Mihret’s Podcast Picks: Horror audio dramas for the month of love
By Mihret Yirgeta, February 17 2023—
February feels like the October of the winter semester and in honour of this delightful fact, here are some spooky horror podcasts to enjoy this month. Maybe recommend one to your valentine.
The Magnus Archives
Arguably my favourite podcast of all time, The Magnus Archives follows Jonathan Sims, head archivist at the Magnus Institute, an institute dedicated to researching the paranormal. The show is in the form of Jonathan’s audio recordings of statements from people who have experienced paranormal incidents and small supplements from his small research team. It starts out as an anthology of seemingly unrelated stories but later becomes a larger overarching story. Five seasons later, I’m still sad it’s over. The voice acting and editing in this show are phenomenal. Please check trigger warnings though, the show goes in-depth into a lot of phobias.
Archive 81
Similarly, Archive 81 is a found footage horror podcast where archivist Dan has been hired to catalogue a set of audio tapes while he is legally required to record himself at all times. We learn in the first episode that these recordings were mailed to Dan’s friend Mark and that Dan has been missing for a while. Mark has been trying to find him by releasing these recordings as a podcast to crowdsource resources and help. It really is as if you are listening to found footage and not just an audio drama. The story gets progressively scarier, and the sound editing over the two seasons is excellent. There is also a TV show adaptation on Netflix. Trigger warnings for body horror in the show.
Alice Isn’t Dead
Alice Isn’t Dead follows a long-haul trucker, Keisha, as she drives across the continental US looking for her wife, the titular Alice, who she had thought was dead. During her travels, she encounters all manners of conspiracies and supernatural horrors standing in the way of finding her wife, and Alice doesn’t seem to want to be found. Told in the format of Keisha’s audio diaries, you will feel literal chills as you listen to this show. There are three seasons and a novelization of the show’s first season. Definitely check this out if you like long road-trip vibes.
Bridgewater
Bridgewater is not so much horror as it is a mystery thriller with supernatural elements. Staunchly skeptic folklore professor Jeremy Bradshaw is pulled back into a forty-year-old cold case involving his father’s disappearance when his father’s old police badge suddenly reappears in pristine condition at the last place he was seen. Along with his TA Vipin and Detective Anne Becker, Jeremy tries to find the truth behind his father’s disappearance in the midst of supernatural occurrences happening in the Bridgewater Triangle, an area which seems to attract more than its fair share of paranormal activity.
Faerie
Faerie is a fictional docuseries investigating the existence of faeries, a race of mythological beings that are as beguiling as they are deadly. The show follows Ryan Bailey as she investigates their mysterious existence and the covert agency that protects them, The Department, after she saves the life of a former Department agent. The more we learn about faeries the scarier they become and the worse the danger gets.