Bite-Sized Horror News
Horror Book Bits
- Congratulations to the winners of the 2025 Bram Stoker Awards® and the winners of the 2025 Nebula Awards®, especially Stephen Graham Jones whose novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter won its category in both awards.
- Congratulations to the finalists in the Ignyte Awards 2026. Public voting is open until 16 Aug 2026.
- Joe Bob Briggs is writing the introduction for The End Times, the omnibus version of Ben Percy/Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic newspaper, which releases on 9 Mar 2027.
- Godzilla is a slasher on the Variant B cover of the first issue of upcoming comic The Horror of Godzilla [Kai-Sei Era].
Horror Movie Morsels
- A new ‘final cut’ of 1986 serial killer movie Manhunter will show in cinemas for its 40th anniversary and will also be released on physical media later this year.
- Jason Momoa will not be in the movie adaptation of video game Helldivers.
- Netflix chairman Dan Lin says Netflix will not work with filmmakers “who still want theatrical [releases]”.
- Jimmy and Stiggs is getting an Argentinian spin-off movie with new characters facing the same extraterrestrial threat but in Argentina.
- South Korean found footage horror movie Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum has been remade as an Indonesian movie called 402 Rumah Sakit Angker Korea (Korean Haunted Hospital) and will debut at the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Jul 2026.
- Ari Aster says he’s written a prequel to Hereditary but has no plans to make it.
- Bruce Campbell reinforced that the Evil Dead franchise has “moved away from Ash and Bruce Campbell”.
- Actor Heather Donohue from the original The Blair Witch Project movie explained why she’s not part of the remake, essentially saying that she was uncomfortable with the rights she’d be signing away.
- Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante has a new shark horror movie, Water Park Shark, that will screen at SharkCon in Florida on 18 Jul 2026.
- In movie ratings news, Evil Dead Burn has been (unsurprisingly) rated R.
Horror TV Treats
- Widow’s Bay is getting a 2nd season and has received 5 nominations for the 2026 Television Critics Association Awards.
- The Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage show finishes up in London on 27 Dec 2026 and Broadway on 3 Jan 2027, so if you haven’t seen it but want to, you’ve got just a bit longer.
Horror Game Goodies
- Bob Simms, Annie Brackett, Lynda Van Der Klok, and Laurie Strode will all be playable civilian in Halloween: The Game.
“Old stories have a habit of being told and retold and changed. Each subsequent storyteller puts his or her mark upon it.”
― Erin Morgenstern
Writing Horror
Applications are open for Gabino Iglesias’ Novel in a Year: Speculative Fiction 2026-27. The course is limited to 12 students and the class meets online. Applications close 10 Jul 2026.
Submissions are open for the Killer Shorts screenwriting competition. This year they’ve added a feature-length screenplay category, as well as the traditional short script, one-page script, and short story categories.
Some places accepting submissions
Night Shades
Pays: $75
Looking for: 500 words maximum with a recognizable speculative element
Novellas (Dancing Star Press)
Pays: Royalties of 30 percent of gross paperback profits and 50 percent of gross ebook profits
Looking for: Bold speculative fiction that explores imaginative worlds, social change, and diverse perspectives.
Submissions close: 30 Jun 2026
It Came From the Trailer Park anthology, Vol 6 (Three Ravens Publishing)
Pays: Royalties
Looking for: Creature-feature, horror-comedy with an exiled/outcast/alien prisoner twist
Submissions close: 1 Jul 2026
Movie Horror Themed Anthology (Dark Ink)
Pays: $20 + 1 print copy + 1 ebook copy + 1 audiobook download code
Looking for: Story must involve movies or filmmaking in some capacity
Submissions close: 1 Jul 2026
Upcoming submission calls
Brink Literary Magazine
Pays: $50 work less than 1500 words, $100 work more than 1500 words, $25 poems
Looking for: Hybrid and cross-genre submissions engaging the theme of Invitation.
Submissions open 1 Jul and close 31 Jul 2026
“The artist lives to have stories to tell and to learn to tell them well.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy
Trailer Horror
A taste of things to come.
Horror TV Trailers
The Doomies. Animated supernatural horror. Best friends Bobby and Romy accidentally open a portal to the underworld, transforming their serene coastal town into a hotbed of monstrous activity. Disney+, 26 Jun 2026
The Walking Dead: Dead City, Season 3. Zombie apocalypse horror. United we survive. AMC+, 26 Jul 2026
Horror Movie Trailers
The Dog Stars, new trailer. Post-apocalyptic horror. Hig and Bangley live on an efficient but isolated homestead in a brutal post-apocalyptic world, but when Hig receives a mysterious radio transmission, he ventures into the unknown in search of hope. Cinema, 28 Aug 2026
Jacked. Survival horror. A summer day at the lake for two teenagers turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down. VOD, 30 Jun 2026
Lockbox. Supernatural horror. A woman puts everything on the line to defend her enigmatic cousin from an otherworldly entity. Cinema, 3 Jul 2026
Night of Blood. Survival horror. Survive the night. Win one million dollars. Screambox, 16 Jun 2026
No Witnesses. Found footage horror. Hannah Jones disappeared on 3 Aug 2024 in rural Illinois. Despite an extensive ground search and detailed interviews of friends and family, she was never located. Release date TBA
Pinocchio Unstrung, trailer 2. Slasher horror. A dark coming-of-age tale following the puppet’s disturbing journey toward becoming real. Cinema, 24 Jul 2026
Whalefall. Psychological horror. The odds of being swallowed alive by a whale are not zero. Cinema, 16 Oct 2026
Horror Game Trailers
The Blood of Dawnwalker. Dark fantasy horror. In 14th-century Europe, bloody conflicts sweep the lands, and the Black Death comes for the survivors. Vampires seize their opportunity claim what they’ve been denied for centuries: freedom and power. Releases 3 Sep 2026
Creepshow. Survival horror. Inspired by the horror anthology series. Step into stories where death is the least of your worries. Release date TBA
Happy’s Humble Burgatory. Cooking horror. Work together to keep your composure, grill burgers, and hit the quota numbers before the kitchen falls into complete disarray. Releases 16 Jul 2026
Haunted Heist. Party game horror. Heisters find and retrieve gems while Tricksters use chaotic abilities to distress, disrupt, and dispose of them. Beta, 27 Jun 2026
Treasure Cove. Survival horror. Work together to explore a dark and sinister island and find treasures ripe for the taking. Release date TBA
“The fairy tale tells us of the earliest arrangements that mankind made to shake off the nightmare which myth had placed upon its chest.”
― Walter Benjamin
A Selection of Horror Books Released this Week
14 horror books this week. Themes: Supernatural, psychological, fairy tale, cult, vampire, Halloween, curse, and grief horror
See: A Selection of Horror Books Released, 7 to 13 Jun 2026
“Tales are slippery, her mother had often said. The truth of a story depends on who is telling it.”
― Roshani Chokshi, Aru Shah and the End of Time
A Selection of Horror Movies Released this Week
7 horror movies this week. Themes: Psychological, sci-fi, revenge, historical, and monster horror
See: A Selection of Horror Movies Released, 7 to 13 Jun 2026
“It is the storyteller who makes us what we are, who creates history. The storyteller creates the memory that the survivors must have – otherwise their surviving would have no meaning.”
― Chinua Achebe
A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released this Week
1 horror TV show this week. Theme: Vampire horror
See: A Selection of Horror TV Shows Released, 7 to 13 Jun 2026
“Nothing was perfect, but everything was all right. The light was never just blue.”
― Antonia Michaelis, The Storyteller
What We Were Thinking About this Week
What We’ve Been Reading This Week
Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce (novel)
The Bird’s Nest by Shirley Jackson (novel)
What We’re 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: Cult horror
Memorials by Richard Chizmar
“Later, when the trip went bad, I would remember the bleeding man on the bicycle…”
Last Days by Adam Nevill
“And the woman could hear those old friends moving in the distant…”
The Mirror House Girls by Faith Gardner
“I’m lost, both literally and figuratively…”
Usher of the Fallen by LM Kaplin
“In an ideal world, he would have complete the ceremony alone.”
Little Eve by Catriona Ward
“My heart is a dark passage, lined with ranks of gleaming jars.”
Halcyon by Rio Youers
“She saw the man with no hands first.”
The Felicitous by Matt Forgit
“It was neither a dark nor stormy night.”
“We all want explanations for why we behave as we do and for the ways the world around us functions. Even when our feeble explanations have little to do with reality.”
― Dan Ariely, The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves
Horror Fun
Thanks for reading
Thanks for reading. Catch you on the other side.
Jayson
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