A Grab Bag of Horror News, 13 to 19 Oct 2024

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

Bite-Sized Horror News

Horror Book Bits

Friends of the Ashland Public Library’s Horror Swag Bag Auction is on now. You have until Tuesday, 22 October, to bid on fantastic items from fantastic horror authors.
The End of the World As We Know It – the horror anthology based on Stephen King’s The Stand and edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene – now has a release date (19 August 2025), a cover, and answers to frequently asked questions.
Nightmare Soup: The Ultimate Feast Book Collection is on Kickstarter. The 450-page hardcover edition includes all 3 Nightmare Soup books, plus a new paperback and a hardcover art book.
Graphic novel John Carpenter Presents George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park releases on 7 May 2025.

Horror Movie Morsels

Hollywood horror comic The Lot is getting a movie adaptation.
Bret Easton Ellis’s serial killer novel American Psycho is getting a new movie adaptation.
Godzilla Minus One will be back in cinemas from 1 November 2024, to celebrate Godzilla’s 70th anniversary.
Pro wrestler CM Punk has a role in indie horror movie Night Patrol.
Dark Universe is one of the themed worlds in Universal’s new theme park, Universal Epic Universe, opening on 22 May 2025.
V/H/S/8 will stream on Shudder in 2025.
Meta and Blumhouse are working together on generative-AI video model, Movie Gen, that can “generate video clips up to 16 seconds in 1080p HD format (at 16 frames per second) with corresponding audio tracks”. Instagram will get Movie Gen in 2025.

Horror TV Treats

The final episode of Stranger Things is “the “best episode they’ve ever done” and just reading the script “people started crying”, according to David Harbour who plays Jim Hopper.
Stephen King’s Fairy Tale is getting a 10-episode series adaptation.
Alfred Hitchcock will be a character in the 3rd season of Netflix’s Monster. The 3rd season is about serial killer Ed Gein.

“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
Samuel Johnson

Writing Horror

Some places accepting submissions

No Exit: A Collection of Utah Horror anthology (Timber Ghost Press)
Pays: $40 for short fiction, $20 for flash fiction
Theme: Road trip/travel horror with a Utah connection, either through the author or the story
Submissions close: 31 October 2024
Short Story Substack
Pays: $100 for chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue
Theme: Any genre short story
Submissions close: end of each month
The Skull & Laurel
Pays: 3 cents per word originals, $25 reprints
Looking for: Speculative fiction that is genre-fluid and modern in its themes, subtext, characters, techniques, or form
Submissions close: 1 November 2024

“Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.”
Orson Scott

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror TV Trailers

The Creep Tapes. Serial killer horror. Unravel the twisted mind of a serial killer as he lures victims to film his life, only to reveal his deadly intentions. Shudder, AMC+, 15 Nov 2024
Silo, Season 2. Dystopian horror. People live in a giant silo underground with several regulations which they believe are in place to protect them from the toxic and ruined world on the surface. Apple+, 15 Nov 2024

Horror Movie Trailers

Ash. Sci-fi horror. On the planet of Ash, Riya awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while they decide if they can trust one another to survive. Releases on Shudder in 2025
Black Cab. Supernatural horror. Anne and Patrick’s night takes a sinister turn when their chatty cab driver refuses to take them home. Trapped in the cab, they’re driven to a desolate, haunted road with no way to escape. Shudder, 8 Nov 2024
Dinogator. Creature horror. When a gigantic, mutated reptile gets loose in the swampy wilderness, the murky waters suddenly become an all-you-can-eat human buffet! Release date TBA
Doc of Chucky. Horror documentary. Dive into the iconic Child’s Play franchise, featuring exclusive interviews with Don Mancini, Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly, and more. Shudder, 1 Nov 2024
Elevation. Creature horror. Set in the post-apocalyptic Rocky Mountains, a single father and two women venture from the safety of their homes to face monstrous creatures to save the life of a young boy. Cinemas, 8 Nov 2024
He Sees You When You’re Sleeping. Christmas slasher horror. Chester returns to the home of his estranged and hideously over-privileged family at Christmas, only to find an unknown killer disguised in a Santa outfit is stalking and killing family members one by one, to claim the huge family fortune. Release date TBA
The Monkey. Psychological toy horror. When twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. They throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years. But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them. Cinemas, 21 Feb 2025
Slaughterhouse 2: Death Metal. Survival horror. Les Bacon’s third son, Cleavon, left the pig farm for a better life and was merely hinted at in the first movie. Cleavon has a mute son who produces “Wonder Jerky” to sell around town. Wonder Jerky has a little extra something in it. Cinemas, 23 Oct 2024
Spirit in the Blood. Psychological horror. After a young girl is found dead in a secluded religious mountain community, a group of teenage girls decide to fight against the evil spirits they believe killed her by embracing their own dark nature. Cinemas, 7 Nov 2024
The Strangers: Chapter 2. Slasher horror. A couple’s vehicle breaks down, forcing them to take refuge in a remote Airbnb. As night falls, three masked strangers begin to terrorize them. Release date TBA
Street Trash. Survival horror remake. A group of homeless misfits fight for survival when they discover a plot to exterminate every homeless person in the city. VOD, TBA Nov 2024.
Werewolves. Werewolf horror. One year ago, a supermoon event caused a latent gene to turn everyone exposed to the moonlight into a werewolf for one night. Millions died and, now, the supermoon is back. Cinemas, 6 December 2024
Wolf Man. Werewolf horror. A man tries to protect himself and his family when they are stalked by a werewolf, but as the night stretches on, the man begins to behave strangely. Cinema, 17 Jan 2025

Horror Game Trailers

Cronos: The New Dawn. Survival horror. Survive a deadly wasteland created by a cataclysmic event, filled with monstrous abominations that will challenge your combat abilities. Releases in 2025
7 Minutes in Hell. Gameshow horror. Enter the challenge arena, face off against terrifying monsters, obstacles, and traps. You have 7 Minutes to snatch as much loot and valuables as you can. Early access available now on Steam.

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
Madeleine L'Engle

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

11 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, haunted house, and folklore horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 13 to 19 Oct 2024

“I’m very lucky in that I don’t understand the world yet. If I understood the world, it would be harder for me to write these books.”
Mo Willems

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

15 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, sci-fi, serial killer, slasher, zombie, and survival horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 13 to 19 Oct 2024

“If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative.”
Elmore Leonard

A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week

6 horror TV shows this week. Themes: Supernatural, comedy, animated, and anthology horror

See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 13 to 19 Oct 2024

“I am not at all in a humor for writing; I must write on until I am.”
Jane Austen

What We Were Thinking About this Week

Voices by Arthur O’Keefe (short story, Johnny America)
The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry (novel)
The Invisible Hotel by Yeji Y. Ham (novel)

“If you wait for inspiration to write you’re not a writer, you’re a waiter.”
Dan Poynter

And Now For Something Completely Different

Sarah Anderson comics 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.