Misc
Happy Birthday, Horror Press!
Three years ago today, Horror Press slithered its way out of the birth canal and onto the popcorn-covered floor of [insert your local indie movie theater]. Covered in embryonic fluid, Raisinets, and sticky miscellaneous floor fluids, Horror Press has come a long way. You’ve been with us through our first steps, the terrible twos, countless festivals, two podcasts, numerous giveaways, Horror 101s, rankings, retrospectives, lists, and so much more. We’ve appreciated your support along the way, but we want you to know that we’re just getting started. Our third year is already starting off with a bang and we plan on making it bigger, badder, and bloodier.
While it’s important to look forward to what’s to come, I also want to take a moment and look back at all of the quality content that’s gotten us this far. From gay sharks, to a unique look at Martyrs, to an interview with Jennifer freaking Kent, we’ve covered a wide variety of topics. It’s time to put on your party hat (like Leo in that episode of Twin Peaks where Bobby and Shelly dress him up when he’s comatose) and join us as we highlight what makes Horror Press, well, Horror Press!
A Look Back at Some of Our Favorite Articles at Horror Press
Gay Jaws!
Queer historian of American horror cinema Abigail Waldron wrote one of our most controversial articles in the history of Horror Press. In March, Abigail asked the question, “Is it time for a queer Jaws remake?” This article caused tons of…debate among horror fans across social media. Many of the responses were from readers who merely read the headline, but those who read the article were treated to an incredibly well-written thought experiment. If you happened to miss this article when it came out, now’s your time to check it out.
Angry Aliens!
One of the co-hosts of the Horror Press Podcast, Eli BadCritic, took on the task of ranking the Alien franchise in the most Eli way possible! If gay Jaws didn’t get people in a tizzy, this one sure did! Ridley Scott’s Alien is one of the most prolific Sci-Fi horror films ever, but where does it rank for Eli? We’ve had many franchise rankings here at Horror Press but none as contentious as this one!
Castle On A Hill
Luis Pomales-Diaz is unquestionably one of the powerhouses at Horror Press. From Smile 2, Terrifier 3, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, A Quiet Place: Day One, Longlegs, and countless others, Luis has made sure to cover many of the heavy hitters to grace the silver screen last year. Aside from his unwavering love for the Chucky series, Luis wrote an editorial on something that I, and many fans my age, care deeply about: Dark Castle Entertainment. Dark Castle initially set out to remake the films of famed horror filmmaker William Castle. As far back as I can remember, some of my earliest horror movie memories are of Dark Castle films. If you are also a fan of the Aughts classics, then give Luis’ editorial a read. You won’t regret it!
Final Girls Support Group
Many of us use horror as an escape from the real world, some of us use it for entertainment, and some of us use horror to help the grieving process. Writer Ian Carlos Crawford crafted a brilliant look into his relationship between horror and grieving. This is the article that drew my attention to Horror Press and prompted me to ruin Curator of Everything Horror Press James-Michael Fleites’ life. Horror has the unique ability to cover a wide variety of topics and handle each one of them differently; sometimes all you need to make yourself feel comfortable is an hour and a half of good ole hack-n-slash.
Michael Myers and Me
Sharai Bohannon has been incredibly busy between her countless podcasts and numerous bylines. Her Shudder streaming guides have been incredibly helpful and well-received by both fans and casual horror enjoyers. While not scouring through Shudder’s insanely awesome catalog, Sharai has written one of the most deeply personal editorials on Horror Press. Check out her article about her insatiable love for Halloween and the undeniable tether she has to the masked killer.
Too Much Paranormal Activity
We all know that Paranormal Activity was the film to singlehandedly kickstart the mid-aughts obsession with found footage. Writer/podcaster Brennan Klein, who has a penchant for 80’s slashers, took on the daunting task of watching and ranking ALL of the films in the Paranormal Activity franchise. This isn’t the only franchise he tackled, Brennan has also ranked franchises like Leprechaun, Blair Witch, and The Amityville Horror! He also took a task that many would be too afraid to broach when he covered the Top 10 Child Deaths in Horror.
Hellraiser and You
Brooklyn-based Bash Ortega has a history of interviewing quite a few exciting voices in horror. From the crew behind Black Eyed Susan on AI and consent, prolific filmmaker Bertrand Mandico on his queerly fantastic She Is Conann, and the writer/director Alex of one of my Letterboxd Top 4 Alex Phillips on All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms! And that’s to name a few. One of my favorite editorials from Bash is their deep dive into Hellraiser and all the kinky shit that lurks below the surface.
Disturbing Movies
Toward the end of 2023, James-Michael shared an article with me that pissed me off. Buzzfeed saw fit to put out an article on the most disturbing movies of all time. Now, I’m not one to gatekeep horror by any means, but it was clear all they did was google “disturbing movies” and hastily put together a list they thought would pass for casual horror fans. It did not. This led me to watch 50+ movies I had never seen before and revisit movies I have seen before…I didn’t sleep for a month. I’m proud of all of my articles on Horror Press, but this one takes the cake. (Though my interview with Larry Fessenden is definitely the runner-up!)
This is all just the tip of the iceberg. There are countless amazing articles from the Horror Press writers and there is so much more to come! Thank you for joining us along the way and we hope to keep your skin crawling for years to come.
Hail Raatma!
Misc
Our Halloween Giveaway Is Here!
Enter Our Halloween Giveaway!
How to Enter:
Step 1. Make sure to FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK AND JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP!
Step 2. LIKE AND SHARE the giveaway post!
Step 3. This is the most important step, email us at contact@horrorpress.com with your FULL Facebook name (so we can verify you’re in the group) and who your favorite character is from the Texas Chainsaw franchise.
**Giveaway entries are limited to addresses in the United States.**
**All entries must be 18 or older to enter**
What You’ll Win
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Video
- 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
- Original DTS-HD MA 7.1 and 5.1 surround audio and lossless stereo audio
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Brand new audio commentary with Dread Central co-founder Steve “Uncle Creepy” Barton and co-host of The Spooky Picture Show podcast Chris MacGibbon
- Archival audio commentary with director Marcus Nispel, producer Michael Bay, executive producers Brad Fuller and Andrew Form and New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, director of photography Daniel Pearl, production designer Greg Blair, art director Scott Gallager, sound supervisor Trevor Jolly and composer Steve Jablonsky
- Archival audio commentary with Marcus Nispel, Michael Bay, writer Scott Kosar, Brad Fuller, Andrew Form and actors Jessica Biel, Erica Leerhsen, Eric Balfour Jonathan Tucker, Mike Vogel and Andrew Bryniarski
- Reimagining a Classic, a brand new interview with director Marcus Nispel
- Shadows of Yesteryear, a brand new interview with cinematographer Daniel Pearl
- The Lost Leatherface, a brand new interview with actor Brett Wagner
- Masks and Massacres, a brand new interview with makeup effects artist Scott Stoddard
- Chainsaw Symphony, a brand new interview with composer Steve Jablonsky
- Chainsaw Redux: Making A Massacre, a making-of documentary
- Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, an in-depth look at the infamous killer who inspired the character of Leatherface
- Severed Parts, a look at the cutting room floor and some of the scenes excised from the final edit
- Deleted scenes including an alternate opening and ending
- Screen tests for Jessica Biel, Eric Balfour and Erica Leerhsen
- Behind-the-scenes featurette
- Cast and crew interviews
- Theatrical trailers and TV spots
- Concept art galleries
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Aaron Lea
- Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Michael Gingold
Misc
NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights: A Sneak Peek at ‘The Lost Boys’ Musical, ‘Resident Evil: Requiem,’ and More!
As soon as New York Comic Con announced that its 2025 theme would be “haunted,” I started lacing up my comfy shoes and making a beeline for the Javitz Center! Horror has always been represented at the con, but it felt fitting that it should play a central role in this year’s event at a time when the genre seems more popular than ever.
From beloved family-friendly properties like The Nightmare Before Christmas to pants-dampening titles like the upcoming Resident Evil: Requiem, horror appeared in countless shapes and forms. Here are all the best and scariest insights I gleaned from the show floor, panel rooms, and pop-ups of New York Comic Con 2025!
Our NYCC 2025 Horror Highlights
Resident Evil: Requiem Is Going to Test Your Bladder Strength
Full disclaimer: I’m not a gamer. I’m honestly pretty bad at games, which made my Resident Evil: Requiem play session all the more frightening because I was convinced that everyone around me would realize I’m a fraud. But with easy-to-grasp controls, even for a newb like me, the latest installment in the iconic horror franchise quickly sucked me in and left me on edge for entirely different reasons.
During my 30-minute session, I was introduced to FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, Requiem’s central character. She swims to consciousness to find herself strapped upside down on a gurney with a needle in her arm, siphoning her blood. After Grace managed to free herself, the controls were handed over to me to explore the creepy facility through Grace’s eyes, looking for a fuse. Some spaces were bathed in red light; others were lit only by flickering bulbs that left me white-knuckling the controller, waiting for something to emerge from the shadows and swallow me whole, not helped by Grace’s anxious, stuttering breathing in my ear.
I took a moment to appreciate how detailed video games have become since my childhood experiences playing Evil Dead: Hail to the King on the original PlayStation (seriously, you can see the dust drifting in beams of light now?!), only for the sound of movement somewhere in the facility to yank me back to the present. I renewed my frantic search for the fuse, only to run blindly into a pitch-black room and encounter something enormous that dragged me into the darkness. Sorry, Grace!
You can find out what happens next when Resident Evil: Requiem releases for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27, 2026.
Megan Fox Is Among the New Cast Members in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2—And Blumhouse Hasn’t Given Up on Its Other m3gan Yet
Blumhouse made several announcements at their NYCC panel, most notably that Megan Fox (Jennifer’s Body) is voicing Toy Chica in director Emma Tammi’s highly anticipated sequel Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, coming to theaters on December 5. Other new additions to the cast include YouTuber Matthew Patrick, aka MatPat, who cameoed in the first movie and will voice Toy Bonnie, and Kellen Goff, who has voiced multiple characters in the game series and will now lend his pipes to Toy Freddy.
I’m interested in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, not least because my best friend is terrified of the franchise and makes a wildly entertaining moviegoing companion—but I’m more interested in the future of another Blumhouse franchise, M3GAN. After the sequel underperformed, likely due in part to its hard genre pivot away from horror and into action territory, the future of the killer doll is uncertain. But in a special industry presentation on “The Business of Fear,” Jason Blum revealed that “we’re all working to keep M3GAN alive,” adding that Blumhouse is exploring other potential mediums before trying to resurrect her on film.
Does that mean a M3GAN video game might come our way in the future, or perhaps a TV series? I don’t know, but I have a feeling this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the silicone diva.

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
The Lost Boys: A New Musical Will Feature Flying Stunts and a Live Vampire Band
My queer heart is a sucker for musical adaptations of horror films I love, so you can be certain that I’ll be heading down to the Santa Carla Boulevard—aka Broadway’s Palace Theater—for The Lost Boys: A New Musical, which begins previews on March 27, 2026. At their NYCC panel, producer Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring franchise), director Michael Arden (Maybe Happy Ending), and cast members LJ Benet, Ali Louis Bourzgui, and Maria Wirries revealed why they feel Joel Schumacher’s 1987 classic translates so well to the stage, and what audiences can look forward to.
“There’s something that I see with both horror movies, musicals, and superhero movies—there’s an element of melodrama that’s really rewarding,” says Wilson, who began his career in musical theater and worked with Schumacher on the director’s 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. “Some people view it as camp, but there’s a reality of it being heightened that felt like this story cemented itself so much to being a musical.”
“They’re a biker gang, after all, and there’s a level of theatricality to that in and of itself,” says Arden. “Our biker gang also happens to play instruments.”
That’s right: the vampires will be playing instruments live on stage, which made casting twice as hard. Ali Louis Bourzgui, who plays David, the character portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the film, reveals that he plays guitar. And that wasn’t the only unusual request in the casting call: auditions included a flying test. (Presumably wires were involved, unless Arden has found himself a real cabal of vampires in his cast.)
Other highlights that fans can look forward to include killer music from one of Arden’s favorite bands, The Rescues. You can listen to the song “Have to Have You” right now, featuring instrumentals from Slash. The director also teases that many fan-favorite moments from the film will feature in some way in the musical, including the bridge scene and, yes, even the sexy saxophone guy.
Greg Nicotero’s Guts & Glory Marks a New Challenge for a Legend of the Business
If you like looking at gnarly practical effects in horror movies, chances are you’re familiar with Greg Nicotero’s work, whether you realize it or not. The legendary SFX artist has worked on everything from George Romero’s Day of the Dead and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II to Kill Bill and, more recently, The Walking Dead. The impressive extent of his resume was made clear at the panel “Shudder is Here to Scare the S*** Out of You,” in which almost any film mentioned by the other panelists was met by a small smile and a humble murmur of “worked on that” into the mic, often followed by a wild anecdote. Nicotero seems like the most interesting man in the world to grab a drink with, and his new horror competition show for Shudder—Guts & Glory—will let us see more of the man behind the makeup brush.
“Guts & Glory is one of the most fun times I’ve had on a show,” Nicotero says, teasing that the series is “part Sam Raimi, part Halloween Horror Nights, and part Survivor.”
In the six-episode first season, contestants are dropped into an Alabama swamp, where there’s an urban legend about an evil spirit. “One of the contestants gets possessed by the evil spirit, people start dying off, but in the meantime, they’re still competing and there’s a prize,” Nicotero explains.
Guts & Glory is effects-heavy, which was challenging to do in an unscripted series relying on real people’s real-time reactions. “You do a movie, you can cut and try it again,” Nicotero explains. “[This] was completely out of my wheelhouse and out of my comfort zone, but I’m really, really proud of it.”
Nicotero’s Creepshow was one of the first original shows to debut on Shudder, so he’s truly part of the DNA of the horror streamer, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. Guts & Glory premieres on October 14 as part of Shudder’s Season of Screams programming.
Horror Short The Littles Deserves the Big-Screen Feature Treatment
Some short films are perfectly suited to their bite-sized format, while others contain the seeds of something much bigger. At the New York Premiere of The Littles, a new short written and directed by American Horror Story producer Andrew Duplessie, I could immediately see the potential for the feature film that Duplessie hopes to make.
Equal parts charming and unsettling, The Littles stars M3GAN’s Violet McGraw as a little girl with a loose floorboard in her bedroom. One night, a scuffling sound and a crack of light between the boards lead the little girl to discover that her family isn’t alone in the house…
Duplessie says The Littles was inspired by his own experiences growing up in a creaky old house with a no-doubt overactive imagination. The short features creepy-cute stop-motion animation from Anthony Scott (The Nightmare Before Christmas), puppets by Katy Strutz (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio), and some truly adorable miniature sets by Aiden Creates, all blended perfectly with the live-action scenes. Check it out if it’s playing at a festival near you, and watch this space for a (fingers-crossed) future feature!

Photo taken by Samantha McLaren.
Disney Publishing’s New The Nightmare Before Christmas Tie-in Novel Welcomes Younger Fans into the Scary Fun
NYCC’s horror happenings weren’t all geared toward an adult audience. Disney Publishing took over Daily Provisions Manhattan West for a pop-up experience inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas, featuring themed food and drinks like a delectable Pumpkin Potion coffee that I could honestly drink all season long.
At a media and creator event in the space, I took a look at the newly released Hour of the Pumpkin Queen from New York Times best-selling author Megan Shepherd, who also wrote the official novelization of The Nightmare Before Christmas for the film’s 30th anniversary in 2023. In this new tie-in novel, Sally and her rag doll apprentice, Luna, embark on a time-bending adventure to save Jack Skellington and Halloween Town after falling through a mysterious portal.
I was gifted a copy of the book by Disney, but all opinions are my own here. I’m looking forward to giving it a read during the inevitable Halloween hangover that takes place in November, before likely passing it on to my young nieces when they’re old enough. It’s a full novel, not a picture book, so definitely geared more toward a YA audience, but between the beautiful artwork on the cover and the seasonal theme, it might just be the perfect gift for the budding horror lover in your life.
That’s a wrap on New York Comic Con 2025! Be sure to bookmark Horror Press if you haven’t already so you never miss our coverage of conventions, festivals, and more.





