Halloween might be decidedly less social this year, but you can always take solace (or a scare) from a good podcast. From fictional tales of small-town horror to a real-life scaredy-cat screaming his way through Midsommar, here are five creepy podcasts to binge while you’re stuck inside this Halloween.
Real horror stories told by real people — all hosted by Rainn Wilson playing a video store clerk/spooky crypt keeper. Radio Rental dropped late last year and is set to return… at some point… but there’s plenty of scares in one season: a woman who escaped a serial killer, a horrifying babysitter, a mysterious childhood friend who disappears without a trace. Perfect fodder for your social-distanced Halloween party (a.k.a. you and your cats on the couch). – Brenna Ehrlich
Originating in Reddit’s horror-heavy No Sleep forum, Borrasca is a fictional podcast about a boy who moves to a small Ozarks town plagued by disappearances — and a mysterious grinding noise from the hills. Starring and produced by Riverdale‘s Cole Sprouse, the story was written by Rebecca Klingel, who also wrote for Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. Needless to say, you might want to listen with the lights on. – BE
Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween
Blumhouse — the production company behind Get Out, The Purge, among other scary movies — is pretty much the name in horror and, lucky for us, they’ve teamed with iHeartMedia to count down the days ’til the holiday with a new fictional podcast. Writer Aaron Mahnke — from the hit podcast series Lore — lends his pen. The show premieres on October 19th and stars Keegan-Michael Key as the caretaker of a creepy hotel called Hawthorne Manor; Key will narrate a new story each episode — from hauntings to doomsday situations — with the help of “cutting-edge binaural audio technology.” In short — the tech is supposed to make you feel like you’re in the episode, which sounds pretty cool considering we can’t actually go anywhere this year. – BE
Reply All hosts Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt want to see if someone can learn to love scary movies — through exposure. On the Scaredy Cats Horror Show, Goldman chooses movies for avowed scaredy-cat Vogt to watch and discuss on each episode, from campy classics like A Nightmare on Elm Street to recent Ari Aster dread-benders Hereditary and Midsommar. Guests from the biz get into how horror can offer a safe setting to experience a wide range of emotions, while Vogt questions who would ever want to. – Andrea Marks
Movie buff podcast Unspooled presents its first-ever horror miniseries this month, starting with Frankenstein, and moving onto The Babadook and the 1973 low-budget cult hit Ganja & Hess, among others. Hosts Amy Nicholson and Paul Scheer bring their depth of industry knowledge to the films, discussing their making, meaning, and broader relevance in horror movie history. – AM