Bite-Sized Horror News
Horror Book Bits
- Stephen King’s novella Rat is getting a movie adaptation.
- Crownsville is an upcoming new 5-part comic series inspired by the real-life horrors of a Maryland psychiatric hospital.
- The Kickstarter for the 3rd book in Matt Wagner’s Dracula graphic novel series, Dracula: Book III – The Count, is launching soon. Dracula Book 1 – The Impaler was one of Kickstarter’s all-time most successful graphic novel campaigns andDracula Book 2: The Brides releases on 18 Nov 2025.
- Southampton Arts Centre, NY, presents Bram Stoker’s Dracula, A Radio Play from 17 to 26 Oct 2025.
- Stephen King says we should all read Keith Rosson’s vampire horror novel Coffin Moon.
Horror Movie Morsels
- Congratulations to all the winners from Fantastic Fest 2025. The Plague won Main Competition Best Picture, Camp won Next Wave Best Picture, and The Vile won Horror Best Picture.
- Stephen King thinks Black Phone 2 is better than the original Black Phone.
- For a limited time, you can watch the full Screamwalkers shot-on-video slasher movie on YouTube.
- Neon doesn’t agree with China’s use of AI to edit a homosexual couple into a heterosexual couple in body horror movie Together.
- Shudder is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a 4-month long Season of Screams that includes old and new movies, so there’s got to be something for everyone, right?
- A cryptic Shelby Oaks website launched this week. The password to access it is lookingforpara7, which will open a media player and show you a video of random clips from a gas station and inside a creepy home.
- A new 4K restored version of 2000’s Japanese dystopian horror movie Battle Royale is screening in cinemas on 12, 13, and 15 Oct 2025.
- Comedians Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim say they’re writing a horror movie that is “sicker than most people are going to want to watch”. Will it ever get made? Who knows.
- Crispin Glover is taking his surrealist movie No! You’re Wrong. or: Spooky Action at a Distance on tour, and each screening will include a dramatic narration of his illustrated books, a Q&A session, and a book signing.
- Congratulations to the nine screenwriters selected for Blumhouse and K Period Media’s 2025 Screamwriting program.
- The Found Footage Feature Fund is new initiative, providing a $25,000 production grant for trans filmmakers developing independent movies.
- Guillermo del Toro says Frankenstein “closes the cycle” and that he now needs a change and wants to do something completely different.
- You know you want a Jason Chia Pet.
Horror TV Treats
- Noah Hawley says the finale of Alien: Earth might be a bit deceptive in terms of what comes next and sets up a second season, even though Disney has yet to agree to a second season.
- Dread Manor is a 4-part anthology horror short series streaming weekly on KeyTV’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. Watch the trailer and the first episode, The Devil’s Box.
- Animated ghost horror Haunted Hotel is getting a 2nd season.
- All 36 Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes will stream in order on the Disney+ Simpsons FAST channel. Hallowstream, a new Disney+ streaming channel, will also stream classic Halloween movies.
Horror Game Goodies
- 2018 retro-style indie horror game Night Shift is getting a movie adaptation, with sneak peek screenings in cinemas in October.
Horror Music Moments
- Check out the Chatter – Panic music video if you like music mixed with high school Halloween dance revenge horror.
Horror Festival Fare
- The 2nd annual Happy Fright Film Festival runs from 17 to 19 Oct 2025 in Fillmore, CA. First movie off the ranks is A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors which will include a Q&A with cinematographer Roy H. Wagner. Killer Klowns from Outer Space closes out the festival with a Q&A with composer John Massari.
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”
― C.S. Lewis
Writing Horror
In an online workshop on 5 Oct 2025, author Tim Waggoner will help you Build a Better Monster.
Some places accepting submissions
Flash Fiction Horror or Micro Fiction Horror (Flash Phantoms)
Pays: $25 for story of the month
Looking for: Halloween-themed stories
Submissions close: 30 Sep 2025
Horror novel (RDG Books)
Pays: $100 + royalties
Looking for: 70k-90k words
Submissions close: 28 Nov 2025
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end.”
― William Styron, Conversations with William Styron
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
IT: Welcome to Derry. Supernatural horror. You were never meant to leave. HBO Max, 26 Oct 2025
Lazarus. Supernatural horror. After experiencing a personal loss, Lazarus begins having disturbing experiences that can’t be explained. Prime Video, 22 Oct 2025
Horror Movie Trailers
Adopted 2. Psychological horror. After secretly escaping a psychiatric hospital, a troubled young boy is welcomed by a grieving family, until their home becomes his killing ground. Tubi, 10 Oct 2025
The Astronaut. Sci-fi horror. After an astronaut crash lands back to Earth, she begins to fear that something extraterrestrial has followed her home. Cinema, 17 Oct 2025
The Bride!. Frankenstein horror. A lonely Frankenstein’s monster travels to 1930s Chicago to ask a scientist to create a companion for him. Cinema, 6 Mar 2026
Delivery Run. Psychological horror. Stranded on icy mountain roads, a delivery man is hunted by a snowplow driver. VOD, 17 Oct 2025
The Elixir. Indonesian zombie horror. An elixir maker’s ambition triggers an outbreak that terrorizes a village. Netflix, 23 Oct 2025
Evil Nun. Supernatural horror. When a Catholic youth ministry spends the night in a vacant Mexican church, they’re trapped by a vengeful ghostly nun. VOD, 30 Sep 2025
Foe. Cosmic horror. A world-class master of Babylonian archeology translates a parchment and opens a gate to another world. VOD, 30 Sep 2025
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. Psychological horror. An upscale suburban mom hires a new nanny, only to discover she is not who she claims to be. Hulu, 22 Oct 2025
Last Stop Rocafort St.. Spanish supernatural horror. Laura realizes something is deeply wrong beneath the tracks of Rocafort St., one of Barcelona’s quietest subway stops. VOD, 24 Oct 2025
Minore. Creature horror. Mysterious creatures invade a Greek seaside port, and a band of misfits unites to save the city. VOD, 30 Sep 2025
The Oval Portrait. Ghost horror. Edgar Allen Poe story about a painting with a deadly secret. VOD, 10 Oct 2025
The Salem Chronicles. Witch horror. A detective returns to his childhood home in Salem to settle the estate of his mother and discovers the truth about his bloodline. VOD, 21 Oct 2025
What Happened to Dorothy Bell?. Supernatural horror. After uncovering disturbing revelations from her early childhood involving her late grandmother, a woman sets out to document her investigation into these events. VOD, 21 Oct 2025
Horror Game Trailers
Dead Finger Dice: The Billionaire Killing Game. Play a sinister game of poker dice against blood-thirsty demon billionaires who’ve trapped you on their mega yacht. Releases 24 Oct 2025
Dead Format. Survival horror. In 1990s Scotland, find your missing brother by getting to the bottom of his obsession with a new type of VHS. Release date TBA
Labyrinth of the Demon King. Survival horror. Embark on a demented journey to locate the demon who defied and killed the lord. Releases 27 Oct 2025
OD: KNOCK. Hideo Kojima horror. Release date TBA
Rogue Mansion. Survival horror. An unexplained tragedy brings together a group of strangers, inside an ever-shifting mansion of horrors. Release date TBA
“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 Books Released this Week
16 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, ghost, sci-fi, werewolf, carnival, small town, folk, creature, and Halloween horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 21 to 27 Sep 2025
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”
― Voltaire
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
6 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, isolation, slasher, and ghost horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 21 to 27 Sep 2025
“Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.”
― Lemony Snicket
A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week
4 horror TV shows this week. Themes: Psychological, serial killer, and animated zombie horror
See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 21 to 27 Sep 2025
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
― Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader
What We Were Thinking About this Week
13 Coming of Age Horror Book Recommendations
The Swivel by Victor De Anda (short story, A Thin Slice of Anxiety)
This week’s horror book recommendations
Theme: Storm horror
Storberry by Dan Padavona
“The crawlspace above the garage was boarded shut. From the inside.”
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
“I haven’t laid eyes on the island in several years.”
White Death by Christine Morgan
“The only way to break the spirit’s hold…was to confront the wanageeska…”
When It Rains by Mark Allan Gunnells
“It should not have rained that day in Greenville, SC.”
Supercell by H.W. Bernard
“He’d sensed it before, many times: the threat of monstrous thunderstorms…”
The Final Winter by Iain Rob Wright
“More scenes of heavy snowfall. Locations from around the world.”
Clownflesh by Tim Curran
“…what’s even worse is that which has come with the storm, using it as a sort of camouflage as it hunts its human prey.”
“Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.”
― William Faulkner
Horror Fun
