A Grab Bag of Horror News, 11 to 17 May 2025

A selection of things that caught our attention in the world of horror this week

Bite-Sized Horror News

Horror Book Bits

Children’s board book Elvira’s First Book of Monsters is available for pre-order, with a release date of 29 Jul 2025.
Edition 1 (of 6) of Patrick Horvath’s and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou’s comic Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees: Rite of Spring, is available for pre-order with a release date of 9 Jul 2025. Rite of Spring is the sequel to horror graphic novel Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.
A. Cosby’s serial killer novel All the Sinners Bleed is getting a TV adaptation.
Dracula is getting a stage show adaptation in which Cynthia Erivo plays 23 roles in the one-woman show in London’s West End from 4 Feb 2026 to 31 May 2026.
Screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos’s first novel, The Museum of Cursed Artifacts, hasn’t been published yet but is getting a movie adaptation. He will also write the screenplay.
For just $5, spend an evening with Brian Keene, Jonathan Janz, Mary SanGiovanni, Ronald Malfi, Spencer Hamilton, Rebecca Rowland, and more at Evil Embers, Mt. Joy, PA, on Saturday, 28 Jun 2025.

Horror Movie Morsels

Independent production company Yale Entertainment has filed for bankruptcy. The company is best known in the horror genre for Becky and the sequel The Wrath of Becky.
Ten movies from American International Pictures (AIP) are going to be reimagined, including The Undead (1957) and Day the World Ended (1955).
A lawsuit has been filed alleging upcoming body horror movie Together is a “blatant rip-off” of 2023 indie movie Better Half.
The next movie from the Spierig Brothers – known for Winchester, Jigsaw, and Daybreakers – will be Headless, a contemporary reimagining of the Headless Horseman in which a hitchhiker and a woman “must stop a motorcycle-riding semi-immortal ghoul”.
Is Guy Busick working on a new version of The Howling for IT director Andy Muschietti and/or a series adaptation of a Stephen King novel for Bad Robot?
Tom Cruise’s next movie might be sci-fi horror Deeper about “an astronaut who encounters a terrifying force while on a deep dive into a never-before-explored trench”.
Lice, a horror movie about head lice, begins production this week and is described as a “gruesome throwback to ‘80s high school classics”.
John Travolta will play the lead role in orca survival movie Black Tides.
A feature documentary is being made about Guillermo del Toro.
Warner Bros. invited moms to a Mother’s Day screening of a “new romantic comedy”, then played Final Destinations: Bloodlines instead and filmed the reactions on hidden cameras.
A24 directors Danny & Michael Philippou showed their new movie Bring Her Back to a group of moms and filmed their reactions, but at least these moms knew beforehand what they’d be watching.
Jason Voorhees is getting a new look for the expanded Friday the 13th multi-platform, multi-media universe.

Horror TV Treats

Firestarter (2022) actress Ryan Kiera Armstrong has been cast as the new slayer in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Fallout is getting a third season.

Horror Collectibles

Funko has new horror Pop vinyls available for pre-order, including characters from Terrifier 2, The Black Phone, and Saw.

Horror Music Moments

Future Ruins, 8 Nov 2025 in Los Angeles, is a new music festival that has movie and television composers stepping onto the stage. The line up includes John Carpenter and Danny Elfman, alongside other influential composers. The music festival is encouraging artists “to take big swings and reimagine their work for a live audience”.

“Unpredictable humans. This is the stuff of story.”
Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling

Writing Horror

From 10 June 2025, Amazon KDP is reducing the royalty rate paid to authors on paperback and hardcover books priced below $9.99 USD. The reduction from 60% to 50% is expected to affect authors self-publishing shorter books, such as novellas and short stories.

Some places accepting submissions

Heartlines Spec
Pays: 8 cents per word for fiction, $60 per poem
Looking for: Short fiction and poetry from Canadian writers focused on long-term relationships: platonic, romantic, or familial
Submissions close: 31 May 2025

Self (S)care anthology (Uncomfortably Dark)
Pays: 2 cents per word
Looking for: Self-published horror stories
Submissions close: 31 May 2025

Upcoming submission calls

Dracula Beyond Stoker, Issue 8: Van Helsing
Pays: 5 cents per word + contributor’s copies
Theme: Van Helsing: What adventures did he have before the novel? Where did he go after? Are more monster battles in store?
Submissions open 1 Nov and close 31 Dec 2025

“No matter how fantastical the story, true life experience gives it credibility. Dropping in elements of your own life, telling bits of detail borrowed from your memory bank, give the reader a feeling of assurance.”
Clive Barker, Where Nightmares Come From

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror Movie Trailers

BA. Supernatural horror. A single father is deceived into a treacherous career as the Grim Reaper, while his precocious daughter grows increasingly suspicious of his whereabouts. VOD, 27 May 2025

Bleeding. Vampire horror. In a world where vampire blood is harvested as a drug, two desperate teenagers on the run break into an empty house and find a sleeping girl locked inside. VOD, 10 Jun 2025

Bogieville. Vampire horror. A young couple on the run come across a derelict trailer park. Convinced to stay, they soon learn the other residents are vampires. VOD, 3 Jun 2025

Mauler. Survival horror. Desperate for cash, five friends sign up for a $25K dark web contest inside a haunted murder house. But when they face off against a 7-foot-tall religious maniac with a sledgehammer, it’s no longer about the money, it’s a fight for survival. VOD, 20 May 2025

Resurrection Road. Vampire horror. An elite squad of six soldiers is sent on a suicide mission to infiltrate a heavily guarded Confederate fort deep in the Arkansas wilderness. But they uncover a dark secret buried within the heart of the forest. Limited, 6 Jun 2025

Skillhouse. Psychological horror. A dark satire of social media and influencer culture, an unflinching take on fame and what new celebrities are willing to do to attain it. Limited, 11 Jul 2025

Soul Reaper. Indonesian supernatural horror. Nightmares of violent deaths torment Respati, until he realizes they’re not just dreams. As the horrifying visions start manifesting in reality, he scrambles to stop the next tragedies before they happen. VOD, 17 Jun 2025

The Sound. Supernatural horror. A group of climbers embarks on a dangerous climb that has been off-limits for years. What initially begins as an audacious expedition transforms into a battle for survival against a force that toys with them. VOD, 27 Jun 2025

Terrestrial. Sci-fi comedy horror. Dave is a teacher forced to work in an environment where he feels as though he doesn’t belong. Maybe the discovery of a seemingly dead alien in a lava tube is the one thing that can get him out of his pathetic rut and back into the game? Release date TBA

Horror Game Trailers

It Has My Face. Killer clone horror. Hide, hunt, and try to eliminate your double. Release date TBA

Labyrinth of the Demon King. Survival horror. In a world inspired by feudal Japan, solve puzzles and fight monsters in an epic quest to track down and kill the demon who betrayed your lord. Available now

Mystery House. Supernatural horror. Reimagining of Roberta Williams’ 1980 Sierra game. Explore a dilapidated mansion to solve cryptic puzzles, make choices, and uncover a deadly secret across a haunting world. Release date TBA

Survive the Fall. Post-apocalyptic horror. A meteor strike has brought an end to civilization as we knew it. Humanity is on the brink of extinction. Build a settlement as a safe haven and new home for your survivors. Leverage their strengths and abilities for the greater good. Releases 22 May 2025

“[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion.”
Clive Barker

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

10 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, haunted house, animal, sci-fi, and water horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 11 to 17 May 2025

“We’ve discovered where a story begins: with a moment of unexpected change, or with the opening of an information gap, or likely both. As it happens to a protagonist, it happens to the reader or viewer.”
Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

6 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, survival, slasher, and folk horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 11 to 17 May 2025

“Our errors about what others are thinking are a major cause of human drama.”
Will Storr, The Science of Storytelling

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Anthology horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 11 to 17 May 2025

“The pleasure of the supernatural short story lies in not having to explain anything. They’re just glimpses, a momentary lifting of the veil.”
Clive Barker, Where Nightmares Come From

What We Were Thinking About this Week

FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven (novel)

The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig (novel)

I Remember a One-Sided Die by Francis Bass (short story, Apex Magazine)

“It’s the distortion, the violation of what we think of as the rules of reality - of society, of nature, of humanity, of physics, of space and time - that engenders horror.”
Clive Barker, Where Nightmares Come From

And Now For Something Completely Different

Channelate (Ryan K. Hudson) on Facebook

Horror-Themed Shopping

See the FearSome Fiction shop for horror designs available on a wide variety of T-shirts, tanks, sweatshirts, and hoodies, as well as bags, notebooks, phone cases, pillows, duvets, blankets, bath mats, and more.