There are some things my buddies may inform you I’m recognized for: studying the cutest rom-coms, live-Tweeting about The Bachelor for all 80-something of my followers to see, and referring to every of my potted crops as “infants.” Oh yeah, and loving completely something “makes the hair on the again of your neck arise” unsettling.
Sure, I could squeal in delight when the leads end up collectively on my favourite TV present, however I additionally love an excellent story in regards to the creepy, the unexplained, and the downright scary. Whether or not it’s a story a couple of village’s unexplained disappearance, a video collector who can’t cease speaking in his sleep, or a homicide in a small city, there’s simply one thing in regards to the thriller that simply enables you to get misplaced within the story. And what higher method to get your day by day dose of true crime, a riveting thriller, or no matter else floats your boat than within the type of a podcast? Significantly, there’ll be completely zero guide cover-induced judgment that every one thriller lovers have acquired as they settled into that guide in a public place.
So, with out the troubles of being judged for a questionable cowl, listed below are 12 fictional thriller podcasts to hearken to for those who go completely feral for the style. However a phrase to the sensible: Simply don’t hear to those earlier than mattress.
For anybody who loves an excellent story crammed with unexplained and plain weird occasions, this one’s for you. This podcast follows reporter Lia Haddock as she tries to resolve the thriller of what occurred when over 300 individuals disappeared from Limetown with out a hint. The Roanoke-esque story options “newscasts” and interviews with the townspeople in an try and try to work out what occurred that day. Just like The X-Recordsdata, detectives, journalists, and cops attempt to discover somebody who can reveal any clues to what occurred, however not everyone seems to be telling the reality. Since this disappearance happened about 10 years up to now, the episodes really feel as in the event that they’re switching from the previous to the current. With Lia’s occasional check-ins and realistic-sounding stories, you may even overlook you’re listening to a piece of fiction.
Campy Stranger Issues vibes meets an evil video retailer in Video Palace. The sequence follows VHS collector Mark Cambria as he begins sleep speaking in a language that doesn’t exist. Confused and barely disturbed, Mark goes down a Google rabbit gap to discover a potential clarification and remembers a mysterious VHS tape he came across a few weeks in the past. As a contract video editor, Mark’s no stranger to bizarre movies, however there’s one thing completely different about this unmarked white videotape that fell into his fingers. Although he initially thinks this tape was only a bizarre experimental movie from the ’70s, Mark and his girlfriend Tamra quickly understand that this tape got here from Video Palace, a sinister retailer tied to conspiracy, the occult, and hazard.
Armed with an experience in previous movies and a robust curiosity for the unknown, the New York couple begin their very own investigative podcast in an try and doc the reality about Video Palace. With a hair-raising soundtrack and a few very creepy-sounding audio clips, this podcast is ideal for those who’re in search of a chilling new story. As for me, I’ll be avoiding any video retailer I ever come throughout.
If crime fiction books are your ardour, one thing tells me Riordan’s Desk will likely be proper up your alley. Every 20-minute or so episode of Riordan’s Desk is an out-loud studying of a Mark Coggins novel, the creator of the August Riordan sequence. This podcast is an ideal choose for those who’re caught inside on a wet afternoon and need to really feel such as you’re getting misplaced in a guide with out having to carry a web page.
Although the chipper intro is a bit tacky, every episode takes you deeper into a fancy case Detective Riordan is engaged on. In season one in all Riordan’s Desk, our detective goes again to San Fransisco to avenge the demise of his associate and comes throughout an unsettling mixture of grotesque murders, kidnappings, and the specter of extra deaths to return. Working quick, the detective should uncover the legal behind all of this earlier than he’s their subsequent goal. Since this podcast is a studying of a guide, I’d hearken to this one at a quicker velocity and queue it up to your subsequent highway journey.
Searching for a protracted new sequence to binge? Nicely, with greater than 100 completely different episodes, the Ostium Podcast could be the right soundtrack to your afternoon stroll. A narrative crammed with thriller and the unknown, the sequence follows Jake, who discovers a secret city when a recreation of GeoGuessr will get a bit of too intense. Entranced by its secrecy, our fearless protagonist quickly discovers that the city of Ostium really harbors a group of secret doorways that result in unbelievable locations. The catch? The entire vibe of Ostium, whose title actually means “small opening” or orifice, is a bit of off.
With a inhabitants of zero and a location that’s practically invisible on Google Maps, Jake quickly begins to study that this city is probably not an harmless secret of his however as a substitute a sign of impending doom. Seeing that Jake is a bit of nervous and is used to the consolation of an workplace cubicle, he’s a little bit of an unreliable narrator, which makes for an much more thrilling listening expertise. When will he resolve to show round? Why can’t Jake keep in mind what occurred throughout his final time in Ostium? With practically each episode leaving off on a cliff-hanger, the suspense is certainly going to make you press “play” to hearken to the following installment.
Positive, sitting again and listening to podcasts are cool, however what if you need one thing that’s a little bit of a problem? Enter: this interactive podcast, 5 Week Countdown. A mixture of decisions and thrills, that is an audio drama podcast the place it’s as much as you to assist a sufferer escape. By means of every episode, you’ll acquire clues and clear up mini challenges as a way to help the sufferer in getting nearer to security. The sufferer, you ask? YouTuber Whitney Wurd has been kidnapped and held captive by Okay, and the one approach to determine the place she is is by taking a look at her social media and asking questions.
Should you like escape rooms and choose-your-ending, Black Mirror-type motion pictures, this podcast will certainly be a brain-teasing problem. And, after all, the complete sequence is a race in opposition to the clock. Should you’ve received a while to kill and love an excellent story and need to really feel such as you’re a undercover agent with out really being a undercover agent, be certain to tune into this one.
For a little bit of a thriller and sci-fi mashup, The Hyacinth Catastrophe follows an area crew as they rush to survey a Jovian asteroid and save the crew of their sister ship. The primary episode kicks off because the crew of the Corvus ship is captured and held for ransom. Determined to save lots of these on their sister ship, these on board the MRS Hyacinth consider their finest, and perhaps solely hope, is attending to the resource-rich asteroid to save lots of the day.
The story is advised as for those who’re listening to a transcript between the members of the crew. And let me inform you, themes of corruption, horror, and, above all, drama weigh heavy on every of those interactions. As a number of ships fall sufferer to company rivalry, every crew member should query who they’ll belief and if the asteroid actually goes to convey them the victory they want. This sequence is barely seven episodes lengthy, so if you wish to hearken to one thing fast and simple to observe together with, The Hyacinth Catastrophe will most likely fill the space-nerd gap in your coronary heart.
Blackwood follows a gaggle of three youngsters as they play detectives to find the id of the legendary Bugman. Chargeable for slaughtering youngsters within the woods, the Bugman is a widely known determine across the group’s hometown of Blackwood, Connecticut. Lead reporter Molly, together with buddies Bryan and Nathan, decides that the one method to separate truth from fiction in these murders is to research the individuals in their very own city. However as the specter of an indestructible scaled physique, terrifying bulging purple eyes, and an inescapable presence of the Bugman legend looms over them, even an unattainable creature begins to look actual.
With the “campy native legend that may really be actual” trope and narration paying homage to The Blair Witch Undertaking, you by no means know the twists and turns an episode may take. However don’t root for this trio an excessive amount of—even within the first episode, you’ll discover out tragedy additionally fell upon these teenagers. It’s only a matter of determining who they recorded on these tapes is liable for their fates.
Do you consider within the supernatural? How about demons? If the reply is sure, and even for those who have been simply intrigued by my apparently random questions, let me present some background. Designed for lovers of ghost tales and those that consider there are evil spirits past our management, The Black Tapes is a bi-weekly podcast following a fearless journalist’s seek for the reality. This podcast is hosted by Alex Reagan (voiced by Lori Henry), who paperwork her journey as she delves into the world of ghost searching and paranormal investigation. All through her seek for proof of one other, extra religious world, Alex meets Dr. Richard Strand, who, regardless of being a ghost hunter, is a skeptic. In studying extra about Dr. Strand’s previous, Alex discovers a group of black VHS tapes that generate extra questions than solutions. Reluctantly, Alex decides to crew up with Dr. Strand to resolve the thriller behind one in all his Black Tape circumstances.
Not solely does the complete idea of ghost searching intrigue me (particularly after I know the entire podcast is fictional and there’s not an precise demon after our favourite host), however the entire sequence additionally provides off Supernatural vibes. Alex and Dr. Strand unearth the thriller of little cities, battle evil, and interview different ghost believers. With two seasons’ value of episodes, your new favourite thriller simply could be this podcast.
Should you’ve ever strolled the aisles of a library simply ready for one thing attention-grabbing to occur, then I’m positive some creepy archives would fascinate you. The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction podcast that appears on the bizarre, the creepy, and the unspeakable hidden within the partitions of The Magnus Institute. An unconventional museum, this place makes a speciality of accumulating the esoteric and, at the least within the first episode, a complete lot of mud. In an effort to replace the institute’s collections, head archivist Jonathan Sims makes an attempt to prepare virtually 200 12 months’s value of case recordsdata and convert them to audio recordsdata.
With a small however persevering crew of two, nicely, technically three, researchers, Johnathan’s drawling British voice—which additionally sounds just like the voice of each creepy butler in Halloween motion pictures—takes us alongside on a mission to review every file. Nevertheless, because the crew begins to document their findings over the course of the podcast, they quickly begin to discover these circumstances have extra in frequent than they thought. And the deeper they discover the archive, the extra horrifying of reality begins to be revealed.
OK, so perhaps you’re simply moving into podcasts or studying is your go-to proper now. Even for you podcast skeptics, I’ve an answer: a podcast devoted to the world of thriller and thriller literature. That’s proper, you possibly can hear to 1 episode and are available away with a slew of latest guide suggestions from hosts who know the thriller style in and out. Every episode, hosts Katie and Nusrah reminisce about their favourite books, authors, and items of literature that embody the macabre, the creepy, and the suspense-filled.
I’ll admit it, after I first began this podcast, I used to be anticipating it to be extra one-note, with the identical varieties of guide suggestions each episode. So I used to be pleasantly shocked to study that the 2 aren’t shy to redefine “thrillers” and transcend what Edgar Allen Poe would’ve written. Positive, there are some conventional thrillers, however Katie and Nusrah broaden to romances with components of thrillers (um, whats up Colleen Hoover), books that use distinctive storytelling codecs, and fashionable diversifications on classics. I additionally admire that the 2 be sure that their guide suggestions characteristic a various group of authors, so we see extra illustration within the guide characters. Although there are over 100 episodes to select from on this bi-weekly podcast, I foresee guide lovers rejoicing over episodes “Fiction Simply As Unusual As Actuality,” “Was that for actual?,” and “You Will By no means See It Coming.”
Was anybody else additionally an avid reader of the spooky Creepypasta tales whenever you have been alleged to be asleep on a college evening? For me, this may need been the place my affinity for thrillers all started. With this podcast, revisit your internal (scared) baby with a group of the scariest and most annoying Creepypasta tales the web is aware of. A Tom Riddle-esque pocket book with a thoughts of its personal, a ghost decided to trigger havoc on the grounds of a plantation, and discovering a lifeless physique the place you least anticipate are just some cases of what you’re in for with this podcast.
Every episode ranges from about 20 minutes to an hour, so that you’re positive to seek out one thing to maintain your thoughts occupied (and hopefully not too terrified) irrespective of how a lot time you have got. For these die-hard Creepypasta followers, you possibly can even request through Twitter or e mail tales you’d love to listen to on the present sooner or later.
Although some could say it’s extra of a psychological drama, I say unreliable narrators are a scary factor and that’s why The Shiny Periods is a thriller. The podcast follows together with the periods of a gaggle of remedy sufferers as they element their residence lives, their darkish pasts, and their bleak futures. However when you begin getting additional into the primary episode, it begins to turn into fairly clear that, although they could have some very human traits, these sufferers should not mere mortals.
Every episode sounds such as you’re listening into every affected person’s session—which makes me really feel very sneaky—and provides you some concept of what these guys are able to. From time journey to thoughts management, it’s as much as therapist Dr. Shiny to assist the atypical in any approach she will be able to. Not solely is that this podcast completely charming in that you simply’re studying all in regards to the wishes and tales behind supernatural characters, however every episode can be fast-paced and simple to digest at about solely 20 minutes lengthy. With a brisk back-and-forth dialogue, you’ll be on the sting of your seat as you place the items collectively and uncover what every affected person’s magical capacity is.
Supply: The Every Girl