A Grab Bag of Horror News, 23 to 29 Jun 2024

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

Bite-Sized Horror News

Horror Book Bits

Congratulations to Tamika Thompson. Her collection Unshod, Cackling, and Naked won the 2024 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Horror.
EC Comics’ horror anthology revival, Epitaphs From the Abyss, will have three new horror hosts: Grave-Digger, the Tormentor, and the Grim Inquisitor. These new hosts replace the old Crypt Keeper, the Old Witch, and the Vault Keeper.
A number of authors are removing their books from DarkLit Press.
Bloody Disgusting has curated the first ever Walmart horror fan shop, with exclusive collectibles and a line of Steelbooks.

Horror Movie Morsels

Jaws @ 50 is a feature documentary from National Geographic celebrating the 50th anniversary of Peter Benchley’s novel and Steven Spielberg’s movie. The documentary will premiere in summer 2025.
The movie adaptation of Brynne Weaver’s serial killer romance novel, Butcher & Blackbird, will be directed by Chris McKay.
M. Stelly’s new production house Anatomica Films will specialize in horror, thriller, and arthouse films.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife Experience is a one-of-a-kind experience opening on 23 August 2024. The event takes place at Los Angeles’s Ovation Hollywood, 6801 Hollywood Boulevard.
Bloody Disgusting spoke to Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala about their movie adaptation of Paul Tremblay’s novel A Head Full of Ghosts.
While not even close to being a horror movie, the trailer for Dwayne Johnson’s upcoming Christmas movie, Red One, includes such horror classics as Krampus, the Headless Horseman, and killer snowmen.
Giant Pictures has obtained North American rights to musical horror thriller, Art of a Hit. No firm release date as yet, but possibly streaming in Fall.
John Carpenter and Robert Englund are among a list of 30 actors who will receive Hollywood Walk of Fame stars in 2025.
The next Godzilla x Kong movie is slated for release on 26 March 2027.
Osgood Perkins has told IGN that “his adaptation of Stephen King’s The Monkey is a comedy” and that he’ll be playing the asshole uncle.
Universal Pictures now has the movie rights to Boom! Studios’ graphic novel A Vicious Circle.

Horror TV Treats

Welcome to Derry, the IT prequel series, has added ten more actors to its cast.
CBS is developing a new Van Helsing series in which Van Helsing works alongside his ex solving crimes in New York City.
AMC has renewed Interview with the Vampire for a third season.
Sarah Michelle Gellar is joining Dexter: Original Sin.
Although filming is finished for Netflix’s The Grimm Reality urban fantasy series, no one will ever see it because Netflix has dropped it. It was assumed the series would be based on the Brothers Grimm folklore tales.

Horror Festival Fare

New Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire haunted houses will debut at Universal Orlando on 30 August and Universal Hollywood on 5 September.
Six Flags is developing haunted mazes using horror franchises Saw, The Conjuring, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Stranger Things, Trick ‘r Treat, Army of the Dead, and comic book DCeased, for Fright Fest 2024. Fright Fest opens on 7 September 2024.
The UK’s Grimmfest has announced their first titles for 2024. Grimmfest 2024 happens from 3 to 6 October 2024 in Manchester.

Horror Podcast Pieces

Bloody FM is launching a podcast on 15 July 2024 based on the Nightmare Soup books written by Jake Tri and illustrated by Andy Sciazko.

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
Robert Frost

Writing Horror

Entries are now being accepted for the 2025 Indie Book Awards. The deadline is 13 February 2025.

Some places accepting submissions.

Short Story Substack
Winner gets $100 + 40% of subscription revenue
Looking for: short stories from 6 to 10,000 words
Submissions close at the end of each month, with winner announced on the 15th of the next month
Tales from the Nightside (Three Ravens Publishing)
Pays: Share of royalties
Looking for: Car Wars GameLit fiction
Submissions close: 1 December 2024
What If… Skunk Wurks Edition (Three Ravens Publishing)
Pays: Share of royalties
Looking for: Speculative fiction about black projects, their uses, and outcomes
Submissions close: 1 January 2025

“The role of a writer is not to say what we can all say, but what we are unable to say.”
Anais Nin

Trailer Horror

A taste of things to come.

Horror Movie Trailers

Sinister Surgeon. Serial killer horror. A young doctor’s dream job with a top cosmetic surgeon becomes a nightmare when she fears that he may secretly be murdering his patients. Releases on Tubi on 6 July 2024.
Project Silence. South Korean monster horror. Jung-won and his daughter are on their way to Incheon Airport when a thick fog causes a massive chain-reaction crash on the airport bridge. They get stuck in the chaos with a group of people including a brash-yet-harmless tow truck driver. Things take a turn for the worse when mutated military dogs are accidentally released from their transport vehicle and start preying upon humans, putting the group in a terrifying life-or-death situation. Releases in cinemas on 12 July 2024.
Dead Sea. Survival horror. Stranded in the open sea after a fatal accident, a young woman and her two friends are rescued by a fishing vessel’s captain, unaware that the ship harbors a chilling secret. Limited release on 26 July 2024.
The Last Breath (2nd trailer). Psychological horror. Levi, a British expat diver, has been searching for the wreck of the USS Charlotte for his whole life. Assisted by US college graduate Noah, the pair may have finally made a breakthrough in the wreck’s location. Their crew expands to include Noah’s college friends, but the group finds themselves trapped in the darkness of the USS Charlotte’s interior, air rapidly running out, and discover that their dwindling oxygen supply is the least of their fears. Releases on VOD on 26 July 2024.
Heretic. Supernatural horror. Two missionaries become ensnared in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse after they knock on the wrong door. Releases in cinemas on 15 November 2024.
Nosferatu. Vampire horror. A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her. Releases in cinemas on 25 December 2024.

Horror Game Trailers

Damned 2. Multiplayer monster horror. A group of survivors come together to solve puzzles and escape an immersive environment while another player takes the role of a unbeatable monster ready to slay all trespassers. Release date TBA.
Memoreum. VR narrative-driven sci-fi horror. A colony spaceship is launched from a dying Earth to seek out a new home among the stars. Amidst the vast expanse of space, a cataclysmic event has plunged the ship and its inhabitants into an unfathomable nightmare. Release date TBA.

“I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”
Jorge Luis Borges

A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week

11 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, serial killer, historical, dark fantasy, and revenge horror

See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 23 to 29 June 2024

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.”
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week

10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, survival, slasher, post-apocalyptic, vampire, and witch horror

See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 23 to 29 June 2024

“The more you leave out, the more you highlight what you leave in.”
Henry Green

What We Were Thinking About this Week

13 Cult Horror Book Recommendations
Swan Song by Robert McCammon (novel)
Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (novel)
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca (collection)
Cheated, Swindled, or Scammed: What’s a Writer to Do? by Victoria Strauss (Writer Unboxed)

“Which of us has not felt that the character we are reading in the printed page is more real than the person standing beside us?”
Cornelia Funke

And Now For Something Completely Different

thelifeofsharks 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.