A Grab Bag of Horror News, 13 to 19 Apr 2025

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

Bite-Sized Horror News

Vale

Condolences to family, friends, and fans of English actress Jean Marsh. Marsh’s horror movie and TV roles included The Twilight Zone, Frenzy (1972), Dark Places (1974), The Changeling (1980), and Return to Oz (1985). RIP.

Horror Book Bits

Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House is getting a movie adaptation.
Simon & Schuster’s Saga Press will be publishing Bram Stoker Award-winning writer and actor Jamie Flanagan’s first two novels.
Caite Dolan-Leach’s Dead Letters is getting a TV series adaptation.
Suntup Editions is producing limited Classic, Lettered, and Numbered editions of Joe Hill’s The Black Phone. All copies are signed by Joe Hill and Reiko Murakami. The Numbered and Lettered editions are also signed by C. Robert Cargill. Preorder is available now for the Classic edition with an estimated publication date of Winter 2025–2026.
The Overnoise, the next novel by Isaac Marion, author of zombie romance trilogy The Warm Bodies, is getting a movie adaptation even though the release date for the novel is still unknown.

Horror Movie Morsels

Stampede Entertainment has reclaimed some of the rights to the original Tremors script from Universal Studios. What they do with it is still up in the air, but they’re “considering ideas that feature the return of Kevin Bacon as Val”.
Emilio Estevez says he’s written a sequel to Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive. But, Dino De Laurentiis, who owns the rights to the movie, says he’s not interested.
Ice Nine Kills’ Spencer Charnas has cowritten a script with Paul Soter for The Slashin’ of the Christ. Not much else is known about the movie, except that it’s “From the people who brought you The Walking Dead, Final Destination & Super Troopers”.
Aladdin is getting a “dark, supernatural reimagining” in Aladdin: The Monkey’s Paw. Filming starts in May in the UK.
A Chinese remake of 2016 shark horror movie The Shallows is on the way.

Horror TV Treats

The Pacific Rim TV series will be a prequel to the first movie and will air on Prime Video.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Season 2, will have “more monsters” and, apparently, the “mystery deepens”.
Interview with the Vampire, Season 3, has Lestat going on tour as a rockstar. The season will air in 2026.
Ryan Coogler says his next project is a reboot of The X Files and he’s spoken to Gillian Anderson about it.

Horror Game Goodies

It looks like there’ll be new Godzilla games in the making as Toho is investing big money into all sorts of Godzilla media.

Horror Festival Fare

John Carpenter will be at the Midsummer Scream Halloween and Horror Convention in Long Beach, California, on 16 Aug 2025. Autograph packages include a copy of new graphic novel John Carpenter Presents George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park.

“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

Writing Horror

Some places accepting submissions

Women of the Weird West (Brigids Gate Press)
Pays: 10 cents per word for stories, $50 per poem, $50 per drabble
Looking for: original Weird West stories generally set in what approximates the “Old West” location and timeframe (North America circa late 1800s) with a strong speculative element, such as horror, fantasy and/or sci-fi.
Submissions close: 30 Apr 2025

Spook Hollow: Tales of Ozark Horror (Parlor Ghost Press)
Pays: $50 + contributor’s copy
Looking for: Horror stories set in the Ozark mountains
Submissions close: 31 Jul 2025

Novels (Lefthand Path Press)
Pays: $1000.00 to $3000.00 royalty advance for novels, industry standard or higher royalty percentages and a big box-o-books (22 free author copies)
Looking for: Stories that are strongly rooted in horror and/or dark fiction with equally strong characters and character driven storylines

“It's strange because sometimes, I read a book, and I think I am the people in the book.”
Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror Movie Trailers

28 Years Later, new trailer. Apocalypse horror. It’s been almost three decades since the rage virus escaped a biological weapons laboratory, and now, still in a ruthlessly enforced quarantine, some have found ways to exist amidst the infected. One group of survivors lives on a small island connected to the mainland by a single, heavily-defended causeway. When one of the group leaves the island on a mission into the dark heart of the mainland, he discovers secrets, wonders, and horrors that have mutated not only the infected but other survivors as well. Cinema, 20 Jun 2025

Harvest. Folklore horror. Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears. US release date TBA

Healing Towers. Psychological horror. A detective’s search for his missing daughter uncovers a horrifying link to a twisted psychiatrist’s sinister treatment, where deranged patients are forced to enact their darkest fantasies on innocent victims. VOD, 22 Apr 2025

Him. Psychological horror. A rising-star quarterback suffers a potentially career-ending brain trauma and is offered training at a legendary footballer’s isolated compound. Soon, the legend’s charisma begins to curdle into something darker. Cinema, 19 Sep 2025

Holy Night: Demon Hunters. South Korean supernatural horror. A secret team known as Holy Night hunts down demon-worshipping cults threatening Seoul. When a psychiatrist seeks their help to save her younger sister from demonic possession, the mission becomes more dangerous than ever. Cinema, 2 May 2025

Pretty Boy. Killer horror. A masked killer named Pretty Boy takes a blind woman from her home in the Hollywood hills and crashes a Valentine’s Day party where the bloodshed continues. VOD, 27 May 2025

The Red Book Ritual: Gates of Hell. Horror anthology. Robbie embarks on a dangerous quest to contact his deceased girlfriend. He heads to an abandoned house with a group to perform the “Red Book Ritual.” But during the summoning, supernatural forces awaken. Release date TBA

The Toxic Avenger, trailer 2. Superhero horror. A janitor is transformed by a toxic accident into a new evolution of hero. Now with super-human strength and wielding a glowing mop, he races against time to save his son and stop a ruthless and power-hungry corporate tyrant bent on harnessing toxic superpowers to strengthen his polluted empire. Cinema, 29 Aug 2025

Horror Game Trailers

Painkiller. Supernatural horror. Trapped in Purgatory, you are sentenced for your transgressions against Heaven. But the Voice of the Creator gives you a chance to redeem yourself. As one of the Champions, you are to stop the fallen angel Azazel who is about to unleash his demonic armies onto Earth. Releases Fall 2025

Phasmophobia: Cursed Hollow. Ghost horror. Armed with specialist ghost hunting equipment, players collect supernatural evidence in a variety of haunted locations. Available now

Video Ghastlies. Survival horror. It’s 1990s Scotland and your brother has gone missing after becoming obsessed with a mysterious new VHS format. Release date TBA

“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 Books Released this Week

11 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, haunted house, apocalypse, summer camp, and religious horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 13 to 19 Apr 2025

“I woke up thinking a very pleasant thought. There is lots left in the world to read.”
Nicholson Baker, The Anthologist

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

11 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, killer, fairy tale, revenge, comedy, vampire, body, and werewolf horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 13 to 19 Apr 2025

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.”
James Baldwin

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

2 horror TV shows this week. Themes: Post-apocalypse and reality TV horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 13 to 19 Apr 2025

“A good book is an event in my life.”
Stendhal, The Red and the Black

What We Were Thinking About this Week

13 Hell-Based Horror Book Recommendations

The Third Rule of Time Travel by Philip Fracassi (novel)

Family Business by Jonathan Sims (novel)

The Screaming Man by C.M. Saunders (short story, Horrific Scribblings)

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

And Now For Something Completely Different

Lemon Sandwich on instagram

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.