Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor T.K. Carter. Carter played a rollerskating chef in the 1982 John Carpenter movie The Thing. RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Marcus Gilbert. Gilbert battled an army of the dead in the 1992 Sam Raimi movie Army of Darkness. RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- Congratulations to all the 2026 Splatterpunk Award nominees (for works published in 2025). Winners will be announced and awards presented at KillerCon, 6-8 Nov 2026.
- The 2026 Women in Horror Symposium program is now up, 25 to 26 Feb 2026, presented by Scares That Care!. Tickets are still available.
- Mo*Con is back for its 20th year, 30 Apr to 3 May 2026 in Indianapolis. Mo*Con is a “mini-convention built around food, community, and conversations meant to bring together creatives and celebrate them”. It’s free to attend but attendance is capped at 100.
- Michael Chaves (the director of The Conjuring: Last Rights) is writing a dark fantasy horror comic called Corpse Knight.
- James Tynion IV’s horror comic series Exquisite Corpses and his short film/one-shot comic Room Service are both getting movie adaptations.
- A.C. Robinson’s psychological horror short story Grand Rising has been fleshed out into a novel (publish date TBA) and is getting a movie adaptation.
- Vote for your favorite original fiction, flash, and cover art in Apex Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Awards before 14 Feb 2026. Even if you don’t want to vote, the stories and art are all free to read and see online.
Horror Movie Morsels
- Congratulations to Indy, the dog in Good Boy, for winning the 2025 Astra Award for Best Performance in a Horror or Thriller. Other winning horror movies were Sinners x 6, Kpop Demon Hunters x 3, and Weapons x 2.
- She Was Here – a documentary about actress Heather O’Rourke who played Carol Anne in Poltergeist (1982) – releases on VOD and DVD on 24 Feb 2026. The documentary “aims to counter decades of internet speculation and conspiracy theories” surrounding her death at the age of 12.
- Summer camp horror movie Marshmallow is getting a sequel using the same director, writer, and cast members.
- Celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Town That Dreaded Sunset on 15 Mar 2026 by taking a walking tour of the downtown Texarkana filming locations, then watching the movie in Texas, then walking across the state line and watching the 2014 meta-sequel in Arkansas. Stunt actor Andy Abele will be a special guest at the event.
- Cinverse has launched an Alternate Reality Game as part of the marketing for Return to Silent Hill. The campaign uses Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok to give participants clues, exclusive clips, and hidden lore leading to a central hub of unlockable content.
- The sequel to Thanksgiving (2023) is still happening but has been postponed until everybody who needs to be involved is available.
- Snoop Dogg will star in Eli Roth’s Don’t Go in That House, Bitch. Last August, a fake trailer for the movie was released and Roth says he finished the script over the holidays.
- Mike Flanagan’s new take on The Exorcist now has a release date of 12 Mar 2027.
- The 8th Paranormal Activity movie has a release date of 21 May 2027.
- Congratulations to the Rotten Tomatoes: Best Movies & TV Winners 2025. Sinners won Best Movie, Best Horror Movie, and Fan Favorite Movie. Kpop Demon Hunters won Best Musical Movie. Alien: Earth won Best Horror Series. Voting is open for Fan Vote Categories until 25 Jan 2026.
- Congratulations to the 2026 Golden Globe winners. Sinners won Cinematic and Box Office Achievement and Best Original Score – Motion Picture. Kpop Demon Hunters won Best Picture – Animated and Best Original Song – Motion Picture.
Horror TV Treats
- Amazon is doing a reality competition series called Fallout Shelter, based on the Fallout TV series.
- The trailer for The Beauty racked up almost 190 million views across social media platforms in a just week.
- Actor James Marsters says “there is interest” in his vampire character Spike appearing in Buffy: New Sunnydale, but he’d be surprised if he got the call any time before the season 1 finale.
- Some Stranger Things fans are suggesting that the Duffer Brothers might have used ChapGPT when writing their scripts. The ‘tell’ is apparently a shot in the documentary that aired this week in which a laptop is open showing a ChatGPT tab open alongside a Google doc in which the brothers are working on the finale script.
Horror Game Goodies
- Puppet Master: The Game is free to play on Steam, but you’d better get it before 25 Feb 2026 because that’s when it’s getting delisted. If you own it, you’ll still be able to download and play the game, including any DLC you’ve bought.
Horror Music Moments
- Jim Henson’s Labyrinth is getting a 40th anniversary tour of 60 US cities beginning in Sep 2026. The movie will be shown on a large HD screen accompanied by a live band performing in sync with David Bowie’s original vocals. Tickets are available now.
Horror Festival Fare
- SWSW Film Festival, Austin, Texas, 12 to 18 Mar 2026, unveiled its lineup and there are plenty of horror premieres in there.
“I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction.”
― Tahereh Mafi, Shatter Me
Writing Horror
Some places accepting submissions
Apex Magazine
Pays: USD 8 cents per word, min $50
Looking for: Original, mind-bending short fiction
ECO25: The Year’ Best Speculative Ecofiction anthology (Apex Magazine)
Pays: USD 1 cent per word + 2 physical copies + 1 ebook copy
Looking for: Nominations for ecofiction short stories published during 2025
Submissions close: 31 Jan 2026
Short Story Substack, Jan 2026
Pays: USD $100 + 50% of subscription revenue
Looking for: Any genre, 6 to 10,000 words
Submissions close: 31 Jan 2026
Resistance anthology (Flash Fiction Online)
Pays: $40
Looking for: Reprints with a theme of resistance
Submissions close: 31 Jan 2026
“What is above all needed is to let the meaning choose the word, and not the other way around. In prose, the worst thing you can do with words is to surrender to them.”
― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2 teaser. Monster horror. Titan X has awakened. Apple TV+, 27 Feb 2026
Horror Movie Trailers
3 Days Rising. Psychological horror. Reimagining of Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. Battling his own conscience and reality itself, Eric Usher must choose between family and his own salvation. Release date TBA
The Arborist. Supernatural horror. A grief-stricken arborist and her son awaken a haunting when they begin felling trees at the estate of a mysterious recluse. VOD, 6 Feb 2026
Betty’s Revenge. Betty Boop horror. Three college friends visit an abandoned cabaret and encounter a traumatized singer hellbent on remembering her tortured story. Release date TBA
The Bride!. Frankenstein horror. A lonely Frankenstein’s monster travels to 1930s Chicago to ask a scientist to create a companion for him. Cinema, 6 Mar 2026
Corporate Retreat. Comedy horror. Corporate executives on a team-building retreat face a deadly struggle when their leader turns against them. Release date TBA
Diabolic. Supernatural horror. A healing ceremony unwittingly unleashes the demonic spirit of a witch, determined to take revenge on all those who have wronged her. VOD, 20 Feb 2026
The Dreadful. Historical psychological horror. In medieval England, Anne and her domineering mother-in-law struggle to survive on the outskirts of society. But when a man from Anne’s past returns from war, a curse begins to take shape through a mysterious knight and threatens to destroy them all. Cinema + VOD, 20 Feb 2026
The Mortuary Assistant. Supernatural horror. During her first overnight shift, newly hired mortician Rebecca Owens is possessed by a demonic entity. Cinema, 14 Feb 2026
The Mummy, teaser. Supernatural horror. The young daughter of a journalist disappears in the desert. Eight years later, she returns and what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare. Cinema, 17 Apr 2026
Scream 7, teaser trailer. Slasher horror. When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Cinema, 27 Feb 2026
Sweetness. Parasocial horror. When a superfan learns that her rock star idol is spiraling into addiction, she kidnaps him in a delusional attempt to “fix” him. VOD, 13 Feb 2026
Ted Bunny. Serial killer horror. The crazed illegitimate son of serial killer Ted Bundy, raised around rabbits, goes on a killing spree. Release date TBA
This is Not a Test. Zombie horror. A group of classmates take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown. Limited, 20 Feb 2026
Twisted. Psychological horror. A con artist’s real estate scam unravels into a nightmare when she’s captured by a surgeon who has a terrifying plan. VOD, 6 Feb 2026
Horror Game Trailers
Ebola Village. Survival horror. Solve puzzles, follow the story, and use various weapons in a brutal fight for survival. Danger lurks at every turn. Available now
I Must Find Her. Psychological horror. During the mass evacuation of the city of Pripyat in April 1986, a bus convoy with residents of the city disappears. Yegor Suvorov goes in search of the missing convoy to find his daughter. Release date TBA
Liminal Shroud. Exploration horror. Navigate the unknown, survive shifting liminal spaces, noclip through walls, uncover secret pathways and escape the Shroud with your sanity intact. Release date TBA
Loan Shark. Psychological horror. The loan shark is coming for you. Catch enough fish to repay your debt before it is too late. Go fish. Available now
Poppy Playtime Chapter 5. Toy horror. You are propelled further into the gruesome depths of the factory, with Playtime’s security system Huggy Wuggy in hot pursuit. Releases 18 Feb 2026
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
15 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, post-apocalyptic, splatterpunk, and coming of age horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 11 to 17 Jan 2026
“I think the act of reading imbues the reader with a sensitivity toward the outside world that people who don’t read can sometimes lack.”
― John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, serial killer, monster, zombie apocalypse, animal, vampire, sci-fi, and gothic horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 11 to 17 Jan 2026
“The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”
― Brandon Sanderson, The Way of Kings
What We Were Thinking About this Week
The Machine of the Devil by Maria Haskins (flash fiction, Flash Fiction Online)
Did you know I recommend one horror book every day of the year on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and Twitter?
This week’s horror book recommendations
Theme: ‘Don’t go in those woods’ horror
The North Woods by Douglass Hoover
“Eight hundred miles stretched between Wyatt and the horrors that filled his mind.”
The Twisted Dark by Erica Damon
“Death – that was what the curse demanded. It was all it would accept.”
Cherokee Sabre by Jamison Roberts
“…he was shocked to see the entire backside of the tent was shredded open.”
In the House in the Dark of the Woods by Laird Hunt
“A woods can be a miracle of light and shadow. A woods can be a place to dream.”
Where the Chill Waits by T. Chris Martindale
“But the forest was eternal. The forest could wait.”
Shadow in the Woods by J.P. Choquette
“It’s called Ecotherapy, a sort of immersion into the natural world.”
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
“The world had teeth and it could bite you with them anytime it wanted.”
“Of course it’s the writer who creates the characters; but characters who are—in a real sense—alive will eventually break free of the writer’s control and begin to act independently.”
― Haruki Murakami, Novelist as a Vocation
Horror Fun
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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