A Grab Bag of Horror News, 7 to 13 Jan 2024
A selection of things that caught our attention in the world of horror this week
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Table of Contents
Bite-Sized Horror News
Vale Horror
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of writer Terry Bisson. Bisson wrote long and short science fiction and fantasy, as well as novelizations and books set in popular franchises, including Star Wars, Alien, Galaxy Quest, and The Fifth Element. RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of Mexican actor Adan Canto. Canto originally pursued a music career as a singer and guitarist. He was scouted after acting in some television commercials. His horror roles included ten episodes of TV series The Following in 2013, and a lead role in horror movie The Devil Below. RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of screenwriter and producer Tracy Tormé. Tormé was always interested in UFOs and has his name on many sci-fi TV shows and movies. His horror contributions include TV shows Intruders (1992) and Carnivàle (2003–2005) and movies Spellbinder (1988) and I Am Legend (2007). RIP.
- Condolences to family, friends, and fans of actor Tisa Farrow. Prior to leaving her acting career for nursing, Farrow had horror roles in The Initiation of Sarah (1978), Zombie aka Zombi 2 (1979), and Italian horror movie Antropophagus aka The Grim Reaper (1980). RIP.
Horror Book Bits
- Check out the extended trailer for Madness and Writers: The Untold Truth. The show travels the globe to celebrate and explore the creative minds of some of the most prolific horror writers. Josh Malerman, Linda D. Addison, Lee Murray, Michael Bailey, F. Paul Wilson, Thomas F. Monteleone, and more discuss how their famous, and sometimes infamous characters almost drove them mad. Regular snippets will be released on the Madness and Writers YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe.
- Universal has purchased as-yet-unpublished 50-page short story Long Lost by Colin Bannon. Bannon will also write the script and Steven Spielberg will be one of the producers. The story is about “a recently married woman whose life is upended when her husband’s long-lost wife returns after she was believed to be dead, sparking fears that she’s hatching a sinister plan to reclaim what was once hers”.
- On 23 January 2024, com will become Reactor magazine and will launch a new website. The new site will feature more than just the science fiction and fantasy that Tor.com is known for. It will branch out to include horror, romance, and more.
- Justina Ireland and Nisi Shawl are the latest Guests of Honor announced for StokerCon 2024. Ireland and Shawl join Paula Guran, Jonathan Maberry and Paul Tremblay, with one more Guest of Honor still to be announced.
- The Augur Literary Society is working towards becoming a publishing press in 2025–26.
Horror Movie Morsels
- Jacob Elordi will play Frankenstein in Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix movie, replacing Andrew Garfield. No one knows yet if Del Toro is setting his movie in modern times or olden day times.
- Are you ready for the third remake of The Blob? Movie maker David Bruckner is writing and directing it for Warner Bros.
- Annette Bening is now part of Warner Bros’ Bride of Frankenstein movie.
- 28 Years Later is expected to be the start of a new trilogy based on 2002’s zombie thriller 28 Days Later.
- The Exorcist: Deceiver needs to find a new director after David Gordon Green stepped away from it. Originally slated for release on 18 April 2025, the movie now has no projected release date.
Horror TV Treats
- Laurence Fishburn is joining Season 4 of The Witcher.
- Argyle is one character that will not be showing up in Stranger Things Season 5.
- A musical prequel for Bill and Frank’s storyline in The Last of Us? Apparently, one has been pitched.
- Horror and fantasy did pretty well out of the 75th Creative Arts Emmys:
- The Last of Us won 8 awards, including Outstanding Prosthetic Makeup, Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie, Outstanding Main Title Design, Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Comedy or Drama Series (One Hour), Outstanding Picture Editing for a Drama Series, Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
- Wednesday won 4 awards, including Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Series, Outstanding Contemporary Makeup (Non-Prosthetic), Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program (One Hour or More), Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music
- Cabinet of Curiosities won Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period or Fantasy Program
- Prey won Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special
William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide To Writing Nonfiction“Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience – every reader is a different person.”
Writing Horror
- Volume 1 of Joe Mynhardt’s and Crystal Lake Publishing’s horror-how-to book Shadow & Ink: Mastering the Art of Horror Writing and Publishing is now available. More than just a writing manual, this book is a “call to the storytellers who dare to explore the shadowy realms of horror and dark fiction. Whether you’re a budding writer or a seasoned author, this book is crafted to serve your creative spirit with the tools, techniques, and insights needed to bring your most haunting narratives to life.” Volume 2 releases on 19 April 2024.
- HWA’s The Scholarship From Hell is open for applications. The winner gets free registration to Stokercon 2024, 4 nights accommodation, airfare, $50 luggage reimbursement, and entry into as many StokerCon workshops as you’d like. You don’t have to be a HWA member to apply. Applications close on 1 March 2024.
Submission Horror
Some places accepting submissions.
- Old Moon Quarterly
Looking for: Character-focused, weird sword-and-sorcery: stories of a dark and transgressive nature, set in a secondary or historical-paranormal world, with a focus on rounded characters undergoing some sort of conflict, resolved by the might of their main or mind.
Submissions close: 30 January 2024 - Augur Magazine and Tales & Feathers Magazine
Submissions close: 31 January 2024 - Slay and Slay Again! An Anthology of Queer Horror (Sliced Up Press)
Theme: “Whether you want to embrace tropes or tear them to pieces, we want to see what queer horror means to you”
Submissions close: 29 February 2024 - Twelve House Books
Accepting manuscripts of at least 30,000 words
Theme: Ghost stories, quirk, narrative poems, the sublime, the numinous, and stories set in Los Angeles
David Leavitt, Collected Stories“Novels are forged in passion, demand fidelity and commitment, often drive you to boredom or rage, sleep with you at night. They are the long haul. They are marriage. Stories, on the other hand, you can lose yourself in for a few weeks and then wrap up, or grow tired of and abandon and (maybe) return to later. They can cuddle you sweetly, or make you get on your knees and beg.”
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
- Ghosting. Unscripted paranormal comedy horror. Horror actors turned amateur ghost busters, Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan, bring celebrity guests on paranormal adventures to discover if Canada’s most haunted places are truly haunted. Premieres on CBC Gem on 26 January 2024.
- Halo, Season 2. Sci-fi horror. Master Chief John-117 leads his team of elite Spartans against the alien threat known as the Covenant. As humanity’s best hope for winning the war, John-117 discovers his deep connection to a mysterious alien structure that holds the key to humankind’s salvation, or its destruction – the Halo. Premieres on Paramount+ on 8 February 2024.
- The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live. Zombie apocalypse horror. Rick and Michonne’s continuing story. Premieres on AMC and AMC+ on 25 February 2024.
Horror Movie Trailers
- Departing Seniors. Serial killer horror. After an act of bullying sends Javier to the hospital, he begins experiencing visions that foresee glimpses of shocking murders at his school right before they happen. In between navigating the social hierarchies and prejudices of clique culture, Javier and his best friend Bianca try to unmask a serial killer before he strikes again. Releases on VOD on 2 February 2024.
- Here for Blood. Comedy splatter horror. When his girlfriend is swamped with college exams, Tom, a pro-wrestler, agrees to fill in as a last-minute replacement for her well-paying babysitting job. Tom arrives at an isolated family home and what starts off as a quiet night of pizza and video games quickly spirals into bloody, violent chaos as Tom and 10-year-old Grace find themselves fighting for their lives when an otherworldly cult of masked intruders descend on the home. Releases on VOD and Screambox on 9 February 2024.
- Monolith. Psychological horror. While trying to salvage her career, a disgraced journalist begins investigating a strange conspiracy theory. But as the trail leads uncomfortably close to home, she is left to grapple with the lies at the heart of her own story. Releases in cinemas and on VOD on 16 February 2024.
- No Way Up. Survival horror. When the plane they’re travelling on crashes into the Pacific Ocean, surviving passengers find themselves in a nightmare fight for survival with the air supply running out and dangers creeping in from all sides. Releases on VOD on 16 February 2024.
- Abigail. Vampire horror. After a group of criminals kidnap the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl. Releases in cinemas o 19 April 2024.
- Longlegs. Supernatural serial killer horror. An FBI agent is assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer. As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, the agent discovers a personal connection to the killer. Release date TBA.
Horror Game Trailers
- Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden. Ghost horror. In the year 1695, Antea and Red hunt spirits and protect the public from those that remain in this realm after death. However, when Antea becomes a spirit herself, Red is torn between keeping his promise to protect the living from malevolent spirits and saving Antea. Releases on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC on 13 February 2024.
Bill Barich“A good writer refuses to be socialized. He insists on his own version of things, his own consciousness. And by doing so he draws the reader's eye from its usual groove into a new way of seeing things.”
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
2 horror books this week. Themes: Dark fantasy and comedy crime horror
Isaac Babel“No iron can pierce the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time.”
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
10 horror movies this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, Lovecraftian, werewolf, AI, revenge, and South Korean survival horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 7 to 13 Jan 2024
Henry James, The Turn of the Screw“Make (the reader) think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications.”
What We Were Thinking About this Week
What we’ve been reading this week
Fiction
- Born a Ghost by Nadia Bongo (short story, Apex Magazine)
- The Grit Born by Frances Ogamba (The Dark Magazine)
- The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson (novel)
Non-fiction
- Author Snapshot: Cynthia Gómez (NightTide)
- Let Me Tell You A Story by Tim Waggoner
What we’ve been watching this week
- Who Goes There (horror short, Alter YouTube channel)
What we’ve been listening to this week
- 5 Scary Stories to Bring you Sweet Death ― Creepypasta Horror Story Compilation (Chilling Tales for Dark Nights YouTube channel)
Pico Iyer“Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.”
And Now For Something Completely Different
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Published: 13 January 2024
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