Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Nicholas Brendon. Brendon played Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Xander Harris, including voicing the character in video games and the animated series. Other horror genre credits include the Dark/Web TV series (2019), as well as movies Psycho Beach Party (2000), Blood on the Highway (2008), and Attack of the Morningside Monster (2014), among others. RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of Australian director/composer Jamie Blanks. Blanks’s horror movie credits include Urban Legend (1998), Valentine (2001), Nature’s Grave (2008), and Crawlspace (2012). RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Chuck Norris. Norris’s horror genre credits include Zombie Plane (currently in post-production), Bells of Innocence (2003), and Hellbound (1994). RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- Congratulations to Stephen Graham Jones for The Buffalo Hunter Hunter making it onto the final Nebula Awards ballot in the Best Novel category.
- Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the Horror Writers Association Specialty Awards: Sarah Read (Karen Lansdale Silver Hammer Award), Marc L Abbott (Richard Laymond President’s Award for Service), Eric Guignard (Mentor of the Year Award), and Bad Hand Books (Specialty Press Award).
- The HWA and SFWA are bringing a unique virtual experience to StokerCon® this year, offering add-on tickets where attendees of the StokerCon Virtual convention may view select Nebula virtual programs and the opposite for Nebula attendees.
- Who knows what’s real and what’s not these days? Hachette will not publish Mia Ballard’s horror novel Shy Girl in the US and will not continue to publish it in the UK following controversy around the possible use of AI. In her defence, Ballard says that she “did not personally use AI” and to “please do your research on editors before trusting them with your work”. Chuck Wendig’s Shy Girl, AI in Writing, and a New Perniciousness blog post makes some excellent points.
- A new edition of Preston Fassel’s 2023 novel Beasts on 42nd Street, releasing 14 Jul 2026, “restores material that was previously deleted or altered, which ‘fundamentally changes the tone and ethos of the story’”. There’s also a new music track by the band Cecada to help promote the release.
- The debut SoCo Women in Horror Fest is happening on 28 Mar 2026 in-person in Colorado and as a virtual livestream.
- Issue #1 of new comic series The Exorcism at Buckingham Palace sold out within a week of its release. A second print run is being rushed to make sure it’s available at the same time as issue #2 on 29 Apr 2026.
- John Carpenter’s first original graphic novel, Cathedral, comes out on 4 Aug 2026.
- Sci-fi comic series Saucer Country is getting a TV series adaptation.
Horror Movie Morsels
- The D-Horror programme is an initiative to help disabled UK creatives break into the horror genre and will guide 10 projects from script to pitch over 4 months.
- In movie ratings news, liminal horror Exit 8 is rated PG-13 and supernatural body horror Saccharine is rated R.
- The directors of The Mummy 4 say they’ll be prioritizing practical effects over VFX.
- The director of Undertone wants it to be a trilogy.
- Ryan Gosling is hankering to be the next Ghost Rider.
- R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is getting a sequel that will air on Tubi in Oct 2026.
- Congratulations? to War of the Worlds (2025) for winning 5 Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture.
- Congratulations to the horror movies that walked away with Oscars this year: Sinners x 4, Frankenstein x 3, KPOP Demon Hunters x 2, Weapons x 1.
- Congratulations to the winners of the Salem Horror Fest Jury Awards: Blood & Guts (Best Feature), Very Prosperous Men (Best Interlude), and Mangittatuarjuk (Best Short).
Horror TV Treats
- Hulu has canned the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot, possibly because they didn’t like the pilot episode which didn’t have much Buffy in it. However, Hulu says they’re not completely giving up on the Buffy franchise.
- The character of Melissa is now a ‘series regular’ for the 4th and final season of Yellowjackets.
- A limited series adaptation of Lord of the Flies premieres on Netflix on 4 May 2026.
- The first 2 episodes of upcoming animated series Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 will screen in AMC theatres on 18 Apr, before the 23 Apr premiere on Netflix.
- The Scooby Doo live-action ‘reimagined’ series is an origin story and how they cracked their first case and the main actors have now all been cast.
- The Last of Us, Season 3, might be told from Abby’s perspective.
- The Terror: Devil in Silver, a 6-part adaptation of Victor LaValle’s novel, The Devil in Silver, premieres on Shudder and AMC+ on 7 May 2026. LaValle is the writer and one of the showrunners for the series.
- Netflix’s live-action Assassin’s Creed series will be set in Rome 64AD. No release date yet.
Horror Music Moments
- What do you think of No Escape from Dead by Daylight’s most recent update, All-Kill: Comeback?
- How about All Fall Down from The Vampire Lestat?
- Or Ice Nine Kills’ song Hell or High Slaughter from Ready or Not 2?
“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Writing Horror
Some places accepting submissions
Pet Monsters anthology (Raconteur Press)
Pays: equal royalty share
Looking for: Stories that play on the classic “Mom, can I keep it?” question.
Submissions close: 15 May 2026
Tales from the Cryptids anthology
Pays: 10 cents a word for originals, 5 cents a word for reprints
Looking for: Thoughtful tales of transformation, self-discovery, and embedded interrogation
Submissions close: 15 May 2026
The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts
Pays: $50
Looking for: Fiction and creative nonfiction that are compressed in some way
Submissions close: 15 Jun 2026
Sinister Scales and Perilous Plants illustrated collections (Wonderbird Press)
Pays: 2 cents per word (possibly more depending on Kickstarter)
Looking for: Sci-fi and fantasy stories about reptiles / Sci-fi and fantasy stories about plants
Upcoming submission calls
Cosmic Roots and Eldritch ShoresPays: USD 8 cents per word new fiction, 2 cents per word reprint fiction
Looking for: Science fiction, fantasy, myth, legend, fairy tales, eldritch in written, podcast, video and/or graphic story form
Submissions open 1 Apr and close 2 Apr 2026
“This moment will just be another story someday.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror Movie Trailers
Bunny!! Vietnamese psychological horror. A popular relationship advice host finds her carefully curated life upended when she meets a guest with a mysterious personal story. Limited, 27 Mar 2026
Hunting Matthew Nichols. Found footage horror. Two decades after her brother disappeared on Vancouver Island, a documentary filmmaker sets out to find out what happened and comes to believe he might still be alive. Cinema, 10 Apr 2026
Saturnalia. Cosmic horror. In 1979, Miriam is shipped off to a prestigious academy after the mysterious death of her parents. Confronted with a cruel headmistress and disappearing students, Miriam discovers a surreal world living inside the walls. VOD, 24 Apr 2026
Scary Movie 6, Sinners parody trailer. Comedy slasher horror. Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer, the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe. Cinema, 5 Jun 2026
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Animated comedy creature horror. The residents of Mossy Bottom Farm are looking forward to Halloween, until the clumsy Farmer trashes the Flock’s beloved pumpkin patch. When Shaun turns Mad Scientist to fix the problem, things rapidly spiral out of control. Cinema, 18 Sep 2026
A Thousand Cuts. Psychological horror. During a live true crime special, two hosts reopen a 30-year-old murder, uncovering dark secrets that mirror their crumbling relationship. Persimmon, 26 Mar 2026
Horror Game Trailers
Bathysphere. Psychological horror. You’re trapped in the 1940s in a bathysphere. Use the environment to break the time loop and reveal the truth. Release date TBA
Fear of Sleep. Sci-fi horror. Descend into a sprawling subterranean shelter built in the shadow of war. As a maintenance android, traverse industrial corridors, collapsing infrastructure, and cryptic interludes while grotesque creatures stalk the dark. Demo available now
The Floor Above. Anomaly horror. Strapped to a chair in a looping room, you can only rotate, blink, and choose. Each cycle reveals more of your past and leads toward one of multiple endings. Releases 8 Apr 2026
Project Songbird. Psychological horror. As a struggling career musician with writer’s block, search for inspiration among the misery of the wilderness. Releases 26 Mar 2026
Thorner. Visual novel horror. Attempt to escape your past by fleeing to the wilderness, but spilled blood can never be forgiven. The land knows what you did. The land judges. Thorner awaits. Release date TBA
“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”
― Frank Herbert
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
18 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, sci-fi, gothic, witch, haunted house, ghost, and folk horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 15 to 21 Mar 2026
“A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
12 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, technology, serial killer, comedy, sci-fi, vampire, post-apocalyptic, found footage, and documentary horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 15 to 21 Mar 2026
“But how could you live and have no story to tell?”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, White Nights
What We Were Thinking About this Week
What We’ve Been Reading This Week
31 Women in Horror Book Recommendations, 2026
The Midnight Shift by Jon Holt (short story, FearSome Fiction)
My Ex, the Antichrist by Craig DiLouie (novel)
The Night Birds by Christopher Golden (novel)
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: Women in horror
The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
“Her smell sends me tumbling back through time to before. Before I knew the truth.”
The Place Where They Buried Your Heart by Christina Henry
“Nobody ever said the house was dangerous…”
The Body by Bethany C. Morrow
“Mavis’s thoughts must have been the only ones that came with talons.”
Sundial by Catriona Ward
“I make a decision tree in my head. Then I go downstairs to break the news.”
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
“Everyone agreed it had been a bad winter, one of the worst in recollection.”
A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
“There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother’s house.”
Daughters of Darkness – Women in horror anthology
“The first time I saw you, I was surprised I could see you.”
“There’s a vast underground network for goodness at work in this world—a web of people who’ve put reading at the center of their lives because they know from experience that reading makes them more expansive, generous people…”
― George Saunders, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain
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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