Bite-sized horror news
Vale
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Louise Lasser. Lasser’s horror credits include Blood Rage (1987), Frankenhooker (1990), and Wolves of Wall Street (2002). RIP.
Horror book bits
- John Langan’s cosmic horror novel The Fisherman is getting a movie adaptation.
- Congratulations to Kelley Armstrong, James Alan Gardner, and Mike Glicksohn as the latest inductees into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association’s Hall of Fame.
Horror movie morsels
- The next series of the V/H/S found footage anthology franchise will be V/H/S: SCP. The movie will be “framed as recovered field documentation or video evidence” from the SCP Foundation, a collaborative online project that began in 2008 that has already spawned games, short films, and web series.
- Sounds like Jason’s going to be busy being endlessly brought back to life because all the Jason Universe things we’ve seen so far are “just the tip of the iceberg”.
- Giant-snake movie Titan has been renamed to Beware Boiúna and opens in cinemas on 2 Oct 2026.
- The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles has a new exhibition opening on 26 Sep called The Horror Show. Running until 25 Jul 2027, the exhibition “will explore and celebrate horror cinema, highlighting select tropes and themes, all centered around the question: Why do horror films matter so deeply to so many?”
- In movie ratings news, The End of Oak Street and Fall 2: Deadpoint have been rated PG-13.
Horror TV treats
- American Horror Story, Season 13 premieres on FX and Hulu on 24 Sep 2026 and Ariana Grande will not be a part of it.
- Congratulations to Widow’s Bay for scoring 19 Emmy nominations.
- The Terror is getting a 4th season and they’ve “just closed the deal” on the novel they’ll be developing for it, but they’re not saying what that novel is yet.
- Mike Flanagan’s Carrie will show off an exclusive first look at San Diego Comic Con on 24 Jul 2026.
Horror music moments
- Part 2 of the video for Ice Nine Kills x Dead by Daylight – Play Dead is on YouTube.
Horror festival fare
- The first wave lineup for Popcorn Frights has opening night as a double bill of Colony and Train to Busan. The festival has both in-theater and virtual movie screenings and runs from 6 to 16 Aug 2026.
- Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas has a limited time Resident Evil Takeover interactive horror experience from 9 Jul to 30 Aug 2026. “Venture through six interactive zones and solve puzzles, meet legendary characters and witness epic battles against the undead.”
“Read, read, read. Read everything – trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it … Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.”
― William Faulkner
Writing horror
Bona Books wrote about their problems with receiving and almost publishing suspected AI-generated stories. It’s well worth a read.
Apex Magazine have removed a short story from Issue 153 because they suspect it to have been written with AI assistance.
KDP has raised the ceiling price for the 70 percent royalty payment to $12.99 (from $9.99).
Crystal Lake Publishing is running a Magazine Mentor Class from 1 Aug to 5 Sep 2026 that is a “beginner’s six-week intensive on publishing, editorial work, and building a literary magazine career”. Cost USD $25.
Some places accepting submissions
Mysterion
Pays: 8 cents per word for original fiction, 4 cents per word for reprints
Looking for: Speculative stories (science fiction, fantasy, horror) with Christian themes, characters, or cosmology
Submissions close: 31 Jul 2026
Novels & Novellas – Dark Forest Press
Pays: 40% of net royalties
Looking for: Weird, bizarre, dark, horrific, stories that feel big and stories which force the reader to confront the darker sides of reality
Submissions close: 31 Jul 2026
The Monstrous & The Divine anthology – Scylla Publishing
Pays: AUD 10 cents per word (max $400 for original story, $100 cap for reprints)
Looking for: Stories that focus on Sapphic goddesses and monsters from existing mythologies as you’ve not seen them before. Authors must be female identifying or non-binary.
Submissions close: 31 Jul 2026
Passing Strange: Queer Weird Arthurian Tales anthology
Pays: USD 5 cents per word (max $500)
Looking for: Queer: At least one main character belongs to the LGBTQ+ spectrum, defined in whatever way seems natural to them. Weird: The story contains a speculative fiction element, drawing on fantasy, horror, or science fiction, and/or an alternate history element. Arthurian: A retelling of the familiar Arthurian tales, or a reworking of recognisable Arthurian elements.
Submissions close: 31 Aug 2026
Exquisite Undead anthology
Pays: USD $65 short stories, $30 poems or flash
Looking for: Vampire stories
Submissions close: 1 Sep 2026
Upcoming submission calls
The Rotting Leaf
Pays: 6 cents per word (min $30) + copy of annual anthology
Looking for: Eco-fiction (broadly defined), Eco-Horror, Eco-Gothic/Antigothic, Haunted/Unhaunted Landscapes, Transcorporeality, Eco-Surrealism/Existentialism/Absurdism, Complex/Flawed characters, Interiority
Submissions open 1 Aug and close 7 Aug 2026 or when 50 submissions are received
“One of the things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now.”
― Annie Dillard, The Writing Life
Trailer horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror movie trailers
Above and Below. Shark horror. Friends embark on a dream vacation of parties and diving, but their trip takes a terrifying turn when criminals attack them at sea. Cinema, 29 Jul 2026
The Boy from Below. Slasher horror. On Halloween night, 1997, a masked killer brings slasher films to life in Carpenter Falls and a video store clerk and her friends must survive his deadly game. VOD, 11 Aug 2026
Buddy. Survival horror. In a children’s tv show, children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased. Cinema, 28 Aug 2026
The Curse. Japanese psychological horror. Riko investigates her friend’s violent death and her social media posts leads her to Taiwan to uncover the source of this supernatural curse before she is consumed by it. USA release date TBA
Ever After. Survival horror. A group of friends at a forest lodge discover that the forest is home to bloodthirsty lunatics who perceive themselves to be characters from classic fairy tales. Release date TBA
Feed. Vampire horror. Five social media influencers spend a weekend at a forest retreat but inadvertently awaken the world’s first vampire. Release date TBA
Godzilla Minus Zero. Creature horror. Picks up in 1949, two years after the tumultuous events of Godzilla Minus One, and continues the story of the Shikishima family as they face an all-new calamity. Cinema, 6 Nov 2026
Hope. South Korean monster horror. Police investigate a mysterious creature wreaking havoc on a remote village community. Cinema, 9 Sep 2026
Soulm8te. Tech horror. A grieving engineer tasked with testing a ruthless tech giant’s new AI companion tries to program her to be a truly sentient soulmate, but she develops needs of her own. VOD, 1 Aug 2026
Horror game trailers
Below, Rusted Gods. Psychological puzzle horror. Act as the lifeline to an expedition into the unknown, explore facilities, and uncover an ancient being. Releases 29 Jul 2026
Fright Train. Survival horror. As a paranormal special agent, fight through a train overtaken by monsters and survive Antarctica’s cold. Releases 15 Sep 2026
I Shall Name the Dead. Narrative horror. A woman touched by death vows to restore the identities of the dead whose remains can no longer be laid to rest. Releases 2027
Senara: The Sacrament. Survival horror. Board and explore a demented ship, find the missing crew, and gather clues to escape. Releases 30 Jul 2026
“All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.”
― John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies
A selection of horror books released this week
6 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, witch, and vampire horror
See: A selection of horror books released, 5 to 11 Jul 2026
“When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.”
― Clifton Fadiman, Any Number Can Play
A selection of horror movies released this week
10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, slasher, and survival horror
See: A selection of horror movies released, 5 to 11 Jul 2026
“If there really is such a thing as turning in one’s grave, Shakespeare must get a lot of exercise.”
― George Orwell, All Art is Propaganda
What we were thinking about this week
What we’ve been reading this week
Night & Day by John Connelly (horror collection)
Endless is the Night by Shawn Brooks (novel)
Gravenwell Lake by GK Bird (short story, FearSome Fiction)
What we’ve been recommending this week
Did you know we recommend one horror book every day of the year on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and Twitter?
This week’s horror book recommendations
Theme: Forest horror
Devil of the Pines by James Kaine
“There was an energy about that place, a malevolence cloaked by the forest.”
The Girl Behind the Red Rope by Ted & Rachelle Dekker
“But we couldn’t be still. Not on that day.”
The Shuddering by Ania Ahlborn
“The drips of blood that trailed him like scarlet breadcrumbs assured him that this wasn’t a dream.”
Famuli Cani by Alan Golbourn
“Yes, that’s right; the forest is huge.”
They Fear Not Men in the Woods by Gretchen McNeil
“Even alone I feel close to him. Wherever he is.”
The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon
“The thing turned. It started to drag itself toward the car.”
The Silent Forest by A.E. Ford
“The forest held secrets he wasn’t ready to share…”
“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
― Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature
Horror fun
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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