Bite-sized horror news
Horror book bits
- Niall O’Rourke and Rob Moran’s supernatural comic book series The Crying Boy is getting a movie adaptation.
- After escaping from Chicago in the upcoming new Escape from New York: Escape from Chicago comic book series, Snake Plissken will have a one-shot comic in which he’ll have to escape from the North Pole.
- To All the Books is a documentary directed by Josh Malerman about Josh Malerman writing a specific book. The film will have a late-Fall 2026 roadshow and theatrical release, followed by a VOD release and a 2027 physical media release.
- Garth Ennis’s Freddie the Fix comic series is getting a movie adaptation.
- Netflix has sold Every House is Haunted, the movie adaptation of Ian Rogers’s short story The House on Ashley Avenue, to 20th Century Studios.
- R.L. Stine’s Afraid of Clowns is getting a movie adaptation.
- E. Kennedy’s serial killer novel Thornbird is getting a TV series adaptation.
- The Apex Magazine 2027 Kickstarter is live if you have a couple of bucks to help fund their 15th year.
Horror movie morsels
- Supernatural horror movie Don’t Breathe is getting a third movie.
- Apple TV is streaming It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for free on 17 and 18 Oct 2026 and you don’t have to be a subscriber to watch it.
- Neon is developing an SCP Foundation anthology movie that’s different to A24’s upcoming V/H/S: SCP. Neon’s will “focus on emerging filmmakers and will be made in collaboration with the open-source SCP community”.
- Obsession has been submitted for the Golden Globes for Best Musical or Best Comedy.
- In the leadup to the Dec release of Werwulf, a new alternate reality game has launched in which players solve a puzzle every full moon.
- Enter the sweepstakes between 5 and 29 Oct 2026 to try to win an overnight stay in New Jersey and an experience through Crystal Lake Tours at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, the private filming location of the original Friday the 13th.
- At New York Comic Con, be “transported back to the 1970s at the seemingly idyllic Camp Crystal Lake” but can you survive the camp counsellor orientation?
- 8 of the Saw movies will be available to watch for free but with ad breaks in the US & Canada on a new 24/7 FAST channel for Halloween.
- In movie ratings news, spider horror Crawlers has been rated R and shark horror 47 Meters Down: The Wreck has been rated PG-13.
Horror TV treats
- The Watcher will be back for season 2 in 2027.
- Mike Flanagan thinks his Carrie series should have 3 seasons, butthat’s just his opinion.
- 4 of Tubi’s Bite Size Terror horror shorts are available on Tubi’s YouTube channel: Floral Remains, Marisol, Mother Marrow, Resonance.
Horror game goodies
- Tickets are on sale now for Castlevania 40th Anniversary: An Orchestral Concert. A 25-piece rock orchestra will perform 40 years of Castlevania music synchronised with gameplay on the big screen in Tokyo (13 Mar 2027), London (14 Mar 2027), and Los Angeles (26 Mar 2027).
- There are another couple of The Last of Us projects in very early stages that will “expand the canon of The Last of Us beyond Part I and Part II”.
Horror random remnants
- The free Scream Score app tracks your biometric response during scary experiences and gives you a personalized fear score.
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
― Ray Bradbury
Writing horror
Some places accepting submissions
Night Shades magazine
Pays: $75
Looking for: Fiction with a recognizable speculative element
Submissions close: 11 Oct 2026
Deep Cut Magazine
Pays: 8 cents per word
Looking for: Quiet horror, folk horror, body horror, the weird, the gothic, grief wearing a ghost story’s clothes
Submissions close: 31 Oct 2026
The Dark magazine
Pays: 5 cents per word
Looking for: Horror, dark fantasy
Flash Fiction Online
Pays: $100 for originals, $36 for reprints
Looking for: 500 to 1000 word sci-fi, fantasy, slipstream, and horror stories
Upcoming submission calls
Diabolical Plots
Pays: 10 cents per word
Theme: Diabolical Rot
Submissions open 18 Oct and close 25 Oct 2026
“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
― Robert Frost
Trailer horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV trailers
Dexter: Resurrection, Season 2. Serial killer. Some things get better with age. Paramount+. 30 Oct 2026
The Pet Cemetery Murders: A Ghost Story. True crime. A haunting exploration of a community’s dark history of violence and bloodshed. HBO, 11 Oct 2026
Horror movie trailers
Bikers vs Werewolves. Werewolf. Bikers roll into a forgotten town and a night of respite takes a sinister turn when a rival gang transforms into werewolves. Release date TBA
Black Chariot. B&W supernatural. Three men attempt to retrieve a mysterious red case harbouring a horrifying secret. But something is stalking the darkness. US release date TBA
Buried Secrets. Supernatural. A missing girl, a buried treasure, and a bloodthirsty demon. Blu-ray/DVD, Dec 2026, VOD 2027
The Cycle. Psychological. A daughter unravels her father’s dark past after his body, missing for 36 years, is found at a horrific crime scene. VOD, 23 Oct 2026
The Dark Gets In. Psychological. A documentary team sets out to investigate the disappearance of a young girl, but events take an unexpected turn. Release date TBA
Dead Howling. Werewolf & Zombie. Carter lives a solitary existence, hunting the living dead for sport with the help of a tremendous power. After saving two siblings, he agrees to protect them on their journey to a rumoured safe zone. US release date TBA
Ebenezer, trailer 2. Ghost. In Dickens’ London, one man faces his past, present and future as he fights for a second chance at redemption. Cinema, 13 Nov 2026
Flush. French psychological. A middle-aged cocaine addict gets stuck in a club bathroom after stealing drugs while trying to win back his ex-girlfriend. His night spirals into chaos through increasingly bizarre and grotesque events. VOD, 9 Oct 2026
Incomplete Chairs. Japanese body horror. A Japanese craftsman’s obsession with creating the perfect chair spirals into a nightmare of flesh and wood. Bloodstream, 15 Oct 2026
Silt. Psychological. Old wounds have a way of surfacing, and whatever is living under that water knows exactly where to find them. Release date TBA
Werwulf, trailer 2. Werewolf. In the Medieval English countryside, a creature stalks the night, preying on any who come across its path. Cinema, 25 Dec 2026
Worm. Creature. After a devastating gas attack during World War I, three American soldiers become trapped in their trench, haunted by eerie screams from the front lines. Release date TBA
Horror game trailers
Brainwash: Zombie Cleanup. Zombie. Clean off the undead in the middle of a zombie outbreak during the 1950s. Release date TBA
For Mind. Zombie. Fight through an underwater facility to take on the infected with an array of weapons, abilities, and more. Release date TBA
My Cannibal Family. Monster. Build a twisted theme park, then use traps and stealthy attacks to harvest guests within a deadly sandbox of your own creation. Releases 2027
Something is Wrong with the Library. Supernatural. Shelve hundreds of real books in a library haunted by blood and meat. Release date TBA
“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
A selection of horror books released this week
21 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, creature, slasher, vampire, gothic, ghost, dark academia, haunted house, folk, witch, and technology horror
See: A selection of horror books released, 27 Sep to 3 Oct 2026
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.”
― Mortimer J. Adler
A selection of horror movies released this week
12 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, slasher, technology, snake, clown, curse, and found footage horror
See: A selection of horror movies released, 27 Sep to 3 Oct 2026
“All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk.”
― Lemony Snicket
A selection of horror TV shows released this week
3 horror TV shows this week. Themes: Supernatural, witch, and zombie horror
See: A selection of horror TV shows released, 27 Sep to 3 Oct 2026
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
What we were thinking about this week
What we’ve been reading this week
Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones (novel) – excellent story, definitely recommend
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman (novel) – excellent story, definitely recommend
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (novel) – very long, tiny font size, a bit of a slog but worth the trip
The Returned by Jason Mott (novel) – not far enough in yet to have an opinion
What we’ve been 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: A few days of books with great covers and then into the Halloween horror
Jones 1963 by Devin Cabrera – Serial killer horror
“Because the world runs on money and the ones that have it control everything.”
The Dark Thing by John Ashley – Psychological horror
“Yet where should have been small, crystal-blue eyes were twin pools of midnight black.”
William by Mason Coile – Haunted house horror
“…it wasn’t a whisper. It was a hand. Fingers stroking the inside of the door.”
Sleep Tight by J.H. Markert – Serial killer horror
“He pressed hard on the picture. Had to get it dark. Had to get it right.”
The 31st Trick or Treater by Ben Farthing – Halloween horror
“Up until 7:31 P.M., it’s a normal Halloween in the neighborhood of Maple Creek.”
Pumpkin by Steven Blackmore – Halloween horror collection
“The dot, no longer a dot, was a mosaic of thick black ink.”
Get 20% Off Your First Demon This Halloween by Michael D.A. Clarke – Halloween horror
“Sometimes, a quick death isn’t enough.”
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.”
― Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard
Horror fun
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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