In this paper, a novel simple horizontal electric coupling (SHEC) structure is proposed, which only requires a single elliptical ring slot to be etched at the top layer of the substrate between the two adjacent SIW cavities. The working mechanism of SHEC is revealed using the equivalent magnetic current theory. The results indicate that the ring slot is divided into two semi-elliptical slots by the via-hole, and the induced electric fields generated by equivalent magnetic current near the slots enhance the extremely weak electric field intensity at the edge of the SIW cavities, resulting in the formation of electric coupling between the adjacent two cavities. As a verification, a fourth-order SIW filter operating at 27.96 GHz was designed based on the SHEC structure. The filter exhibits high selectivity with sharp roll-off of 114/105 dB/GHz and obtains controllable transmission zeros (TZs) by changing the size of the elliptical slot. Additionally, the proposed SHEC design has a regular via-holes arrangement and does not require etching slot on the bottom layer of the substrate, making it easy to accurately process, integrate, and package, providing a new approach for the design of millimeter-wave filters.