Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actress Daveigh Chase. Chase’s horror movie credits include The Ring (2002), Donnie Darko (2001), and S. Darko (2009). RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- David Irons is novelizing Black Roses and Trick Or Treat (two classic heavy metal horror movies). Release dates TBA.
- Psychological horror comic Black Diamond is getting a movie adaptation.
- Ava Reid’s gothic novel Lady Macbeth is getting a movie adaptation.
- Matt Dinniman’s dark fantasy novel Dungeon Crawler Carl is getting a TV series adaptation.
- Musician Glenn Danzig is directing a movie adaptation of his supernatural comic Hellmask.
- IDW’s new comic series Any Given Smile (based on horror movie Smile) comes out in Sep 2026 and A Quiet Place: Rising Tide (based on horror movie A Quiet Place) in Nov 2026.
- The first issues of Marvel Comics’ Midnight X-Men, Midnight Fantastic Four, and Midnight Spider-man, will all release on 7 Oct 2026. The cover of the Spider-man one, painted by Steve Beach, looks very much like the poster for a body horror movie.
Horror Movie Morsels
- Producer Rob Tapert says Evil Dead Wrath is set in 1972 and he “expects it to have difficulty with the ratings board” because of “a lot of coming-of-age sexual hijinks in it”.
- One specific scene in Evil Dead Burn had to be cut so the movie could be shown in cinemas, but the director’s cut will be way more violent than the cinema version.
- 2014 horror short Alone Time is getting a feature-length adaptation.
- 2023 horror short Open Door is getting a feature-length adaptation.
- Curry Barker says his YouTube movie Milk & Serial “is probably going to happen as a film” and that his other YouTube short The Chair “could definitely be a horror film”.
Horror TV Treats
- Norman Reedus is now done with Daryl Dixon and posted some behind-the-scenes pics of the 4th and final season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon.
- The Boroughs is not getting a 2nd season.
- There’ll be a Stranger Things 5 haunted house at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights.
Horror Game Goodies
- The Death Stranding movie adaptation script is “almost done” and, even though it focuses on different characters, “You might see some characters from the game pop up”.
- Art the Clown and Scooby-Doo are being added to Dead by Daylight.
“Fear isn’t so difficult to understand. After all, weren’t we all frightened as children? Nothing has changed since Little Red Riding Hood faced the big bad wolf.”
― Alfred Hitchcock
Writing Horror
Some places accepting submissions
Novellas – Violet Lichen Books
Pays: Industry standard advance and royalties
Looking for: atmospheric and thought-provoking novellas that intertwine a fascination of the natural world with horror and dread, and those that explore how we, as individual humans, interconnect with our communities, other species, and whole ecosystems
Submissions close: 30 Jun 2026
Tails of Terror (Terrorcore Publishing)
Pays: USD $25 + contributor copy
Looking for: Animal attack horror stories set in 1977 and tied to the sinister Rosco’s Pet Emporium in Black Pines, Colorado
Submissions close: 1 Dec 2026
Horror/weird fiction novelettes – Dickinson Publishing
Pays: $500 advance + 90% royalties
Looking for: 7500 to 17500 words, all horror subgenres
Submissions close: 8 Jan 2027
G. & M.H.: Deathly Delusions anthology (Dickinson Publishing)
Pays: $50 + 90% royalty share split between authors
Looking for: Settings where reality can’t be trusted, Liars and cheaters, Crystal meth catalyzing the formation/appearance of literal monsters, cosmic entities, and most importantly, GHOULS
Submissions close: 8 Jan 2027
Upcoming submission calls
Mysterion
Pays: 8 cents per word for original fiction, 4 cents per word for reprints
Looking for: Speculative stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror) with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology
Submissions open 1 Jul and close 31 Jul 2026
“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.”
― Henry Ford
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
The East Palace. South Korean historical ghost. A king tasks a ghost-slayer and a woman cursed to hear ghosts with uncovering a sinister presence plaguing the crown prince’s palace. Netflix, 17 Jul 2026
Horror Movie Trailers
Big Baby. Killer. A screenwriter’s terrifying nightmare about a masked killer sparks an idea for his new script but as he delves deeper into the story, the line between reality and fiction begins to blur. Release date TBA
Capps Crossing: Wrong Side of Dead. Psychological. A park ranger with a tortured past turns a birthday getaway into a weekend of terror. VOD, 28 Jul 2026
Dinosaurs of the Wild West. Dinosaur western. Blends western frontier mythology with a world where dinosaurs and humans have existed side by side for generations. Release date TBA
Hedges. Psychological. A man secretly records his wife as she loses her grip on reality. But the cameras reveal much more than he expected. Release date TBA
I Hate Found Footage. Puppet comedy. Two roommates head into the woods to make their own found footage movie but find themselves fighting for survival. Found TV, 24 Jul 2026
Jack-O 2. Halloween slasher. “It’s harvest time”. Release date TBA
The Last House. Sci-fi. A family of four sealed inside their home work together to survive against both their dwindling resources and the mysterious, looming threat that is keeping them trapped. Netflix, 7 Aug 2026
She Saw Us, trailer 3. Witch. Four friends are trapped in a remote house haunted by a vengeful witch and a two-headed doll that embodies the souls of her conjoined daughters. US release date TBA
Slashercise. Slasher. An obsession with self-improvement turns a high-energy aerobics culture into a fight for survival. Bloodstream, 1 Jul 2026. VOD, 1 Oct 2026
Son of Sara. Supernatural. A pregnant woman’s cravings turn sinister as her estranged boyfriend’s return coincides with a terrifying secret about the life growing inside her. VOD, 31 Jul 2026
Summerween. Clown slasher. A former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there. The Asylum Movie Channel, 26 Jun 2026
Sunset Strip Killers. True crime serial killer. In 1980s LA, Carol Bundy is drawn into Doug Clark’s world of murder, obsession, and blood, and she becomes complicit in shocking crimes across the city. VOD, 14 Jul 2026
Zombie Bloodlines. Zombie anthology. 3 tales about zombies. Release date TBA
Horror Game Trailers
13th Ball: The Nightmare Shift. Psychological. Run an eerie pool hall, rack tables, serve players, and keep your sanity to survive the night. Release date TBA
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser: Revival. Supernatural. Descend into the underworld to rescue your love from the depraved clutches of the Cenobites. Releases 8 Oct 2026
Dark Stream. Adventure. Embody a content creator willing to do anything to climb the charts. Explore a haunted house and survive while live-streaming. Demo available on Steam
Foghorns Drown. Psychological. As a ferryman, bring passengers to an elusive town, take note of environmental clues, speak with the townsfolk, and solve a murder. Demo available on Steam
Hariti. Psychological. A mother searches for her missing daughter within the halls of an abandoned medical facility. Demo available on Steam
The Walking Dead: Streets of Survival. Zombies. Fight through a campaign that reimagines the Savior conflict featuring walkers, human threats, and other surprises. Demo available now on Steam
“All I feel are the assaults of apprehension and terror at the thought that I am the only one who is entirely unlike the rest.”
― Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
12 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, vampire, summer camp slasher, and cult horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 14 to 20 Jun 2026
“There are metaphors more real than the people who walk in the street. There are images tucked away in books that live more vividly than many men and women.”
― Pessoa, Fernando, The Book of Disquiet
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
7 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, shark, and survival horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 14 to 20 Jun 2026
“If you look at a thing nine hundred and ninety-nine times, you are perfectly safe; if you look at it the thousandth time, you are in frightful danger of seeing it for the first time.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Napoleon of Notting Hill
What We Were Thinking About this Week
What We’ve Been Reading This Week
Significance by Timor (short story, Substack)
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce (novel)
Books of Blood, Vols 1 to 3 by Clive Barker (collection)
The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson (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: 2025 Bram Stoker Award® winners
Silk & Sinew: A Collection of Folk Horror from the Asian Diaspora by Bad Hand Books
“you bring with you a pocket of soil…”
Lost in The Dark and Other Excursions by John Langan
The October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt
“…some part of her knows it’s a VHS tape.”
Cathedral of the Drowned by Nathan Ballingrud
“Two ghosts visited Goodnight Maggie in the summer of 1924.”
Wolf Moon, Antler Moon by A.C. Wise
“She can’t stop seeing them…”
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
“…technically that journal belongs to me…”
Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
“On any other day, she was just the new girl…”
“Life is always frightful. We cannot help it and we are responsible all the same. One’s born and at once one is guilty.”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf
Horror Fun
Rusty Epstein (rustycartoons) on Instagram
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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