Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actress Elyse Donalson. Among her many movie and TV roles, Donalson had a brief role in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers.
Horror Book Bits
- Wil Wheaton is narrating the new audiobook version of Stephen King’s The Body. Wheaton starred in the 1986 movie adaptation, Stand By Me.
- Jonathan Janz has signed a 3-book deal with Weird Tales and Blackstone Publishing. The first book, Marla, releases on 23 Jun 2026 and is also getting a TV series adaptation. Books 2 and 3, The Stars Have Left the Skies and Panopticon, are getting movie adaptations.
- The movie adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full of Ghosts seems to be finally getting underway.
- The Tucson Festival of Books, 14-15 Mar 2026, has over 300 authors attending and a bunch of interesting author events.
- Tickets are available (and affordable) for horror book convention ShiverCon, 14-15 Aug 2026, in Muncie, Indiana, hosted by Brandon Eldridge.
Horror Movie Morsels
- The plot for Insidious 6 has three stalkers infiltrating a quiet suburb and forcing a new family into the astral plane discovering that the Further is bleeding into the real world.
- Bill Mosely agrees that the recent claim about Texas Chainsaw Massacre spin-off All American Massacre is a scam.
- Briarcliff Entertainment is offering free tickets to see Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die to people who have lost their job to AI.
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is getting a reimagining called Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet of Wonders.
- Tina Romero’s next project is apparently “a big gay shark horror movie”.A sequel to Queens of the Dead is also on the radar.
- Popeye’s Revenge is getting a sequel, Popeye Returns.
- M. Night Shyamalan’s movie Remain has been pushed from Oct 26 to Feb 27. The movie is an adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ and Shyamalan’s supernatural love story novel Remain which released last October.
- Clayface will now release on 23 Oct rather than 11 Sep 2026.
- French shark horror movie Under Paris is getting a sequel.
- Paramount and Spyglass are suing a special effects studio who claims they own the rights to the Ghostface mask.
- A fundraiser has been set up for an unofficial sequel to 2003’s The House of the Dead movie.
- The George A. Romero Foundation’s Scream Like a Girl campaign honors female movie makers, writers, actresses, producers, and creators. Use #WIHScreamLikeaGirl on social media to nominate women you believe deserve recognition.
- The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies has released its list of spring offerings of undergraduate-level lectures and masterclasses. Attend in-person in London or online.
Horror TV Treats
- Animated TV series Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 premieres on Netflix on 23 Apr 2026.
- Actor Jorge Lendeborg Jr. will play Manny in The Last of Us, Season 3, replacing Danny Ramirez.
- A Texas Chainsaw Massacre TV series is on the way.
- The first 2 episodes of the new Cape Fear TV series will premiere on Apple TV on 5 Jun 2026.
- Stephen King tells us that production has started on The Institute, Season 2.
- David Lynch’s daughter says she will most likely publish her father’s Unrecorded Nights scripts “as a way to offer what could not be realized, to those who would have loved it”.
- The 4th and final season of Yellowjackets has character Akilah as a series regular.
Horror Game Goodies
- The 3rd Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5 video has The Prototype now doing its own experiments on the human workers.
- Baldur’s Gate is getting a TV series adaptation and the story will start immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3.
- Universal Studios is bringing out Hellbreak, a new trading card game using Universal Monsters.
- There’s a new Silent Hill game in development.
- Zombie video gameThe House of the Dead is getting a new movie adaptation.
Horror Music Moments
- 4 original songs from Scream 7 will stream before the movie is released. The artists are Sueco, Ice Nine Kills, Jessie Murph, and Stella Lefty.
- Sinners took home 2 Grammy Awards (Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media) and KPop Demon Hunters won Best Song Written for Visual Media.
“In my schoolboy reveries, we were always two fugitives riding on the spine of a book, eager to escape into worlds of fiction and secondhand dreams.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
Writing Horror
The Hidden Cost of AI Art – Brandon Sanderson’s Keynote Speech
Some places accepting submissions
Creepy horror podcast
Pays: USD 2 cents per word, max $100
Looking for: Female and gender-neutral stories
ZooscapePays:USD 8 cents per word up to 1,000 words, flat $80 for longer
Looking for: Stories that significantly feature an anthropomorphic animal figure
Submissions close: 28 Feb 2026
Upcoming submission calls
Agita Magazine
Pays: USD 5 cents per word
Theme: Bad science
Submissions open 1 Mar and close 14 Mar 2026
The Rotting LeafPays: USD 6 cents per word, min $30
Looking for: Eco-fiction
Submissions open for the first week of every month or until 50 submissions are received
Tiny Gods (Flash Fiction Online)
Pays: USD $100
Looking for: Stories with a focus on focus in on small daily rituals and tiny acts of worship to personal gods
Submissions open 1 Mar and close 31 Mar 2026
“Fiction doesn’t tell us something we don’t know, it tells us something we know but don’t know that we know.”
― Walker Percy
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
From, Season 4. Supernatural horror. The closer the residents get to the answers they seek, the more terrifying their search becomes. MGM+, 19 Apr 2026
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, trailer. Monster horror. Titan X has awakened. Apple TV+, 27 Feb 2026
Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, teaser. Animated supernatural horror. Something from the Upside Down must have survived. Netflix, 23 Apr 2026
Widow’s Bay, sneak peek. Comedy horror. A skeptical mayor leads the superstitious residents of a cursed New England island. Apple TV+, 23 Apr 2026
Horror Movie Trailers
Bone Keeper. Creature horror. Six friends investigate missing persons cases in a remote cave system, unaware they’re being stalked by an ancient creature. Release date TBA
Crazy Old Lady. Spanish supernatural horror. Pedro gets a frantic plea from an ex-girlfriend to care for her senile mother, Alicia. What begins as a small favor quickly spirals into a living nightmare when Alicia refuses to him go. Shudder, 27 Feb 2027
Dead Lover. Comedy horror. When a gravedigger’s lover drowns at sea, her attempts to bring him back result in grave consequences and unlikely love. Limited release
DEMO[N]. Supernatural horror. Gary opens a demo link during a friends’ reunion, unknowingly summoning a supernatural presence into their chat. Release date TBA
Do Not Open. Psychological horror. A couple’s quiet cabin retreat spirals when they’re warned never to open a locked door at the end of the hall. But obsession grows, and whispers stir at night. VOD, 10 Mar 2026
Exit 8. Japanese psychological horror. A man trapped in an endless subway passageway sets out to find Exit 8. The rules are simple: do not overlook anything out of the ordinary. If you discover an anomaly, turn back immediately. Cinema, 10 Apr 2026
Faces of Death, teaser. Psychological horror. A content moderator for a major video platform must determine whether the violence she’s watching is fiction or unfolding in real time. Cinema, 10 Apr 2026
The Hermit. Survival horror. Dragged on a vacation to the woods, two self-absorbed teens fight for their lives against a cannibal pig farmer. VOD, 3 Mar 2026
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, trailer 2. Psychological horror. Grace discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game. Cinema, 20 Mar 2026
Undertone, trailer 2. Psychological horror. When sent recordings of a pregnant couple’s paranormal encounters, a podcast host discovers their story parallels hers. Cinema, 13 Mar 2026
Horror Game Trailers
AMIGO: The Broken Loop. Psychological horror. Julien investigates a mysterious corporation and uncovers a distorted world of memories, puzzles, and secrets. Releases 2027
It Reaches. Survival horror. Trapped inside an abandoned hospital, find a way using body cam to escape the horrors. Release date TBA
Resident Evil: Requiem, live action trailer. Supernatural horror. An FBI agent is assigned a case investigating a mysterious string of deaths. Releases 27 Feb 2026
Unsealed: The Mare. Psychological horror. Vera is trapped in a nightmare tied to her family’s tragic past. Releases 10 Mar 2026
“The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters.”
― Milan Kundera, The Art of the Novel
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
10 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, revenge, monster, gothic, slasher, and vampire horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 1 to 7 Feb 2026
“The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wave in the Mind
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, vampire, sci-fi, slasher, zombie apocalypse, found footage, and cursed object horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 1 to 7 Feb 2026
“Sometimes life coughs up coincidences no writer of fiction would dare copy.”
― Stephen King, 11/22/63
A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week
1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Supernatural horror
See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 1 to 7 Feb 2026
“Journalism allows its readers to witness history; fiction gives its readers an opportunity to live it.”
― John Hersey
What We Were Thinking About this Week
What We’ve Been Reading This Week
Gravenwell Lake by GK Bird (original fiction, FearSome Fiction)
Goblin by Josh Malerman (a novel in 6 novellas)
What We’re Recommending This Week
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: Competition horror
Escape! by Iain Rob Wright
“This weekend might really help her job prospects.”
The Residency by Kayla Frederick
“8 artists. 1 art residency. 1 chance to leave alive.”
Type Ten Competitor by Taylor Lee
“You’ve been collected along with many competitors form your world…”
Puzzle House by Duncan Ralston
“6 strangers. 6 puzzles. 6 ways to die.”
The No-End House by Jeremy Bates
“9 rooms. 9 tests. 1 chance to get out alive.”
How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold
“Every room they’ve been in so far is cluttered with clocks.”
Paradise Club by Tim Meyer
“From the ferry the Paradise Club resort looked like Heaven.”
Let there be goblin hordes, let there be terrible environmental threats, let there be giant mutated slugs if you really must, but let there also be hope.”
― Terry Pratchett, A Slip of the Keyboard
Horror Fun
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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