The Owl Field is a company specializing in binaural audio (3D sound) and their free story “Overnight” makes things even more immersive by making you the star! The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets have created a radio play which ties into their Lovecraftian science fiction RPG Spaceship Zero and I highly recommend it.
The website Bleeding Critic offers many streaming audio tales in addition to its news and reviews. In honor of these works often being referred to as “Horror Medication,” I have selected the story “Chest Pains.” Similarly, Irrational Fears has a streaming audio book presentation of Elias Witherow’s “Seven Minute Sacrifice.”
Mabel describes itself as a podcast about “ghosts, family secrets, strange houses, and missed connections” while That Horrible Woman refers to itself as the “new vibe of horror and speculative fiction podcast.”
Return Home is a serialized tale of a man who returns to his home town after many years of being away. But when the name of said town is “Melancholy Falls,” you know it won’t be a pleasant experience. Diary of a Madman is, as the name implies, a collection of recorded audio diaries from an unnamed madman.
The Wicked Library has a wealth of horror story readings (including some appearances by people whose work I’ve covered in the past). Both A Night of Horror and FateCrafters Studios are home to many a scary tale.
Spotify has so many wonderful audio stories. Both the Sleep No More collection of classic horror stories, the popular Little Evil Things series can be found there. That’s right, Volumes II, III, IV and V are available as well!
Mike Arnzen has a Bandcamp page where you can stream several collections of his short stories and poetry, including the expanded digital edition of AudioVile! The Atlanta Radio Theatre Company is another old friend with a Bandcamp page full of streaming goodness, along with a “Name Your Price” download of The Dweller in the Depths.
The Elegant Skulls specialize in both music and poetry (as read by Boneyard the Poet Ghoul). Although Boneyard’s reading of “The Raven” can only be streamed for free, the reading of “The Spider and the Ghost of the Fly” by Vachel Lindsay and the audio drama special Halloween Extravaganza can be downloaded for free. Since it would be obnoxious to keep specifying what can be downloaded for free and what can’t, I’m just going to focus on the content from here on. The Elegant Skulls aren’t the only band with some audio goodness for you. Matt Abott and Wesley Slover have a chilling take on H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Color Out of Space “ and Covered In Bees have a short comedy skit called “Dude Meets Dracula.” The Mechanism’s short retelling of Frankenstein is very different from the original while Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks’ Halloween Is Here is a hilarious parody of old Halloween records (complete with a few stories). Mark Binder’s tale The Zombie Cat is much longer (and more gory) than one might expect from the name and Drew Chial has a nifty tale of soul selling called Terms and Conditions. M. Amanuensis Sharkchild’s audiobook adaptations of “The Unlike Light” and The Spirit Collectors are sure to enthrall you.
Let’s move on to SoundCloud. Blue Hours Productions’ revival of Suspense is well worth your time. Big Finish has the full Doctor Who audio drama Last of the Titans, along with the complete first parts of The Rani Elite and The Highest Science. They have a festive offering from their The Confessions Of Dorian Gray line called Trick or Treat available as well! RadioCliff has a live radio drama performance of Dracula, David Graey reads H.P. Lovecraft’s “Dagon,” Chris P. Fuchs created a radio play called “Dark Nights” and Nate Edmondson has an abridged version of Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death.” Lukas Arbogast’s original audio tale “Shadow Over Brooklyn” feels like a portion of something bigger. That reminds me, both Colin J. Schwager’s “I love you” and prologue for “They Walked Among Us” were definitely made to promote a larger future work.
Kid Congo Powers, of Kid Congo and The Pink Monkey Birds fame, has launch a podcast on iTunes where he reads poetry by Edgar Allan Poe (and other authors). iTunes also brings us The Lost Cat, The Bridge, Tunnels, The Magnus Archives, A New Winter and Spines.
Still not satisfied? Not only is the Six Foot Plus 2016 Halloween special available, but there’s plenty of other audio dramas to be found at Audio-Drama.com. As a final bonus, here are all of the installments of Za Frûmi’s dark fantasy albums I could find on Bandcamp:
You might recall how one of the members went on to form Atrium Carceri. I will leave it up for you to decide if these mark a new form of audio drama or if they are just music tracks that are heavy on dialogue.
As always, Gravedigger’s Local 16 is not to be held responsible for anything that may occur (be it good or bad) as a result of downloading or streaming from any links given here. Attempt at your own discretion. Some downloads may not work in certain regions. Blah blah blah…