By There’s only a few more days to get spooky, but four commutes are still ahead of you! Why not give one of these horror podcasts a try?
OTIS JIRY’S SCARY STORIES TOLD IN THE DARK
To be perfectly frank, there are so many very corny horror podcasts out there. A lot of them have heart and panache, but fail to really be truly frightening, but sometimes that can be exactly what you’re looking for! Of the ones I’ve dipped my toes into, none seems to have the heart and dedication of OTIS JIRY’S SCARY STORIES TOLD IN THE DARK. Mr. Jiry has been telling spooky tales in YouTube and podcast form since 2012. When you listen to him read short stories by a wide variety of writers, you can clearly hear his love for the work. The stories themselves may vary in quality and actual scariness, but if you’re looking for something light and fun to give you your thrills, this is a great show to put on with the lights off right before bed.
FACULTY OF HORROR
If you’re a fan of academic theory about why horror impacts us, and different lenses of interpretation that can be applied to horror films, look no further than FACULTY OF HORROR. Hosted by Andrea Subissati and Alexandra West, writers and “occasional academics” who love to take even seemingly dumb horror movies very seriously, the pair are nuanced, very well read, and unafraid to disagree with each other in their readings of the films they discuss. While certainly intended to be intellectually rigorous, the show never feels stuffy: Subissati and West are naturally warm and funny and take themselves just seriously enough. As someone who just did a podcast on the seminal film theory book MEN, WOMEN, AND CHAINSAWS, this show is incredibly up my alley, but for any horror movie fan, this show should be an absolute delight.
ON GRIEF
Yes, this is not a straightforward horror podcast, but it deals with such morbid subject matter, I couldn’t resist including it! ON GRIEF deals with all our fears and contradictory feelings surrounding mortality, both our own and the deaths of our loved ones. With the tagline: “We all die, but almost none of us talk about it,” this show is meant to normalize talking about the process of death and its impacts on the living. Karen Geier is a no-bullshit host, but her obvious fascination with all things to do with the experience of dying is apparent in every interview. A recent episode with the fascinating mortician Caitlin Doughty is a great way to get a taste of the show. Caitlin is a great speaker and highly effective at getting an audience to question why we deal with death and mortality the way that we do, especially in the Western world. ON GRIEF may be more sobering than a traditional horror podcast, but anyone obsessed with the macabre will certainly get a lot out of it.
REAL GHOST STORIES ONLINE
The internet has certainly allowed for folk tales and accounts of hauntings to spread farther and faster than ever before. We’ve always loved to tell tales of hauntings and possessions, but the internet lets all these stories accumulate with way more regularity. If you’re someone like me, you may struggle with really believing people’s ghost stories, but certainly enjoy hearing them told. REAL GHOST STORIES is a remarkable aggregator of mostly bite-sized stories of encounters with the paranormal. If you want a relatively wholesome, ooky-spooky show that you could even listen to with adolescent kids, this show is a real delight.
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