twilight zone – Madeleine Swann

Good day! There are many horror podcasts out there including NoSleep, Drabblecast, Pseudopod and the Monster Club (Old Time Radio site), but I have a special place in my heart for Chilling Tales For Dark Nights as it opened my weirdly little mouse ears to the joys of audio internet horror. I can pretend I’m tuning into the radio in the time of vintage, ready to be thrilled and chilled.

The stories aren’t always to my taste – we all have our own unique tastes don’t we, my little bottles of sauce – but there are enough I liked to share with you my favourites.

This is a translation from a Japanese story and I think it has all the right levels of spooky weirdness. It may get a little ‘explainy’ at the end but, for me, that’s part of the charm of some of these internet stories:

This one is very creepy with a nice twist at the end:

Some of the best stories have an image that stays with you. I think this is one of those:

Here’s a classic Twilight Zone-esque ‘be careful what you wish for’ story:

This one has a nice gothic feel to it:

The little voice in this is quite cute. I like the story too:

I like abandoned town stories. Here is one of those:

For the love of God watch Black Mirror by Columnist and writer of Dead Set etc Charlie Brooker if you haven’t already. I mean it! Or I’ll come round your house and…be really annoying and stuff. For me the last two episodes do what good sci-fi should do which is reflect the fears and worries of a society at that moment. On the Twilight Zone DVD is an interview with writer and creator Rod Serling and the interviewer asks him whether he plans to continue with sci-fi or write something important. You only have to watch The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street though to see the terror of cold war hysteria.

I think its important viewing, like Derren Brown’s most recent forays in The Experiments, particularly Derren’s episodes on de-individuation and personal guilt.