Bite-sized horror news
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actress Kaylee Hottle. Hottle played Jia in Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of screenwriter William Wisher. Wisher’s writing credits include The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005). RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of director, screenwriter, producer Chuck Russell. Russells’ horror credits included A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), The Blob (1988), The Mask (1994), The Scorpion King (2002), Witchboard (2024), and yet-to-be-released White House Demon and Hyperia. RIP.
Horror book bits
- Chuck Wendig is taking his new book The Calamitieson tour in Aug, Sep, and Oct 2026 with the launch party happening in Philadelphia on 18 Aug 2026.
- The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes movie is getting a new graphic novel adaptation.
- Mike Mignola’s and Tom Sniegoski’s Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal novel is getting a TV series adaptation.
- Chip Zdarsky’s and Ramón K Pérez’s horror graphic novel Stillwater is getting a TV series adaptation.
- Jean-Baptiste Del Amo’s French psychological horror novel La nuit ravagée is getting movie adaptation.
- Comic series Afterlife with Archie is getting a TV series adaptation.
- The first issue of the new Archie in Hell comic series releases on 4 Nov 2026.
Horror movie morsels
- A Reddit user claims to have “two rare VHS workprint tapes used during the production of Friday the 13th Part IV: The New Blood” but they can’t show anyone because, when they bought them, they signed an agreement saying they wouldn’t publicly screen the contents.
- A new hand-drawn animated version of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is expected in 2027. Audiences attending the Texas Chain Saw Day theatrical screenings of the original movie on 18 Aug 2026 will be the first to see the trailer.
- Documentary A WWII Fairy Tale: The Making of Michael Mann’s The Keep will have a limited theatrical release in Oct 2026, before moving to VOD. Some of the screenings will include the movie andthe documentary.
- Documentary Uncovering Wolfen is eyeing a 2027 limited theatrical release.
- The Jimmy and Stiggs Argentinian spin-off, Burger Night: Luli, Magda & Lore, will have an all-female cast.
- “You’re gonna need a bigger bible” for dinosaur possession movie T-Rexorcist which is crowdfunding to raise a couple of bucks of finishing funds.
- Ghostface now has an OnlyFans page.
- In movie ratings news, Insidious: Out of the Further has been rated PG-13.
Horror TV treats
- Watch Gillian Anderson opening and building the new LEGO The X-Files set. Available to LEGO Insiders on 1 Aug and everyone else on 4 Aug 2026, it has 1,478 pieces, including 8 minifigures (including 1 grey alien), and includes Mulder’s office, a forest clearing, and a UFO.
- Blumhouse has been given the go-ahead to start developing a new 8-episode Robocop series.
- Netflix’s new Parasyte live-action series coming in 2027 is called Parasyte: TAMIYA.
- Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire is getting a 4th season which will be called Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned.
- Even though she died in the original series of The Walking Dead, Beth will be returning in an alternate-reality episode in The Walking Dead: Dead City.
Horror podcast pieces
- Audible’s upcoming Dracula audio drama launches on 1 Oct 2026 and the production includes some well-known names.
Horror festival fare
- There’ll be an Evil Dead Burn haunted house at this year’s Halloween Horror Nights.
- Art the Clown and ‘other clownfolk’ will be joining Killer Klowns from Outer Space in the Downtown Clowntown scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights.
- Universal Studios Japan will have the first-ever 18+ Halloween Horror Nights experience. You’ll need to sign a waiver to enter Afterimage to be put through “extreme situations of isolation and confinement as [you] visit a facility that studies nightmares”.
“There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.”
― Christopher Morley, Pipefuls
Writing horror
Some places accepting submissions
Cosmic horror short stories – Flame Tree Publishing
Pays: 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints
Looking for: Tales that give a nod to Lovecraft while presenting new settings, characters, cultures and concepts, pushing the boundaries of the surreal, the impossible, the liminal, the shapeless, and the creeping dread – but always on a vast, incomprehensible, cosmic level.
Submissions close: 9 Aug 2026
Zombie World – Flame Tree Publishing
Pays: 8 cents/6 pence per word for original stories, 6 cents/4 pence for reprints
Looking for: Stories to explore the folkloric roots, interpretations and definitions, historical manifestations, symbolism, origin tales, new scenarios, and the many iterations of undead who could all be defined as ‘zombies’.
Submissions close: 9 Aug 2026
The Submission Pit
Pays: $100 + 50% of the paid subscribers for each month
Looking for: Science fiction, fantasy, and horror
Submissions close: 31 Aug 2026
Upcoming submission calls
Novels – Ruadán Books
Pays: Professional rates (advances on novellas/novels to be negotiated)
Looking for: Horror/thriller/noir novels of genre-bending tales that explore the darkness within us all.
Submissions open 1 Aug and close 31 Aug 2026
“You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Trailer horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror movie trailers
Bad Karaoke. Survival horror. Wedding band keyboardist Emily discovers an old karaoke machine in the back of a dive bar, but this machine has a thirst for blood. Premieres at London FrightFest, 30 Aug 2026
Beliath. Folklore horror. While reporting on a brutal murder, a small-town TV crew uncovers a hidden cult whose secrets were never meant to be filmed. VOD, 14 Aug 2026
Buddy, teaser 2. Survival horror. In a children’s tv show, Buddy is not pleased when one child refuses to play along. Cinema, 28 Aug 2026
Clayface. Body horror. One man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster. Cinema, 23 Oct 2026
Dorothy: The Haunting of Oz. Halloween horror. On Halloween night, a viral internet challenge unleashes Dorothy, the Wicked Witch, and more nightmarish characters on an unsuspecting California town. Release date TBA
Ebenezer. Ghost horror. In Dickens’ London, one man faces his past, present and future as he fights for a second chance at redemption. Cinema, 13 Nov 2026
The End of Oak Street, final trailer. Fantasy horror. A mysterious cosmic event rips Oak Street from suburbia and transports the neighborhood to someplace unknown. Cinema, 14 Aug 2026
Episode 12. Supernatural horror. On June 6th 2023 television show Paranormal Closure was pulled from all broadcast stations. A year later, a video surfaced online claiming to be from the episode that never aired. VOD, 7 Aug 2026
Hansel and Gretel’s Halloween, clip. Supernatural horror. On Halloween night, 6 teens enter a candy-coated labyrinth where a witch turns temptation into traps. Release date TBA
It Ends. Psychological horror. A group of recent grads head out on a late-night drive but they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cinema, 21 Aug 2026
Namaslay. Comedy horror. Gayatri accepts an offer to join a yoga instructor training program, but there’s an ulterior nature to the invitation. Limited, 6 Aug 2026
Other Mommy. Supernatural horror. An 8-year-old girl confronts a sinister entity that becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family. Cinema, 9 Oct 2026
Penny Lane is Dead. Psychological horror. In 1986, during a scorching Aussie summer, a celebration at a beach house turns into a blood-soaked fight for survival when a prank goes horribly wrong. Shudder, 28 Aug 2026
The Psychic: Files. Supernatural horror. Two streamers break into a psychic’s home, only to find the spirits inside are being puppeted by something far more sinister. Release date TBA
Resident Evil, trailer 2. Zombie horror. A courier delivering a package to a remote hospital finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak. Cinema, 18 Sep 2026
Tinsman Road. Found footage horror. A young man navigates the mystery surrounding his long-missing sister and their family home. VOD, 3 Aug 2026
The Withering. Supernatural horror. After an elderly woman discovers a mysterious amulet that restores her youth by draining the life from those around her, her caregiver must stop her as an entire town withers in a grotesque battle over renewal and the terror of aging. VOD, 28 Jul 2026
Horror game trailers
Black Lake. Psychological horror. Search for your missing twin sister inside an abandoned orphanage lost at sea. Use candles, stealth, and weapons; explore its flooded halls; uncover the fate of its vanished children; and survive the thing they became. Release date TBA
Carnival Hunt. Carnival horror. Five wind-up Bunnies must work together to escape an ever-changing carnival world while one player hunts them as the Carnival Monster. Early access available
Static Dread: The Submarine. Psychological horror. In a Lovecraftian apocalypse, aboard a nuclear submarine, navigate a graveyard of fallen ships and unknown terrors with only the ghostly echoes of your sonar to guide you home. Releases 14 Aug 2026
T.W.I.R.L. Psychological horror. An unknown force coaxes a 9yo boy out of bed, pulling him to roam the halls in the dead of night. Releases 20 Aug 2026
“Have your adventures, make your mistakes, and choose your friends poorly — all these make for great stories.”
― Chuck Palahniuk
A selection of horror books released this week
7 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghost, monster, and gothic horror
See: A selection of horror books released, 19 to 25 Jul 2026
“So vast is art, so narrow human wit”
― Alexander Pope, An Essay On Criticism
A selection of horror movies released this week
10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghosts, slasher, serial killer, and puppet horror
See: A selection of horror movies released, 19 to 25 Jul 2026
“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.”
― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
What we were thinking about this week
What we’ve been reading this week
Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (novel)
Night and Day by John Connelly (collection)
What we’ve been recommending this week
Did you know I recommend one horror book every day of the year on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and Twitter?
This week’s horror book recommendations
Theme: No theme just good books
Model Home by Rivers Solomon – Haunted house horror
“Maybe my mother is God, and that’s why nothing I di pleases her.”
A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons – Crime horror
“It’s not safe here Annie. We have to go.”
The Between by Tananarive Due – Psychological horror
“Hilton was seven when his grandmother died … But it was worse when she died again.”
House of Windows by John Langan – Psychological horror
“Everyone asks me what I ‘think’ happened to Roger.”
The Buried City by Boris Bacic – Dark fantasy horror
“The car, as rusted and ruined as it was, offered shelter in this place.”
SOS by Michael Stone – Haunted house horror
“The kids in the neighborhood call it the Smitty House.”
Wolf Hunt by Jeff Strand – Werewolf horror
“The legends are true, gentlemen. Werewolves live among us.”
“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”
― Émile Zola
Horror fun
Steve Behling (thatsbelievable) on Instagram
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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