Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Isiah Whitlock Jr. Whitlock’s best-known role was playing a corrupt senator on The Wire. His horror credits included Cocaine Bear (2023), The Mist (TV series, 2017), 1408 (2007), and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- The Duffer Brothers say their Netflix adaptation of Peter Straub’s and Stephen King’s The Talisman is not happening.
- The Horror Not Hate Kickstarter is now live. The end result will be a 200-page charity anti-fascist, anti-hate anthology of horror comics and art supporting LGBTQIA+ and immigrant rights.
- Goodreads has their list of 2026’s “most anticipated horror books”. Do you agree with their choices? What horror books are you looking forward to?
Horror Movie Morsels
- If you’re interested, you can read the 2025 The Long Walk script on Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series.
Horror TV Treats
- All 11 seasons of The X-Files (that’s 218 episodes) are now streaming for free on Pluto TV.
- Ryan Coogler says his reboot of The X-Files will have “monsters of the week” and the “overarching conspiracy”.
- The Last of Us, Season 3, will have someone else playing the role of Manny because Danny Ramirez will be unavailable due to scheduling conflicts.
- The 2-hour finale of Stranger Things crashed Netflix.
- Stranger Things actor Randy Havens says “there’s no secret Snyder cut of the show” after a petition was started calling on Netflix and the Duffer Brothers to release the unseen footage. The petition currently has over 381,000 signatures.
Horror Podcast Pieces
- The 2nd season of the horror writing podcast Beneath the Rain Shadows begins on 8 Jan 2026 and will have an updated lineup, a new producer, and two more co-hosts added to the mix.
Horror Game Goodies
- Rumor is that new John Wick and Saw video games are coming.
- Konami’s goal for Silent Hill is to have a new game every year.
Horror Music Moments
- Terror Vision has launched a premiere vinyl subscription club. The 6 LPs on the 2026 list will be available for individual purchase, but subscribers also get unique and limited versions, special add-ons, and a t-shirt.
“Hark, it’s midnight, children dear. / Duck! Here comes another year!”
― Ogden Nash, Collected Verse from 1929 On
Writing Horror
My Open Letter to That Open Letter About AI in Writing and Publishing by Chuck Wendig
Writer Resolution 2026: Wield the Weapon That Is You by Chuck Wendig
Genre Grapevine on Two Secrets about LLM Usage Every Writer Must Remember by Jason Sandford
Some places accepting submissions
Story Unlikely Annual Short Story ContestPrizes: USD $3,000 first place, $1,000 second place, $750 third place, $250 reprint category
Looking for: Good stories with no restrictions on genre
Submissions close 14 Jan 2026
34 Orchard
Pays: USD $50
Looking for: Dark, intense short fiction that speaks to a deeper truth (scary, disturbing, unsettling, sad)
Submissions close 10 Jan 2026
Who Am I? A Sapphic Spec Fic Anthology of Identity and Purpose (Scylla Publishing)
Pays: AUD 10 cents per word
Looking for: Stories that explore sapphic identity and purpose through the lens of fantasy and speculative fiction
Submissions close: 28 Feb 2026
Upcoming submission calls
WoodPig Press
Pays: 50% of profits or 10% of retail price, whichever is higher
Looking for: Speculative fiction and non-fiction
Submissions open on 5 Jan 2026
“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language / And next year’s words await another voice.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror Movie Trailers
Self-Help. Psychological horror. A young woman infiltrates a self-actualization community after her mother becomes entangled with its enigmatic leader. Screambox, 6 Jan 2026
Horror Game Trailers
Blood Mall: Part 2. Dinosaur horror. Continue the gore-filled story of Blood Mall to put an end to the Hastovenator Crisis once and for all. Release date TBA
Hunted Within: The Metro. Survival horror. Escape underground prison, pilot a survival train through dark tunnels, and venture onto a deadly, frozen surface while hunting for your last friend and confronting the mastermind from your past. Release date TBA
The Stalking Stairs. Psychological horror. A city under curfew. A killer on the loose. You’re a delivery driver racing to finish your last run before 9 PM in a decaying apartment complex where every knock could be your last. Release date TBA
“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
3 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural and psychological horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 28 Dec 2025 to 3 Jan 2026
“I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.”
― Anaïs Nin
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
3 horror movies this week. Themes: Found footage, vampire, and zombie apocalypse horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 28 Dec 2025 to 3 Jan 2026
“May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fall!”
― Aleister Crowley, Moonchild
What We Were Thinking About this Week
FearSome Fiction’s 2025 by the numbers
No-Mans Land: 14 Horror Books Exploring Liminal Spaces
13 More Liminal Spaces Horror Book Recommendations
We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer (novel)
This week’s horror book recommendations
No theme this week. Just great horror books.
House of Bone and Rain by Gabino Iglesias – Revenge horror
“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It was part of how we did things.”
Pyres by Kev Harrison – Supernatural horror
“Her brush hand continues to thrash one way and the other, while mine are drawn, without my permission, to my mouth.”
What the Dead Can Do by Peter Rosch – Ghost horror
“He wasn’t laughing now, though. His stomach sank as the cabin dropped.”
The Monsters Among Us by Kent Priore – Dark fantasy horror
“I awake to find myself floating in an empty space devoid of anything but a vast whiteness.”
Apartment 239 by Elford Alley – Monster/serial killer horror
“Marble Springs welcomes you!”
Fear Farm: No Trespassers by S.J. Krandall – Horror collection
“People – men and women, young and old – had disappeared in seemingly unconnected circumstances.”
Bizarro Circus of Madness edited by Riley Odell – Bizarro horror anthology
“When paramedics arrived at the chapel, there was nothing left of the bride to defibrillate.”
“My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace.”
― Patricia Highsmith
Horror Fun
Kristian Nygård (Optipess Comic) on Instagram
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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