Horror Highlights: HALLOWEEN BOY, DOROTHEA, KEELHAUL, IN OUR DREAMS AWAKE

ONI PRESS at NYCC 2025: Acclaimed Cartoonist Dave Baker Brings Underground Sensation HALLOWEEN BOY to Oni Press: "Oni Press – the multiple Eisner and Harvey Award-winning publisher of groundbreaking comics and graphic novels since 1997 – will publish the first volume of Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist Dave Baker’s underground, self-published graphic novel series in 2026 with HALLOWEEN BOY VOL. 1: LAST OF THE HALLOWEEN BOYS. Written, drawn, colored, and lettered by Baker in his signature duotone style, HALLOWEEN BOY VOL. 1: LAST OF THE HALLOWEEN BOYS will collect the initial five issues of Baker’s self-published, double-sized Halloween Boy tales in a single hardcover volume for the first time with a new, never-before-seen cover. The publication will mark Baker’s first full-length comics work since his widely acclaimed metafictional masterpiece Mary Tyler MooreHawk debuted in 2024 from IDW/Top Shelf Comics and his acclaimed contribution to the sold-out Godzilla Versus Los Angeles special, also published by IDW.

"Halloween Boy is my attempt at making a two-fisted adventurer for the post-superhero age. Does the book feature megalomaniacal villains, inter-planetary warfare, and classic pulp-inspired escapades? You bet," said Dave Baker. "But, it's also a deeply personal reflection on family, fraternity, and purpose. The comics medium has been obsessively deconstructing and dismantling how we view what a hero is for the past forty years. I think there's value in that, and some of those tendencies can even be seen in this project. However, when it came to creating The Demon Who Lives, I really wanted to re-construct the heroic iconography that lured me into this great medium as a child. To repurpose, remix, and rebuild the best aspects of these types of stories in a hyper-earnest and sincere way. Hopefully, The Man of a Thousand Fates means half as much to other people as he does to me. After all, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance."

HALLOWEEN BOY chronicles the voyages of the man known only as Halloween Boy — an adventurer without a past and a combatant of the impossible. Halloween Boy traverses the galaxies taking on impossible quests and defending the innocent in an effort to live up to the legacy of his long-lost father…until his adventures unlock ugly secrets about his origins and his father’s true motives. Can Halloween Boy now face both the truth of the past - and his father himself?!

"As anyone who has experienced Mary Tyler MooreHawk knows by now, Dave Baker is one of the most potently creative voices making and creating comics to emerge within this decade. Dave's work is like riding a psychic vortex through eight decades of comics history – where Golden Age archetypes, underground comix, postmodern fiction, and, above all, some ripping good yarns all combine into a new kind of intensely calculated storytelling that defies the typical whims of space and time,” said Oni Press President & Publisher Hunter Gorinson. “HALLOWEEN BOY is a brawling, bloody dose of 21st century pulp fiction with a brain buried underneath all of its bruises. Call your comic shop -- because The Demon Who Lives is coming!"

Oni Press will publish Dave Baker’s HALLOWEEN BOY VOL. 1: LAST OF THE HALLOWEEN BOYS on May 26, 2026.

For more updates on Oni Press, visit them on Bluesky, Facebook, and Instagram."

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Epic Pictures’ DREAD Label Sets Release Date for True-Crime Horror Film Dorothea: "Epic Pictures’ specialty horror label DREAD presents DOROTHEA. The film follows serial killer granny Dorothea Puente as she lures the vulnerable, kills without remorse, and buries secrets in her garden. The film will have a limited theatrical run beginning October 31st, and on November 4^th, will be available for rent or purchase on video-on-demand.

DOROTHEA is part of Dread’s inaugural slate of biographical true-crime horror films, following ED KEMPER with RICHARD RAMIREZ set to release next. DOROTHEA was written and directed by Chad Ferrin (Pig Killer, H.P. Lovecraft’s the Old Ones, Ed Kemper).

“After the world premiere at the Valley Film Festival, I am confident DOROTHEA will be a success” says writer/director Chad Ferrin. “The audience loved it, there was such great energy from the first frame to the last pulsating through the crowd, I've never had a more positive screening in my career. And with the amazing job Dread did with the release of ED KEMPER, I know DOROTHEA is in the best possible hands.”

The official synopsis for the film reads: DOROTHEA is a chilling true crime horror that unearths the monstrous secrets of Dorothea Puente, a soft-spoken grandmother who drugged, murdered, and buried her elderly and disabled tenants beneath her garden. Behind her warm smile lurked a predator who used kindness as bait and survival as justification. As the story peels back layers of trauma, deception, and calculated cruelty, it reveals a harrowing portrait of a woman shaped by abuse and driven by greed. Dorothea forces audiences to confront the terrifying truth that real evil often hides in plain sight.

“DOROTHEA is the second in our series of unflinching true crime films that explore the darkest corners of human nature,” said Patrick Ewald, Executive Producer and CEO of Dread.  “Director Chad Ferrin masterfully transports audiences to the era in which these horrifying events took place, capturing both the atmosphere and psychology of the time with a truly singular vision.”  Ewald adds, “Our next film with Chad, centered on Richard Ramirez, the Night Stalker, will push this series even further, diving deeper into the terror and truth behind one of history’s most infamous killers.”

DOROTHEA stars Susan Priver (Ed Kemper, Night Caller) Lew Temple (The Walking Dead, Rango), Brinke Stevens (House on Haunted Hill, The Devil’s Disciples), Ginger Lynn (The Devil’s Rejects), Brenda James (Slither, Stargate: Atlantis), Cassandra Gava (Conan the Barbarian), Cyril O’Reilly (Porky’s, Murder, She Wrote), Ezra Buzzington (The Artist, Ed Gein), Robert Miano (Fast & Furious, Minx), Brandon Kirk (Ed Kemper, Scalper) and William Salyers (Mass Effect 3, Batman: Arkham Shadow)."

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KEELHAUL:  "Captain Reed hides a dangerous secret while her crew spirals into mutiny, after capturing and torturing a mythical sea creature."

Directed and Written by: Edgar Cortés Campoy
Starring: Dakota Daulby & Joseph Schwartz
Executive Producers: Ethan Daniel Corbett & Daniel Schaefer
Producers: Dakota Daulby, Edgar Cortés Campoy, Harrison Houde, Oscar Ramos
Associate Producer: Julia Weisberg and Jan Sikora
Cinematographer: Natalia Moscoso
Production Designer: Jannik Ehret
Set Decorator: Hayden Garratt
Custom Designer: Phoenix Vavincak
Makeup Department Head: Jed Dornoff
Sound Mixer: Shorif Suhel
1st AC: Luis Cruz
Gaffer: Joaquin Su
VFX Artist: Alex Pearson
Colorist: Cameron Marygold
Coloring Producer: Brayden Deskins
Coloring House: Fairchild Post Co.

KEELHAUL is set to premiere on October 12th at the Sitges International Film Festival in Spain

Learn more at: https://vesperiafilms.com/

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In Our Dreams Awake #3 - A Dreampunk Comic: "Coming to Kickstarter on October 8th, the third issue of a dream comic book miniseries from John McGuire (The Crossing), Edgar Salazar (X-Men Blue), Egg Embry (Knights of the Dinner Table), and Rolands Kalniņš (Coins of Judas): In Our Dreams Awake #3. 

In the first issue: 

Jason Byron wakes up as a painter in a land ruled by magic and magi lords. An artist in a world at war with technology, he rebelled by using a banned telescope. What he sees changes everything.

Jason Byron wakes up as a cyberpunk gang lord in Drowned London. An alien violating his turf means violence. Jason has to stand his ground, yet hide who the trespasser is to him from his gang and his rivals. 

In the second issue: 

Jason Byron wakes up as a fantasy painter. A spaceship crashes, and he’s ordered to document the site but forget what he’s seen. What happens when no spell can erase this forbidden knowledge from Jason’s mind? 

Jason Byron wakes up as a cyberpunk gang lord. He’s in the middle of a war, but he’s been summoned to parley with cats. What happens when Jason refuses to stop fighting? 

In this issue:

Jason Byron wakes up as a fantasy painter. Jason and his wife Laura must face the consequences of their defiance of the magi laws. In the aftermath, Jason reaches out to his one-time friend to perform one more magical ritual for him.

Jason Byron wakes up as a cyberpunk gang lord. Finding himself in the hospital, as much a prisoner as a patient. But his final plan to escape the planet with his love is still in motion… if one of his enemies doesn’t finish him first.

For Jason Byron, what’s real? Which life is his existence? Which life is his dream? 

In Our Dreams Awake #3 features 24 pages of story plus 2 covers by Jose Garcia and Rolands Kalniņš. This dreampunk, cyberpunk, and fantasy tale is inspired by Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Inception, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Dreamscape, What Dreams May Come, Dream Within a Dream, Black Mirror: “San Junipero,” The Sopranos: “Funhouse,” Deckard's dream in Blade Runner, and the hopes of everyone lost in a fantasy trying to find the hidden meaning. We’re asking you to support our dream of printing this complete comic."

Learn more at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ioda/in-our-dreams-awake-3-a-dreampunk-comic