descendent. Sci-fi horror. After a beam of light appears in the sky during a late-night shift, a school security guard wakes up in the hospital with an inexplicable talent for vivid, unsettling drawings of extraterrestrials and desert landscapes. VOD, 15 Aug 2025

The Drowned. Creature horror. Three thieves steal a priceless painting and arrive at a secluded safe house by the sea, only to discover their fourth accomplice is missing. Was one of them responsible or does the blame lie with a more sinister presence lurking in the deep water below. VOD, 7 Oct 2025

No Tears in Hell. Serial killer horror. Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer. In the frozen darkness of an Alaskan winter, a mother and son lure victims into a twisted web of abuse and cannibalism. VOD, 12 Aug 2025

Sleep Stalker. Psychological horror. An influencer couple buys an old home to remodel for their DIY social media channel, but when the husband’s sleepwalking turns violent, they’re forced to investigate his psychological past and the home’s dark history. VOD, 5 Aug 2025

Together, trailer 2. Body horror. Tim and Millie find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country. With tensions flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh. Cinema, 30 Jul 2025

Traction Park Massacre. Slasher horror. Young people meet outlaw bikers, meet feral twin psycho-killers in a notorious abandoned water park. Release date TBA

Horror Game Trailers

Heartworm. Survival horror. Solve mind-bending puzzles armed with a camera to truly face what scares Sam the most. Releases 31 Jul 2025

Shark Dentist. Simulator horror. You are a shark dentist who must perform dental work on anaesthetized sharks, but if you mess up, they might wake up in pain and rip your head off. Release date TBA

Warning. Psychological horror. Monitor security cameras, report supernatural anomalies, and survive your night shift in a haunted underground ward. Available now on PC

“If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.”
Isaac Asimov

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

7 horror books this week. Themes: Psychological, haunted house, plant, and dark fantasy horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 6 to 12 Jul 2025

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Mark Twain

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

15 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, body, zombie, summer camp, vampire, and shark horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 6 to 12 Jul 2025

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

2 horror TV shows this week. Themes: Serial killer and animated post-apocalypse horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 6 to 12 Jul 2025

“The important thing in writing is the capacity to astonish. Not shock – shock is a worn-out word – but astonish.”
Terry Southern

What We Were Thinking About this Week

13 Cave Horror Book Recommendations

A Knock at the Door by Stephanie Yu (short fiction, Wigleaf)

When an Interview Isn’t Exactly What It Seems: NewYox Media and Its Suite of Magazines by Victoria Strauss (Writer Beware)

This week’s book recommendations

Nightmare Jungle by Ross Killey – Jungle horror
“The only thing he could think to do was run, run through the jungle as fast as he could until he reached the end.”

Amazonia by James Rollins – Jungle horror
“His skin, burnt a deep mocha, was tattooed with blue and crimson dyes.”

Screams of the Jungle by Zach Cutler-Orrey – Jungle horror
“He doubts his own eyes for just the slightest moment, until he sees it move…”

Grimweave by Tim Curran – Jungle horror
“…he couldn’t get past a certain eerie feeling that nothing was quite like it had been before.”

Jungle Rot by Brian G Berry – Jungle horror
“Night came quickly and with it the shadows grew long and filled in the jungle…”

Pray for Darkness by James Michael Rice – Jungle horror
“But no human she had ever seen moved like that…”

Eden by Tim Lebbon – Jungle horror
“She hoped to die on her own terms. She wasn’t expecting something worse.”

“All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

And Now For Something Completely Different

Asher Perlman on Instagram

Horror-Themed Shopping

See the FearSome Fiction shop for horror designs available on a wide variety of T-shirts, tanks, sweatshirts, and hoodies, as well as bags, notebooks, phone cases, pillows, duvets, blankets, bath mats, and more.