Bite-Sized Horror News
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- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Paula Shaw. Shaw played Pamela Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason and had plenty of other horror movie and TV episode roles over her 50+ year career. RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- Peter Cameron’s 2020 mystery horror novel What Happens at Night is getting a movie adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence set to star.
- Check out BookFunnel’s Spooks, Specters & Spirits free books available until 31 Oct 2025.
- If you’re a member of the Horror Writers Association, don’t forget to nominate books for the 2025 HWA Bram Stoker® Awards reading list.
- Horrorsmith Publishing’s Terrify Your Tablet event will be on 4 Oct 2025. There’ll be 2 categories: Free and Discounted (0.99 cent).
- Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s 6-part novella, The Boy in the Iron Box, is getting a movie adaptation.
- Shortwave Publishing has signed a worldwide distribution deal with Simon & Schuster for new titles released after 1 Dec 2025 and selected back catalog titles.
Horror Movie Morsels
- 2011 found footage horror movie Grave Encounters is getting a reboot from the original movie’s makers.
- Newly-restored 2007 Halloween horror movie Trick ‘R Treat will play in cinemas on 14 and 16 Oct 2025.
- AFA has bought the remake rights for 1983 slasher movie Sleepaway Camp.
- Robert Englund will be voicing a twisted Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio: Unstrung. No release date for the movie yet, but expected in 2026.
- Warner Bros is offering an after-hours studio tour exploring the backlot and some of the studio’s most memorable horror movies, concluding with the screening of a horror movie introduced by a special guest. The tours run 24 Oct, 25 Oct, 30 Oct, and 1 Nov 2025.
- Fangoria’s 2025 Chainsaw Awards will stream live on Shudder on 19 Oct 2025.
- Horror thriller Don’t Open the Door will also “launch a graphic-novel-inspired universe that pushes the story beyond the screen”. Plot and release date details for the movie are TBA.
Horror TV Treats
- New horror anthology series, Tales from the Woods, is looking at an early 2026 launch. Episodes reimagine fairy tales from a horror perspective, and two episodes debut this week at Fantastic Fest: The Sleeping Beauty and Jacques the Giant Slayer.
- The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Season 3, will include a Jason Voorhees zombie.
Horror Music Moments
- The latest song and music video from St. Louis punk band Horror Section, Hell on Earth, is inspired by Hellraiser III.
“The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.”
― Tom Clancy
Writing Horror
Some places accepting submissions
Tales to Terrify flash fiction contest
Prize: $50
Looking for: Up to 250 words, horror elements, relating to the theme of ‘New Origins of Halloween Traditions’
Submissions close: 30 Sep 2025
These Dreaming Hills anthology (Appalachia Book Co.)
Pays: 8 cents per word
Looking for: Stories rooted in central Appalachia dependent upon broadly defined notions of speculative fiction, written by authors with strong ties to the region
Submissions close 15 Nov 2025
Folk Tales / Faux Trails / Fox Tails (State of Matter)
Pays: $150 CAD
Looking for: Three faux-tales: one science fiction, one fantasy, one horror
Submissions close: 15 Dec 2025
“Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved.”
― David Foster Wallace
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
Monster: The Ed Gein Story (official trailer). True crime serial killer horror. In the 1950s, Gein haunted the frozen fields of rural Wisconsin, killing multiple women. His crimes inspired classic horror films, including The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre .Netflix, 3 Oct 2025
Serial. Serial killer horror. The residents in the quiet, picturesque town of Ashbourne Falls face their worst nightmare as two brutal serial killers begin to stalk their community. Screambox, 23 Sep 2025
True Haunting, Season 1. Paranormal true horror. James Wan applies his spine-tingling filmmaking style to authentic paranormal tales. Netflix, 7 Oct 2025
The Witcher, Season 4. Dark fantasy horror. The Continent awaits. Netflix, 30 Oct 2025
Horror Movie Trailers
Anaconda. Snake horror. Doug and Griff always dreamed of remaking their all-time favorite movie, Anaconda. When a midlife crisis pushes them to finally go for it, they head deep into the Amazon to start filming. Cinema, 25 Dec 2025
Appofeniacs. Psychological horror. When Duke goes on a frenzy of reckless deep fake creations, his callous disregard of consequences shows how, with a few clicks on a phone, anyone can create a deceiving video of an unsuspecting victim and ruin their life, or end it. Release date TBA
Big Baby. Slasher horror. A nightmare involving a maniac killer in a baby mask serves as inspiration for horror screenwriter Adam Lewis’s new script. As more nightmares, visions, and real life terror begin to challenge Adam’s sanity, he finds himself in a desperate struggle to control his writing, his reality, and who will be Big Baby’s next victim. Release date TBA
Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon. Supernatural horror. A few years after surviving the last demon apocalypse, Brodie is washed-up, broke, and stuck in small-town purgatory. But when he learns that a battle-of-the-bands competition is coming to his town, he sees a shot at redemption. Release date TBA
Dolly. Survival horror. A young woman is abducted by a deranged, monster-like figure who wants to raise her as its own child. Release date TBA
Graveyard Shark. Comedy shark horror. A woman hunting the truth about the disappearance of several teens in a haunted graveyard finds herself facing a land-walking shark born of blood, betrayal, and something inhuman. VOD, 3 Oct 2025
Haunted House of Pancakes. Supernatural comedy horror. A waiter and student fight for survival after an evil waffle maker transforms all the food in a local diner into killer creatures out for revenge. VOD, 24 Oct 2025
The Housemaid. Psychological horror. A struggling woman is happy to start over as a housemaid for an affluent, elite couple, but what begins as a dream job quickly unravels into something far more dangerous. Cinema, 19 Dec 2025
Jabberjaw. Psychological horror. A young woman goes camping with her best friend to escape her abusive partner, but they are terrorized by a stalker in the woods. VOD, 17 Oct 2025
The Last Footprint. Bigfoot horror. A documentary crew investigates a wave of animal attacks and missing persons. Release date TBA
Queens of the Dead. Zombie horror. Drag queens and club kids battle zombies during a drag show in Brooklyn, putting personal conflicts aside to utilize their distinct abilities against the undead threat. Cinema, 24 Oct 2025
Scurry. Creature horror. Following an attack that devastates their city, two strangers find themselves trapped beneath the chaos, wounded and disoriented. As they fight to survive in a narrowing underground tunnel, they discover the collapsing passageways aren’t their only threat. Limited release, 3 Oct 2025
Stay. Supernatural horror. Kiara and Miles are facing the end of their once beautiful marriage. It seems like matters can’t get any worse in their lives, until they begin to encounter soul-shaking supernatural forces and go from fighting one another to fighting for their lives. Hulu, 8 Oct 2025
Terror Tales: Poetry & Death Vol. 1. Anthology horror. Six spooky short stories, including a nefarious bowler, invisible creatures, a possessed doll, and more. VOD, 10 Oct 2025
Vicious. Psychological horror. When Polly receives a mysterious box from an unexpected late-night visitor, it comes with a simple instruction: place three things inside: something you need, something you hate, and something you love. VOD, 10 Oct 2025
Horror Game Trailers
Emotionless: The Last Ticket. Cosmic horror. Uncover the haunting narrative behind an abandoned amusement park’s twisted rides and empty tunnels to discover what lurks within a reality that shouldn’t exist. Releases 7 Oct 2025
Heavy as Stone. Exploration horror. You’re sick. So is the city. Explore a crumbling Terminal that loops when you die. Solve cursed investigations. Weaponize your symptoms. Release date TBA
In Hope Voiden. Survival horror. Death is permanent and the world remembers. Explore a surreal, trench-ridden hellscape where every action matters, and every death uncovers a new piece of a haunting mystery. Release date TBA
“Fiction is art and art is the triumph over chaos… to celebrate a world that lies spread out around us like a bewildering and stupendous dream.”
― John Cheever
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
12 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, ghosts, Halloween, western, and non-fiction horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 14 to 20 Sep 2025
“A good story should make you laugh, and a moment later break your heart.”
― Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger than Fiction
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
12 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, cult, Halloween, parasocial, babysitter, comedy, and documentary horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 14 to 20 Sep 2025
“Stories are the wildest things of all, the monster rumbled. Stories chase and bite and hunt.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls
A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week
1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Animated ghost horror
See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 14 to 20 Sep 2025
“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.”
― Doris May Lessing, Under My Skin: Volume One of My Autobiography, to 1949
What We Were Thinking About this Week
13 Curse Horror Book Recommendations
13 Cursed Object Horror Book Recommendations
The Paleontologist by Luke Dumas (novel)
This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer (novel)
The End of the World as We Know It edited by Christopher Golden and Brian Keene (anthology)
This week’s horror book recommendations
Theme: Coming of age horror
Cedar Mills by Dylan James
“Its green skin resembled bumpy tree bark and its mouth was an open vortex of jagged teeth.”
December Park by Ronald Malfi
“In the fall of 1993, a dark shadow fell over Harting Farms. Newspapers called him the Piper…”
The Terror of Willow Falls by Jay Bower
“…there are all kinds of things here in the park, and then there’s the Eyebiter.”
Amongst the Mists by M.L. Rayner
“It was the strangest of occurrences. So strange she was doubtful it had even happened.”
Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor
“Most people know the ice cream is bad and stay away, but some people stop in – older folks or dumb kids who don’t know any better.”
Lost Man’s Lane by Scott Carson
“I made it four miles before the colored lights came on behind me.”
Dead End Tunnel by Nick Roberts
“There exists in me a curiosity to examine the past, but then reason steps in and saves me from myself.”
“Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself.”
― Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game
Horror Fun
