Somewhere right now, an artist is elbow-deep in silicone at a kitchen table, casting a wound that will never be seen by more than a few hundred followers. Gore Wars is looking for exactly that person.
The practical-effects competition series in development at indie streamer Screamify opened casting this month at gorewars.com — and on July 21 it quietly did something genuinely artist-friendly: it killed the audition tape. You no longer have to write, shoot, and cut a produced audition to be considered. You submit a reel or examples of practical FX work you have already made — prosthetics, makeup, blood rigs, creature builds, gore gags — about three minutes, tops.
That change matters most for the people this craft has always actually belonged to: the self-taught, the haunted-house crew members, the makeup artists doing festival shorts for gas money, the moms running fake blood through aquarium tubing in the garage. The people with skills and no spare weekend to produce a tape. Horror's effects tradition was never built in pristine studios — it was built at kitchen tables, and the Bride's lightning-streaked beehive and the ghouls of a Pittsburgh farmhouse are proof of how far homemade craft can travel.
The show's premise is the craft itself: practical only, no AI, no CGI. On the series, the winning artist takes a $10,000 grand prize. Worth saying plainly — this is a casting call for a series in development, not a contest you enter to win money. Your reel is your case for a spot in the cast; the prize belongs to whoever wins the show.
Two protections in the terms deserve a spotlight, because artists are right to be wary in 2026. First: submissions are watched by human producers for casting purposes only — Screamify pledges they will never be used to train AI. Second: the work must be yours, and anyone on camera must have consented to appear. Even the campaign art practices what it preaches, using only authentic public-domain classic-horror imagery.
Casting closes August 20, 2026. US residents, 18 and over. If your best work is sitting in a camera roll, this is the three minutes it was waiting for.
Images: Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Carnival of Souls (1962), Night of the Living Dead (1968) — authentic public-domain stills; no AI imagery.
Disclosure: Gore Wars is produced by Screamify, a sister company of Final Girl News' parent. Casting details verified against the official terms at gorewars.com/rules.
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