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Good morning,
the world survived the eclipse. The sun disappeared, millions of people stared directly at the sky, and somehow they all agreed this was a fun afternoon.
Horror really has gone mainstream.
🩸TODAY’S TERROR — THE “ARE YOU STILL WATCHING?” INTERVENTION
You’re four episodes deep.
The lights are off. The snacks are gone. You stopped making responsible decisions sometime around Episode 3.
Then the screen goes black.
“Are you still watching?”
Excuse me?
You sold me an eight-episode limited series specifically designed to destroy my weekend, and now you’re checking on me?
Yes, I’m still watching.
I’ve invested four hours. Three major characters are dead. Someone just discovered a locked room in the basement, and I still don’t know why the little girl keeps drawing that faceless man.
We are way past watching.
I’m invested!
So please, streaming service. Stop judging me and play the next episode.
I’ll know I have a problem when Netflix asks:
“Are you sure?”
Today’s Terror: Because sometimes the scariest thing in the room is an algorithm staging an intervention.
🩸RECENT HORROR NEWS
AI Is Making a Horror Movie About… AI Ruining Everything… Duh!
Promise AI is developing Touch Grass, a psychological horror feature from filmmaker Dave Clark, with Backrooms executive producer Chris White producing. The movie is inspired by the “dead internet theory” — the increasingly cheerful idea that much of what we encounter online may eventually be generated by machines rather than humans.
The project is especially interesting for creators because Clark is known for AI-assisted filmmaking, meaning Hollywood isn't merely making movies about AI anymore. It's starting to make movies with it.
Which feels less like industry news and more like the first ten minutes of the movie.
A Sundance Horror Director Gets Hollywood’s Attention
Writer-director Adrian Chiarella, whose debut feature Leviticus premiered at Sundance earlier this year, has signed with Anonymous Content for representation.
The supernatural horror film uses a creature story to explore conversion therapy, and Chiarella’s jump from Sundance discovery to major representation is another reminder for aspiring horror filmmakers: genre remains one of the few places where one distinctive movie can still change your career very quickly.
So writing that weird horror script you've been avoiding is still an option.
TIFF Is Giving Genre Filmmakers a Bigger Seat at the Table
Frontières and TIFF: The Market have announced seven projects for their inaugural genre showcase, bringing horror, thrillers and other wonderfully questionable ideas directly in front of international buyers, financiers and producers.
Among the projects are a newlywed-nightmare thriller and a dark comedy involving wolf tracking. Feels like TIFF has finally discovered what we've known all along:
Normal movies are exhausting. Give us the monsters.
Freddy Fazbear Is Apparently Becoming a Real Restaurant
Plans have been announced for a real Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza attraction at American Dream in New Jersey in 2027 — complete with working animatronics and Pirate Cove.
A restaurant filled with functioning animatronic animals.
We've seen the movies—now let’s experience one. Or, If the pizza doesn’t kill you…
🩸TAKE THE GRUDGE POLL
What's the dumbest horror character decision in history?
🩸 T- BONE’S TOP MOVIE PICKS
For last week’s 1000 Subscriber Celebration we asked you to tell us about horror movies you believe don’t get enough love. We call them our Hidden Gems and we got some horrific… I mean Great selections from you and chose a winner. Today, Theodore (voice of The Grudge), weighs in on what he believes our top Hidden Gems should have been. Here are Theodore’s selections.
🩸NEWSWORTHY NUMBER
12%
That’s the percentage of Americans in a 2025 Realtor.com survey who said they believe they currently live in a haunted house.
Even better: 86% believe houses can potentially be haunted, and roughly one-third would consider buying one if the price were right.
Ghosts are no longer the dealbreaker they used to be.
Name the movie below
Name the movie. Answer at the bottom ⬇️⬇️⬇️
🩸HORROR IN THEATERS.
Train To Busan — (10th Anniversary Remastered. Aug. 14th) The 2016 Korean zombie masterpiece returns to theaters in a limited run… Zombies. Claustrophobia. Parental guilt. Public transportation. Basically four nightmares for the price of one.
The Ice Cream Man — (Aug. 7th) This summer the children are having a meltdown with Eli Roth’s new movie… Apparently “I scream, you scream” wasn’t really a warning. Trailer
Evil Dead Burn — (July 10th—still in theaters) After the loss of her husband, a grieving woman seeks solace with her in-laws at their secluded family home. However, it soon becomes a reunion from hell as the Book of the Dead unleashes demonic forces that transform them into Deadites one by one… It seems the dead weren’t evil enough. They’re also flamable. Trailer
Coming Soon
Insidious: Out of The Further — (Aug 21st) A young mother discovers she can travel into The Further—a purgatorial realm of lost souls. When something evil comes after her, she realizes she can bring what lives there back to the real world. Trailer
It Ends — (Aug 21st) follows a group of graduates who go on a late night drive, but accidentally turn onto a two lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors…Never trust a road that doesn't appear interested in letting you leave.
Blood Shine — (Aug 21st) Emily Bennett, Brendan Sexton III and horror stalwart Larry Fessenden star in this horror-thriller arriving in limited release.
Keep an eye out for
Buddy — (Aug 28th) Dressed as a unicorn, a beloved TV children’s host reveals his true self…He should have dressed as a Teletubby. Those were true horrors.
Colony — (Aug 28th) South Korean action horror film about the harrowing struggle of isolated survivors trapped in a building, quarantined amidst an unknown outbreak… We lived through COVID, now we get to watch it.
Onslaught — (Sept. 4th) An Army sniper unleashes her lethal skills to protect her young daughter from a rogue squad of genetically engineered soldiers… Terminating Terminators.
Hope — (Sept. 9th) A police chief, a policewoman and a group of hunters try to track down and kill a mysterious creature that's laying waste to a Korean village… More Korean horror. Lovely!
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🩸HORROR TO WATCH ON STREAMERS
What’s Worth The Watch — a mix of hidden gems, buzzy titles, comfort horror, underseen picks, and classics worth revisiting
“Worst Road Trip Ever.”
Hellcat — Streaming On: Shudder / AMC+
Lena wakes up wounded inside a moving camper and is told she has roughly an hour before whatever is happening to her becomes considerably worse… And it will.
“Never Trust a Man Who Whispers.”
The Whisper Man — Streaming on: Netflix
Netflix’s new adaptation of Alex North’s bestselling horror novel follows a widowed father and his son who move to a small town with a nasty history: a serial killer who lured his victims by whispering outside their windows at night.
Nothing good has ever followed the sentence: “Dad… there’s someone whispering outside my window.”
“Dinner With a Side of Apocalypse.”
Buffet Infinity — Streaming On: Shudder (Aug 21st)
Buffet Infinity tells its bizarre horror-comedy story through low-budget television commercials as two competing restaurants battle for supremacy in a fictional town.
Finally, a buffet where food poisoning may not be the worst possible outcome.
Comfort Horror Pick of The Week
“Back to School. Unfortunately, So Are the Aliens.”
The Faculty (1998) — Streaming on: Shudder
Robert Rodriguez gives us a high school where the teachers are acting strangely, the students are suspicious, and alien parasites may be taking over the planet. In other words, pretty standard first-week-back stuff.
Josh Hartnett. Clea DuVall. Elijah Wood. Jon Stewart getting stabbed in the eye with a pen.
The '90s really knew how to comfort us.
Horror Movie Trivia Answer: Hokum
🩸FINAL SIP
The eclipse came. The sky went dark. The sun returned, and so did that gosh darned Train to Busan.
Until next week, stay curious, stay creepy, enjoy the daylight, and the ride.
We read your emails. Got a question, or a comment, email us at: [email protected]. We will respond.
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