Fearsome Fiction

A Grab Bag of Horror News, 12 to 18 Jan 2025

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

Photo by Peter Lawrence on Unsplash

Table of Contents

Bite-Sized Horror News

Vale

  • Condolences to family, friends, and fans of director David Lynch. Lynch needs no introduction to the horror community. He often wove psychological and horror elements into his movies and TV shows. RIP.
  • Condolences to family, friends, and fans of French director Jeannot Szwarc. Szwarc’s horror movies and TV shows included: The Devil’s Daughter (1973), Bug (1975), Jaws 2 (1978), and The Twilight Zone. RIP.

Horror Book Bits

Horror Movie Morsels

Horror TV Treats

“If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember.”

Terry Pratchett, Lords and Ladies

Writing Horror

Some places accepting submissions

The First Line
Pays: $25 – $50 fiction, $10 poetry, $25 nonfiction
Story must begin with this sentence: Jayce recognized the man right away but couldn’t remember his name.
Submissions close: 1 Feb 2025

The Last Line
Pays: $20 – $40
Story must end with this sentence: I called back a week later and told them we were good to go.
Submissions close: 1 Oct 2025

NonBinary Review
Pays: 1 cent per word for prose, $10 for poems, $25 for art
Theme: Mistaken identity
Submissions close: 1 Feb 2025

Upcoming submission calls

Fantasy Magazine
Pays: 10 cents per word for original fiction, $50 for original poetry
Looking for: Original speculative works that can be described as Fantasy
Submissions open 22 Jan, close 29 Jan 2025

The Last Girls Club Magazine
Pays: 1.5 cents per word, $37.50 maximum
Theme: For Your Own Good
Submissions open 1 Apr, close 1 May 2025 (may close early if quota is met)

“If you are allergic to a thing, it is best not to put that thing in your mouth, particularly if the thing is cats.”

Lemony Snicket, The Wide Window

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror Movie Trailers

Are You There?. Supernatural horror. Paranormal psychology student Rosa Gonzalez lights a ritual candle used to contact the dead and opens a door to a demonic game of 20 questions. VOD, 7 Feb 2025

The Baby in the Basket. Supernatural horror. When a baby is left on the steps of an isolated monastery, on a remote Scottish island during WWII, the nuns take it in, planning to care for it until a storm passes. VOD, 17 Feb 2025

Bone Face. Summer camp slasher horror. When a masked killer slaughters several counselors at a small-town summer camp, the police track the murderer to a local diner where they must confront a diverse and unruly group of patrons and staff to uncover the actual killer. As the night wears on and tensions rise, the truth becomes more elusive than they had imagined. VOD, 21 Jan 2025

Creep Box. Supernatural horror. After his wife’s death, a scientist tries to use ground-breaking technology to determine if there is life after death. VOD, 24 Jan 2025

Freelance. Psychological horror. A down-on-her luck video editor takes a well-paying job cutting snuff films and finds herself seemingly haunted by the people in her videos. VOD, 28 Jan 2025

Inhabitants. Ghost horror. A young woman moves in with her lapsed Catholic boyfriend, only to discover that they’re being haunted by the vengeful ghost of his childhood youth minister. VOD, 14 Feb 2025

Mom. Psychological horror. Meredith, abandoned by her family after a horrific incident at home, is left alone to relive – and relive – the darkest moments of her past. VOD, 11 Feb 2025

The Monkey (red band trailer). Psychological horror. When twin brothers find a wind-up monkey, a series of deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree, forcing the estranged brothers to confront the cursed toy. Cinema, 21 Feb 2025

Until Dawn. Killer horror. A year after her sister disappeared, Clover and her friends head into the remote valley where she vanished in search of answers. Exploring an abandoned visitor center, they’re stalked by a masked killer and horrifically murdered one by one, only to wake up and find themselves back at the beginning of the same evening. Each time the killer threat is different, each more terrifying than the last. Cinema, 25 Apr 2025

The Woman in the Yard. Psychological horror. A mysterious woman repeatedly appears in a family’s front yard, delivering chilling warnings or unsettling messages, leaving the residents to question her identity, motives, and the potential danger she might pose. Cinema, 28 Mar 2025

Horror Game Trailers

The Cecil. Adventure horror. John and Sarah’s dream vacation at the Cecil Hotel turns into a nightmare. John wakes up locked in a dark cell and Sarah is missing. Release date TBA

Backrooms Level X. Liminal horror. After a freak accident, you find yourself trapped in the Backrooms, a place where logic and reality vanish. Explore endless corridors of yellow carpet, empty rooms, and areas of flickering light as you try to find a way out. Release date TBA

Kryva Hora. Found footage horror. You’ve just found a tape taken in 1987 after the tragic explosion in Chornobyl. Survive and escape from the mutants and the hostile environment to finish your mission and close a portal to an alien world. Release date TBA

SCP: Fragmented Minds. Space action horror. Mars Site-113 was once the most secure facility, but is now a cradle of horrors calling you to uncover its secrets. Steam early access, 27 Jan 2025

“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”

Winston S. Churchill

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

6 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghost, and witch horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 12 to 18 Jan 2025

“Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a purpose.”

Garrison Keillor

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

6 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, creature, slasher, and werewolf horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 12 to 18 Jan 2025

“You know how it is with cats: They don't really have owners, they have staff.”

P.C. Cast, Chosen

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Animated vampire horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 12 to 18 Jan 2025

“I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.”

Hippolyte Taine

What We Were Thinking About this Week

“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.”

Robertson Davies

And Now For Something Completely Different

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.

Published: 18 January 2025

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