Weekly Spooky

Scary Halloween stories meet analog horror in “I Do Not Know You” by Tyler Belmont, a supernatural horror tale about a vintage tape recorder that knows its listener's secrets—and announces the exact moment he is going to die.Jerry Scott runs a consumer-electronics store and collects the analog machines the modern world has left behind. Then an unmarked package appears inside his shop. The tape recorder within greets him by name, recalls private details from his life, and warns that an inhuman visitor will arrive in five minutes. When a tall figure in a fedora and long coat begins tapping at the glass, Jerry locks the doors and reaches for a baseball bat—but the recording insists that his fate cannot be avoided.This narrated horror story blends analog horror, cursed technology, cassette tapes, supernatural prophecy, shadow monsters, forced entry, psychological suspense, and a terrifying countdown to death. It is made for listeners searching for spooky stories, scary stories, Halloween horror, creepy stories, retro horror, cursed-object fiction, and unsettling horror narration.Start your Halloween prep with a five-minute countdown to death. As spooky season closes in, Weekly Spooky turns a familiar piece of retro technology into a supernatural trap, making this an eerie addition to any scary Halloween stories playlist before October arrives.

September opens the door to Halloween as IT Chapter Two, Suspiria, Outlast, The Possession, and Pontypool mark major horror anniversaries from August 31 through September 6. This Week in Horror History becomes a pre-Halloween horror primer packed with Pennywise and Derry, witchcraft and bloody dance, survival-horror gaming, haunted-object folklore, demonic possession, infected language, and a supernatural war among angels. This weekly horror release-date roundup revisits the films, games, creators, and dark legends that shaped the genre while giving Halloween fans an early-September watchlist for spooky season: supernatural horror movies, witch films, Stephen King adaptations, found-footage scares, survival horror games, cult classics, and fall horror listening. Inside this episode: • August 31, 2012 - The Possession - A Sam Raimi-produced supernatural horror movie transforms a yard-sale box and fabricated dybbuk legend into a demonic possession nightmare. • September 1, 2018 - Suspiria - Luca Guadagnino rebuilds the witchy dance academy in divided Berlin, turning choreography, control, and bodily transformation into ritual horror. • September 4, 2013 - Outlast - Red Barrels sends journalist Miles Upshur into Mount Massive Asylum, where night vision, dying batteries, and hiding replace combat. • September 6, 2019 - IT Chapter Two - The adult Losers Club returns to Derry to face Pennywise and the childhood promise waiting twenty-seven years later. Deep-Cut Spotlight - Pontypool - A snowbound radio host discovers that language itself may carry a violent infection, turning every microphone into a doorway.Plus: a horror birthday roll honoring Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Rose McGowan, and Naomie Harris; and a Weekly Recommendation for The Prophecy, the 1995 supernatural thriller where Christopher Walken's Gabriel brings an angelic civil war to Earth. From a supposedly haunted dybbuk box and a witch-controlled ballet to Pennywise, a night-vision asylum, and a broadcast plague hidden inside words, this August 31-September 6 horror history roundup is built for Halloween podcast listeners, spooky season bingeing, fall horror discovery, cult-movie fans, and anyone assembling an early Halloween watchlist of scary movies and horror games.

Halloween season is almost here, and Monthly Spooky is kicking off the countdown with haunted houses, Bigfoot, UFOs, cryptids, unexplained mysteries—and bat people living on the Moon.In the August 2026 edition of Monthly Spooky, Henrique Couto and Michelle are getting ready for Halloween with another strange trip through paranormal news, ghost stories, cryptid sightings, UFO and UAP reports, weird history, unexplained phenomena and creepy mysteries before diving into one of the most wonderfully bizarre media sensations of the nineteenth century: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835.Beginning in August 1835, newspaper readers were treated to astonishing reports supposedly describing life discovered on the Moon—including extraordinary landscapes, animals, beavers and winged bat people. Henrique and Michelle dig into how the Great Moon Hoax spread, why people believed it, and how an outrageous piece of fiction became an early example of a sensational story going viral. But first, there is plenty of fresh spooky news to get everyone into the Halloween spirit.Inside this episode:A new haunted renovation series sends designers into a reportedly haunted Ohio mansion, where they have to live and work inside the property while confronting its supernatural reputation.The possible “Croc Ness Monster” causes a stir after what appears to be a crocodile is photographed near an Italian lake.Officials in Brussels receive and examine unusual UFO and UAP reports, including material submitted by amateur astronomers.A reported Bigfoot sighting in Connecticut gets the attention of cryptid investigators.Scientists find a mysterious molecular signature associated with both Pluto and Titan.A mysterious large cat sparks discussion near Dundee, Scotland.An extremely strange planetary system raises questions about a possible enormous exomoon.Seattle embraces Hot Jimothy Summer as an exceptionally round raccoon becomes an internet celebrity.Sailor Matt Rutherford attempts the dangerous feat of navigating the Arctic Ocean alone.Henrique shares a spoiler-free look at the dinosaur horror adventure The End of Oak Street.And Michelle brings a perfectly timed Halloween haunted-house mystery involving two college students, a strange room and an archive extension that the library later claims it knows nothing about.Then it is off to the Moon for the main event: The Great Moon Hoax of 1835, complete with lunar wildlife, bizarre civilization and the unforgettable image of humanoid bat creatures soaring across the lunar landscape.Whether you're already building your Halloween podcast playlist, looking for scary stories for spooky season, or just love ghosts, paranormal mysteries, Bigfoot, UFOs, cryptids, folklore, weird history and unexplained encounters, this month's Monthly Spooky is your early ticket into Halloween.Follow Monthly Spooky on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or your favorite podcast app so you don't miss the next round of spooky news, strange history, paranormal stories and creepy discoveries as the countdown to Halloween continues.

Unknown Broadcast opens its eyes to four classic OTR mysteries about blindness, eyewitness testimony, and the dangerous distance between seeing and being believed. The Blind Witness, The Country of the Blind, Eyewitness, and With My Own Eyes turn perception itself into the scene of the crime.Look closely. Then look again.The signal has been known to move things while you blink.◖ The Blind Witness — A blind man becomes the unseen witness to a paid killing—and the one loose end two professionals did not expect.▲ The Country of the Blind — A sighted mountaineer enters an isolated civilization where blindness is normal and his precious vision is treated as a disease.⚠ Eyewitness — A reporter touring a state prison is trapped inside a violent mutiny and forced to watch desperate men seize control.◉ With My Own Eyes — A convalescent sees a murder with her own eyes, then finds everyone around her determined to make sight itself the lie.The classic OTR signal is going dark now. Keep your eyes open if it makes you feel safer.

Five Halloween horror stories unleash headless folklore, haunted drive-ins, supernatural transformation, vampires, and body horror in a nearly five-hour scary-story audiobook from Weekly Spooky. Halloween Changes You is a long-form Halloween horror compilation about masks that become identities, second lives that demand a price, and monsters who discover that becoming something new may be easier than becoming human again. Presented in story order, this Halloween fiction anthology moves from an intimate chase through the woods to an afterlife movie marathon, a funeral-home reckoning, a mutant spider origin, and a full-scale vampire battle over love, family, and survival. Inside this Halloween horror compilation: • “Dullahan” by Morgan Moore — On Halloween night, new kid Isaiah Crane takes a shortcut through the woods on his way to a costume party. A black horse, a headless rider, and a forgotten witch-trial museum turn a simple bike ride into a desperate fight to keep his head. • “Retro Halloween Weekend” by Rob Fields — Destiny Mirren and Sienna Michaels sneak into the wrong Strickfield drive-in with robbery on their minds. The vintage horror marathon soon becomes an afterlife judgment, and Death has a pair of unexpected job openings. • “Retro Halloween Revelations” by Rob Fields — The old drive-in ground has become a funeral home, and Destiny—now living under a new name and a far darker calling—must face the family that helped shape her. One Halloween confession will decide who receives mercy and who takes the final journey. • “New Life” by Rob Fields — After surviving a blood-soaked Thanksgiving, Felicia Mirren discovers that an experimental resurrection compound and her pet tarantula have changed her forever. By Halloween, she is caught between undead attacks, a secret society, and a monstrous new body that may make her Strickfield's strangest protector. • “Madelyne's Revenge” by Rob Fields — Felicia has built a new family and a new life, but a vampire from another world has returned to destroy both. What follows is a Halloween battle of spider powers, vampirism, dark magic, grief, and the kind of revenge that refuses to stay buried. From Dullahan and headless-rider folklore to haunted drive-in horror, supernatural afterlife stories, vampire revenge, spider monsters, and full-body transformation, this collection is built for listeners searching for scary Halloween stories, horror fiction anthologies, dark fantasy audiobooks, folklore horror, body horror, and long-form spooky-season listening. Follow Weekly Spooky on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or your favorite podcast app, and return every Wednesday for a brand-new scary story. Keep the Halloween season going with more frightening fiction, monsters, ghosts, and nightmares from the Weekly Spooky horror podcast.

When Legends Turn Deadly is a nearly five-hour Terrifying & True true crime and folklore marathon featuring eight stories about monsters, cultural memory, Spiritualism, murder, extremist violence, and fatal belief. The Hat Man, the Deer Woman, Djinn, the Melonheads, the Fox sisters, the Greenbrier Ghost, the murder of Jeffrey Hall, and the exorcism of Anneliese Michel form one escalating journey from modern nightmare to documented human tragedy. The journey begins between dreaming and waking, where people across cultures report a faceless silhouette in a wide-brimmed hat. Science points to sleep paralysis and suggestion; folklore and online testimony have turned the figure into a modern legend. The Deer Woman then carries a living Indigenous warning about predation and consequence. From there, Djinn traditions reveal what is lost when ancient spiritual beings are reduced to evil genies, while the Melonheads show how regional rumor can transform illness, disability, and exclusion into a monster. The Fox sisters then turn unexplained knocks into modern Spiritualism. The second half crosses into true crime. In 1897 West Virginia, Mary Jane Heaster said the ghost of Zona Heaster Shue revealed her murder. In Riverside, California, a ten-year-old killed his neo-Nazi father, Jeffrey Hall, inside a home saturated with weapons, violence, and hate. In 1976 Bavaria, prolonged exorcisms and abandoned medical care ended with Anneliese Michel dead from malnutrition and dehydration. Together, these cases separate documented history from paranormal claim without draining the fear from either. They ask how stories can protect people, distort a culture, stigmatize outsiders, manipulate believers, expose a crime - or make ordinary warning signs disappear behind absolute certainty. Inside this episode: The Hat Man, sleep paralysis, and a modern nightmare shaped by shared testimony The Deer Woman as warning, consequence, and living Indigenous tradition The Djinn, their place in Middle Eastern and Islamic tradition, and their distortion into evil-genie stereotypes The Melonheads Curse and the way regional folklore transforms abandoned or abused children into monsters The Fox sisters, the Hydesville rappings, and the rise of Spiritualism The Greenbrier Ghost, Zona Heaster Shue, and a West Virginia murder trial The murder of Jeffrey Hall and the effects of racist extremist ideology inside a family home The exorcism and death of Anneliese Michel in Klingenberg, West GermanyDo monsters begin in the dark, or in the explanations we refuse to question?

Universal Orlando holds the first of its two 2026 Premium Scream Nights on August 27, followed by the regular Halloween Horror Nights event opening on August 28 - and this week's Thursday Thrills goes inside the architecture of fear. Rather than rank haunted houses before they open, Henrique Couto asks what a walk-through attraction can do to our bodies and imaginations that a horror movie cannot.The answer begins inside a real haunted-house experiment, where visitors wore heart-rate monitors while researchers studied the strange overlap between fear and enjoyment. Their findings showed a group-level inverted-U association across three recorded scare points: moderate fear ratings tended to accompany greater enjoyment than very low or very high ratings. Other studies examined links among unexpected attacks, complete darkness, and social context; they did not establish that these factors always increase subjective fear or enjoyment.Then we enter the announced 2026 haunt season. Universal Orlando's thirty-fifth-anniversary lineup comprises ten houses spanning Stranger Things 5, Sinners, Hellraiser, Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness, Evil Dead Burn, and five original concepts. Universal Studios Hollywood has announced a Terror Tram starring Art the Clown, KILLceañera: Music by SLASH, and its first Unmasking the Horror Tour Add-On. Knott's Scary Farm brings two new park-created stories to a ten-maze lineup, while Six Flags Great America plans to send guests through the near-total darkness of Blair Witch: No Signal.Henrique examines the filmmaker's tools hiding inside every maze: forced attention, negative space, sound cues, misdirection, familiar images, live performers, and the unpredictable pace of a moving crowd. It is a spooky-season tour for fans of Halloween podcasts, haunted attractions, horror filmmaking, theme parks, scary stories, and the wonderfully strange reason we pay to be frightened.The episode also asks whether the scariest design is the monster audiences already recognize or the unmarked door hiding a story they have never encountered. The answer lives somewhere between expectation and surprise - and changes with every group that enters.All 2026 attraction details discussed were announced as of August 25 and remain subject to change.

Halloween insect horror, body horror, and revenge horror crawl together in this grotesque Weekly Spooky scary story about bullying, karma, and a punishment with thousands of legs. A man wakes in a windowless basement with a reinforced glass aquarium locked around his head—packed with fire ants, carpenter ants, crickets, centipedes, millipedes, Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and something even fouler.The nightmare is not random. Years earlier, he and his best friend Dave turned another child's suffering into entertainment, forcing their victim to swallow insects and endure humiliations that never stopped hurting. Now the past has placed both men inside a carefully designed trap, and someone they tried to forget is ready to teach them what it truly means to be bugged.As Halloween season creeps closer, add this mature horror fiction episode to your spooky listening queue if you love claustrophobic horror, entomophobia, gross-out terror, psychological revenge, dark comedy, cruel karma, and vicious twist endings. Turn off the lights, put on your headphones, and remember: what goes around may come back crawling.The Ant Aquarium of Minister Crap & Things — by Gary D up in Ontario, Canada.

Horror history is already leaning toward Halloween as Candyman, Until Dawn, Don't Breathe, The Last Exorcism, and Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions mark major anniversaries from August 24 through August 30. This Week in Horror History turns late summer into a pre-Halloween horror primer packed with slasher games, home-invasion suspense, supernatural urban legends, documentary-style exorcism horror, occult detective stories, and a devilish Stephen King recommendation for spooky season. This weekly horror release-date roundup revisits the movies, games, creators, and dark legends that helped shape the genre while giving Halloween fans an early fall watchlist filled with cult horror, supernatural thrillers, horror games, and dark folklore. Inside this episode: • August 25, 2015 - Until Dawn - Supermassive Games turns the teen slasher into an interactive survival horror game where every choice can decide who lives until sunrise.• August 26, 2016 - Don't Breathe - Fede Alvarez traps three thieves inside a dark Detroit house where silence, geography, and Stephen Lang's relentless homeowner become weapons.• August 27, 2021 - Candyman - Nia DaCosta returns the mirror-born Chicago legend to Cabrini-Green and connects supernatural folklore with memory, gentrification, art, and racial violence.• August 27, 2010 - The Last Exorcism - A fraudulent preacher invites a documentary crew to expose one final ritual, only to enter a case that may not have a rational explanation.Deep-Cut Spotlight - Lord of Illusions - Clive Barker mixes occult horror, private-eye noir, cult devotion, and stage magic that may be hiding something terrifyingly real.Plus: a horror birthday roll honoring Tim Burton, David Fincher, William Friedkin, and Mary Shelley; and a Weekly Recommendation for Needful Things, the Stephen King Castle Rock nightmare where every perfect purchase comes with one terrible favor. From player-controlled slasher choices and a blind homeowner hunting intruders in the dark to the Candyman legend, Clive Barker's real magic, and Stephen King's small-town temptation, this August 24-30 horror history roundup is built for Halloween fans, spooky season listening, cult horror discovery, and anyone assembling an early fall horror movie and horror game watchlist.

Elisa Lam's death at the Cecil Hotel remains one of the internet age's most haunting true crime mysteries, even though the case received an official ruling. In January 2013, the twenty-one-year-old Canadian traveler disappeared from the notorious downtown Los Angeles hotel after appearing in the now-famous Cecil Hotel elevator video. Nineteen days after she was last publicly seen, she was found inside a rooftop water tank. This pre-Halloween true crime investigation follows the documented Elisa Lam case while separating evidence from the haunted-hotel folklore that grew around it. We examine the Cecil Hotel's dark history, Elisa's final days at Stay on Main, the LAPD search, the elevator doors that remained open, the rooftop-access question, the open tank hatch, and the Los Angeles County medical examiner's conclusion: accidental drowning, with bipolar disorder listed as a significant contributing condition. The silent elevator footage became one of the defining creepy videos of modern true crime. Viewers searched it for a hidden pursuer, a ghost, an edited-out figure, the Elevator Game, or proof that the Cecil Hotel was cursed. Early reports made the roof sound unreachable and suggested Elisa could not have entered a sealed tank alone. But court filings and the maintenance worker's sworn account reveal a more grounded - and still deeply frightening - story. As Halloween season approaches, Elisa Lam's story continues to circulate through haunted-hotel lists, paranormal theories, real-life horror collections, Netflix documentaries, and true crime podcasts. This episode explores why the official explanation never satisfied the internet, how web sleuths transformed ambiguity into modern folklore, and what is lost when a vulnerable young woman becomes only the figure in a red hoodie. Inside this episode:Elisa Lam's 2013 disappearance from the Cecil Hotel and Stay on MainWhat the viral elevator video actually shows, including the door-hold controlThe rooftop water tank, open hatch, and possible access routesThe medical examiner's accidental-drowning ruling and toxicology evidenceRichard Ramirez, Jack Unterweger, the Black Dahlia claim, and the Cecil Hotel's haunted reputationThe Elevator Game, Dark Water parallels, Netflix, web sleuths, and modern folklore Was the Cecil Hotel case ever an impossible locked-room mystery - or did millions of viewers build a supernatural story from everything the camera could not show? We're telling that story tonight.

Unknown Broadcast boards four old-time radio train mysteries where every timetable points toward danger. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler send us through a forgotten station, Balkan intrigue aboard the Orient Express, a supernatural railway warning, and one very expensive ride to nowhere. Your ticket is already punched. Please do not ask who is sitting in the empty compartment.▣ The Train Stops — At a forgotten station where no passenger train should stop, an old railway watcher hears the timetable come alive again.✦ Orient Express — A businessman bound for Istanbul finds an armed stranger in his compartment and is pulled into a rushing night of Balkan intrigue.⚑ The Signalman — A haunted railway worker receives impossible warnings beside a dark tunnel, each one arriving just ahead of disaster.✉ Ticket to Nowhere — A driver hears a passenger boast of a fortune and quietly changes the destination from a country lodge to murder.The radio suspense is over, but the last train is still approaching—and this station has not existed for years.

Four scary stories unleash serial killers, witchcraft, a werewolf curse, supernatural seduction, and a gigantic killer gummy worm. Celebrate Summerween and Halloween in summer with a complete horror fiction anthology packed with occult rituals, crime horror, murder mysteries, supernatural monsters, body horror, and dark comedy.Two criminal brothers follow a wealthy woman home expecting an easy robbery. Instead, they interrupt a secret witchcraft ritual involving an ancient enchanted collar—and one thief begins transforming into a bloodthirsty werewolf-like monster. Then a mysterious woman named Roxie overwhelms Jake Blackmon with an unnatural attraction before disappearing from his life. When she returns and orders him to kill, Jake discovers that Roxie is not human—and that other men may already be trapped beneath the same supernatural influence.  Next, emotionless Strickfield vigilante Raigen Devereux battles a dangerous fever while hunting the Queen of Hearts serial killer through a raging blizzard. Bodies marked with playing cards, preserved human hearts, a kidnapped former fiancé, and a deeply personal connection transform the investigation into a deadly confrontation between two killers. Finally, an ex-con named Penn accepts a criminal job and discovers that his employer murders victims for their tattooed skin. Trapped inside an unfinished high-rise with a skin-suit serial killer, Penn receives unexpected supernatural help when a magical tattoo transforms a bag of candy into an enormous, flesh-dissolving gummy worm monster.  Tonight's Scary Stories:“Crime and Bedevilment: The Falling Out of Two Brothers” by Joe SolmoAn occult crime-horror story featuring two thieves, a secret coven, an ancient magical collar, and a robbery that unleashes a savage werewolf curse.“Roxie” by Charles CampbellA supernatural seduction story about a mysterious nonhuman woman who charms ordinary men into committing murder on her behalf.“Sick With Rage” by Rob FieldsA Strickfield serial-killer thriller featuring Raigen Devereux, the Queen of Hearts killer, stolen human hearts, a missing former fiancé, and a deadly investigation during a blizzard. “The Worm Has Turned” by David O'HanlonA darkly funny supernatural monster story involving criminals, stolen tattooed skin, a magical amulet, National Gummi Worm Day, and one gigantic candy creature with a taste for killers.These four terrifying tales combine serial-killer horror, supernatural crime, witchcraft, occult rituals, cursed transformations, werewolf horror, supernatural seduction, murder investigations, preserved human hearts, skin-suit killers, giant monsters, body horror, revenge, survival horror, and dark comedy.Perfect for listeners searching for scary stories, horror audiobooks, horror fiction podcasts, serial-killer stories, supernatural thrillers, witchcraft horror, occult horror, werewolf stories, crime horror, murder mysteries, monster stories, giant-creature horror, body horror, dark-comedy horror, Strickfield stories, Summerween entertainment, and Halloween podcasts.The summer nights are hot, but somewhere a blizzard is hiding a killer, an ancient collar is waiting for its next victim, and an innocent bag of candy is preparing to become something enormous.

Tonight She Comes (2016) is a blood-soaked supernatural slasher for horror fans building their Halloween watchlists—a cabin-in-the-woods nightmare that mutates into occult body horror, splatter comedy, and resurrection horror. On this episode of Cutting Deep into Horror, hosts Henrique Couto and Rachael Redolfi revisit the outrageous independent horror film that has stayed with them for a decade and explain why its strangest choices are far more deliberate than they first appear. Henrique and Rachael trace the story from its apparently unstoppable, blood-covered killer and intentionally foolish slasher characters to a rural family protecting its cabin with glowing blood runes. The mystery soon explodes into an occult resurrection ritual involving virgins, non-virgins, menstrual blood, a pentagram, and one revolting chalice. They also revisit discovering the movie through the Movies at the Asylum theatrical series, discuss The Asylum, Sharknado, and low-budget B-movie culture, and break down the film's sleeping-bag homage to Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. As Weekly Spooky ramps up toward Halloween season, the conversation digs into the movie's grotesque humor, gory special effects, supernatural rules, and deliberately blurred ideas of protagonist and antagonist. Why does Felicity gradually become the closest thing the story has to a protagonist? How can a movie this absurd still follow a carefully constructed internal logic? And why does its spectacularly gruesome rebirth ending feel earned rather than random? For listeners filling a spooky-season podcast queue with slashers, strange indie horror movies, occult rituals, and unforgettable body horror, Tonight She Comes is one nightmare that refuses to stay buried. Inside this episode:Discovering Tonight She Comes during the Movies at the Asylum theatrical seriesThe supernatural slasher and cabin-in-the-woods setupDeliberately foolish characters, horror clichés, and genre self-awarenessThe Friday the 13th Part VII sleeping-bag kill homageBlood runes, virgin blood, menstrual blood, and the resurrection ritualWhy Felicity becomes the closest thing the film has to a protagonistGory effects, occult body horror, and the unforgettable rebirth endingFull spoilers throughout.

Ten years after the 2016 killer clown panic, Weekly Spooky's Thursday Thrills returns to the creepy clown sightings that began near Fleetwood Manor Apartments in Greenville County, South Carolina. In August 2016, children and residents reported clowns in the woods—mysterious figures allegedly displaying money, flashing green lights or lasers, making strange noises, and trying to persuade children to follow them toward an abandoned house near a pond. Deputies searched the wooded area and increased patrols, but contemporary reporting says they found no clown, no costume, no hidden camp, and no physical evidence proving the earliest claims.The story did not remain an unexplained neighborhood scare for long. Television coverage, online reporting, recycled photographs, viral videos, and social media carried the South Carolina reports across the country. Soon, new killer clown sightings were being reported in other towns and states. Police investigated clown-related threats, schools responded to rumors and hoaxes, public events changed plans, and deliberate copycats began wearing clown masks near roads, schools, apartment complexes, and darkened tree lines.The earliest reports may never have been substantiated—but the fear surrounding them produced very real consequences. People were arrested in connection with false reports, threats, trespassing, weapons, and public intimidation. What may have begun as a misunderstanding, rumor, prank, or unidentified encounter became a nationwide case of mass panic. The scary clown urban legend was no longer merely a story people shared online. Frightened strangers began putting on costumes and performing the nightmare themselves.On the tenth anniversary of the panic, Henrique Couto follows the true story behind the clown sightings from Greenville County to documented copycat incidents in Kentucky and Alabama, an Ohio false report, Penn State's enormous student clown hunt, corporate reactions from Target and McDonald's, and the international spread of the craze. Were there ever really clowns hiding in those first South Carolina woods? Or did America become so frightened of the story that people began supplying their own masks, threats, and terrifying encounters?As Halloween approaches and the 2026 spooky season begins, this carefully sourced Halloween podcast episode blends horror history, internet folklore, spooky stories, urban legends, unexplained sightings, and the eerie real-world consequences of viral fear. It is a perfect listen for fans who come to Weekly Spooky for weekly horror stories, creepy mysteries, scary Halloween stories, modern folklore, and the clown panic explained without rumor being presented as established fact.Maybe there was never a clown waiting in those first South Carolina woods. Maybe there was. But once the story escaped, the legend no longer needed to be true. It only needed enough people to believe it—and enough others willing to become it.

Brian vanishes beneath Clear Lake and returns hours later clutching a carved relic—waterlogged, impossibly strong, and violently changed. Brian and Michelle plan a quiet end-of-summer camping trip, only to find Michelle's former best friends Kristin, Hailey, and Bella in the neighboring site. Old tensions soften into drinking, swimming, and one last celebration before school resumes. Then Brian dives into the lake looking for lost objects and finds something resembling carved petrified wood beneath the dark grass. The relic will not let him release it or swim to the surface. When he finally reappears, his body is bloated with water and his personality is gone. He attacks the women with supernatural strength, opens the object into a small box, and transforms the lake into an alien landscape beneath a green sky. Michelle must get the relic away from him without touching it while something in the water tugs at the survivors from below. Bruce Haney's “The Darkness Under Clear Lake” blends cursed-object horror, possession, an end-of-summer lake trip, body horror, warped reality, and friendship tested by an underwater threat. The richer description names Brian, Michelle, Kristin, Hailey, and Bella while keeping the origin and full power of the sunken box unknown. Story by Bruce Haney.

Blade, The Exorcist III, An American Werewolf in London, You're Next, The Night House, and Night of the Creeps lead this August 17–23 horror-history guide. The release-date calendar revisits William Peter Blatty's rain-soaked supernatural detective story The Exorcist III, Rebecca Hall's haunted grief in The Night House, Wesley Snipes' debut as Marvel's vampire-hunting Daywalker in Blade, and the masked home invasion of You're Next. Each film offers a different route into the Halloween pregame: possession, architectural dread, vampire action, and survival horror. The deep-cut spotlight belongs to Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps, where alien parasites, reanimated fraternity brothers, college chaos, and Tom Atkins with a flamethrower collide. Horror birthdays celebrate Taissa Farmiga, Peter Weir, Ray Bradbury, and Park Chan-wook. The weekly recommendation is John Landis's An American Werewolf in London, with Rick Baker's landmark transformation effects, full-moon tragedy, dark comedy, and undead warnings making it essential spooky-season viewing.

The Pale Crawler is a modern cryptid legend and Halloween Favorite tied to The Rake, a creepypasta deliberately created online in 2005. What began as an anonymous forum experiment soon became a wave of alleged humanoid sightings, viral trail-camera images, Reddit stories and YouTube horror. In this episode of Terrifying & True, we trace Operation Crawler and the birth of The Rake creepypasta, the alleged Effingham, Illinois and rural Kentucky encounters, the notorious Louisiana “swamp monster” trail-camera hoax, and the internet feedback loop that transformed a collaborative horror story into modern folklore. We also examine ordinary explanations behind many Pale Crawler sightings, including mangy deer, low-light misidentification, pareidolia, sleep paralysis, pranks and staged footage. As Halloween season approaches, the Pale Crawler has become a perfect spooky-season urban legend: a blank-faced humanoid said to crawl on all fours, rise taller than a person and vanish into the woods. Like Slender Man and other internet-born monsters, it survives because every eyewitness account, comment and viral video makes the story feel a little more real. Inside this episode: • Operation Crawler and The Rake's 2005 creepypasta origin • The alleged Effingham, Illinois and Kentucky Pale Crawler encounters • The 2010 Louisiana swamp-monster trail-camera hoax • Reddit, YouTube, TikTok and the rise of r/CrawlerSightings • Pareidolia, sleep paralysis and misidentified wildlife• How an internet monster entered modern Halloween folkloreWas the Pale Crawler created by the internet—or did the internet merely give an older fear a name, a shape and a blank white face? We're telling that story tonight.

Unknown Broadcast sails beyond the last reliable chart for four classic OTR tales of island horror, radio mystery, and tropical suspense. The Beach of Falesa, The Far-Away Island, The Island, and Escape to Skull Island promise refuge, fortune, or paradise—and collect a different price from every visitor.The beaches are white, the water is warm, and the boats all seem to be pointed the wrong way.☀ The Beach of Falesa — A trader arrives on a remote Pacific island seeking a future and finds a web of fear, power, violence, and voodoo waiting ashore.✧ The Far-Away Island — A fugitive returns to the island that once promised him refuge while an unseen and murderous pursuer closes the distance.⚔ The Island — A battle-weary Marine clings to a vision of an island without hunger or war, but the dream may demand more than escape.☠ Escape to Skull Island — A hunted killer buys passage toward Skull Island, carrying a crime that refuses to stay behind on the waterfront.This old-time radio transmission ends at the shoreline.Whatever followed you onto the island is staying for the night.

Four scary stories unleash a haunted house, a cursed yard-sale object, escaped serial killers, and flesh-eating cannibal monsters. Celebrate Summerween and Halloween in summer with a complete horror fiction anthology packed with ghost stories, paranormal activity, haunted objects, home-invasion horror, supernatural creatures, and terrifying encounters in the woods.A first date leads two Strickfield teenagers into an abandoned haunted mansion where a ghost child watches from the window. Trapped inside the Carnovasch Estate, they follow the spirit into a dark basement and uncover a two-hundred-year-old secret sealed behind a brick wall. Then a young couple buys a handmade ceramic bowl for one dollar at a yard sale. The cursed object moves by itself, returns whenever they attempt to abandon it, and summons the freezing ghost of a missing artist into their apartment. Their thrift-store bargain has become a paranormal nightmare—and escaping the haunting may require passing it to someone else.Next, two violent serial killers invade an isolated country home and terrorize the family preparing dinner. But the home invaders have chosen the wrong victims. Something inhuman lives inside the house, and the killers are about to learn that they are no longer the most dangerous predators at the table. Finally, a nighttime party in the woods becomes a brutal survival nightmare when two teenagers discover their friends murdered beside an old stone chimney. Humanoid forest creatures emerge from the darkness with sharp claws, sadistic intelligence, and an appetite for human flesh. Tonight's Scary Stories:“First Date” by Rob FieldsA haunted-house ghost story set in Strickfield, Ohio, featuring young romance, an abandoned mansion, a floating ghost girl, and bodies hidden inside the basement walls. “Thrifting Fail—We're Now Haunted!” by Bruce HaneyA cursed-object horror story about a haunted ceramic bowl, a missing occult collector, and a freezing apparition that refuses to leave its new owners.“The Dinner Guests” by Shane MigliavaccaA serial-killer home-invasion story in which two murderers hold the wrong family hostage and discover something monstrous waiting for dinner.“Party in the Woods” by Joe SalmoA terrifying forest-creature story about teenagers hunted and tortured by intelligent, flesh-eating humanoid monsters beyond the firelight.These four terrifying tales combine haunted-house horror, ghost children, cursed objects, haunted antiques, thrift-store horror, paranormal activity, serial killers, home invasions, cannibal families, forest monsters, creature attacks, supernatural suspense, body horror, survival horror, and dark comedy.Perfect for listeners searching for scary stories, horror audiobooks, horror fiction podcasts, ghost stories, haunted-house stories, haunted mansion stories, cursed-object horror, haunted thrift-store finds, paranormal stories, serial-killer stories, home-invasion horror, cannibal horror, forest-creature horror, monster stories, Summerween entertainment, and Halloween podcasts.The summer nights are warm, the yard sales are open, and the woods are waiting. Some bargains follow you home, some houses never release their dead, and some monsters are already preparing dinner.

Seven chilling cryptid encounters and true crime folklore stories uncovered just in time for Halloween: From Bigfoot sightings in 1970s Ohio to Chupacabra terror in Puerto Rico, explore supernatural folklore that shaped America's scariest legends. This immersive horror marathon weaves Wendigo mythology, the Black-Eyed Children, the Fouke Monster, and Indrid Cold into a cinematic deep dive across cursed regions and paranormal hotspots—perfect for Halloween preparation with expertly narrated, eerie storytelling that blurs fact and fright.

Jeff the Killer is one of the internet's most recognizable creepypasta horror icons - but where did that pale, smiling face actually come from? As Halloween 2026 and spooky season begin creeping closer, Thursday Thrills investigates the original Jeff the Killer image, the conflicting 2008 and 2011 origin stories, and the mystery hidden behind the words "Go to sleep."  Henrique Couto follows the trail through Sesseur's Newgrounds closet ritual, GameFuelTV's infamous creepypasta, Japanese image boards, the prettyFACE and "White Powder" edits, fake-broadcast horror, Jane the Killer, Homicidal Liu, false identities, and the rumor that the face belonged to a bullied girl who later died by suicide. That story spread across the web for years, but the documented timeline shows it should not be presented as true.  With a new Jeff the Killer movie now in development from Tongal and Savanah Moss, this is the perfect time to revisit an early-internet nightmare before Halloween. Jeff is fictional, but the source of his face remains an unresolved lost-media mystery - built into folklore by thousands of people who kept changing the story.

Spooky season body horror hatches in “Odd Egg” by Alex Grass, a weird creature-horror story about a carton of free eggs, a smiling stranger, and something impossible waiting inside the final shell. After Roger from the mysterious Keystone Cooperative Growers Association leaves Maryellen a dozen farm-fresh eggs and promises that a god lives inside them, breakfast takes a grotesque turn. Eleven shells are empty. The last produces a tiny human head on six spiderlike legs—and the thing does not stay tiny for long. As it grows, feeds, and changes, Maryellen is pulled into a nightmare of body horror, monstrous metamorphosis, dark comedy, and the coming Time of the Egg.  A perfect ramp-up to Halloween, this narrated horror story is made for listeners seeking scary Halloween stories, spooky stories, weird fiction, creature horror, body horror stories, and offbeat horror narration with a gruesome pulp-monster edge. This episode marks Alex Grass's first appearance on Weekly Spooky. The ebook of Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror by Alex Grass is available for only 99 cents on Amazon, and is free to read with Kindle Unlimited. You can also find out more at www.infernaltramps.com.

The Monster Squad, Cujo, The Fly, The Others, Jason Goes to Hell, and Lovecraft Country headline this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering August 10 through August 16. As summer horror starts giving way to spooky season, we're beginning the Halloween horror pregame with classic monsters, Stephen King terror, haunted-house mysteries, Jason Voorhees, cosmic horror, rabid-animal survival, and one of David Cronenberg's greatest body-horror transformations. Inside this episode:August 10, 2001 — The Others opens in U.S. theatersNicole Kidman waits inside a fogbound mansion where every curtain must remain closed, every doorway follows a strict ritual, and mysterious footsteps suggest that Grace and her light-sensitive children may not be alone. Alejandro Amenábar builds a gothic ghost story from silence, grief, locked rooms, and competing versions of reality. August 12, 1983 — Cujo opens in U.S. theatersStephen King turns a gentle Saint Bernard into the center of a brutally simple survival nightmare. Dee Wallace and a young child become trapped inside a failing car beneath the blazing summer sun while a rabid dog waits outside and their supposed shelter slowly becomes an oven. August 13, 1993 — Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday opens in U.S. theaters The Friday the 13th franchise blows apart the familiar image of Jason Voorhees and transforms him into a body-hopping demonic force. Family bloodlines, possession horror, temporary human hosts, gruesome transformations, and one unforgettable final tease send Jason into his strange New Line era. August 16, 2020 — Lovecraft Country premieres on HBOMisha Green's supernatural horror series follows Atticus Freeman, Letitia Lewis, and Uncle George across 1950s Jim Crow America, where sundown towns and systemic violence can be as deadly as the ancient creatures waiting in the dark. Cosmic horror, family history, inherited trauma, magic, body horror, and American history collide. Deep-Cut Spotlight — The Monster SquadDracula arrives with the Wolf Man, the Mummy, the Gill Man, and Frankenstein's creature—and the only people prepared to stop them are a group of young horror fans who have spent their lives memorizing monster rules. Directed by Fred Dekker and written by Dekker and Shane Black, The Monster Squad turns fandom into survival training. A German diary must be translated, silver bullets must be tested, an ancient amulet must be protected, and a treehouse club has one night to prevent classic evil from taking control of the world. Funny, adventurous, spooky, and unexpectedly heartfelt, The Monster Squad became a beloved cult horror movie through cable television, home video, and generations of monster kids passing it along to the next generation. It is also perfect viewing for anyone beginning their annual Halloween movie-season pregame.Horror Birthdays This Week: Alfred Hitchcock, Halle Berry, Natasha Henstridge, and James Cameron enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to Psycho, The Birds, Gothika, Dark Tide, Species, Aliens, and some of horror and science-fiction cinema's most memorable killers, creatures, transformations, and survival stories.Weekly Recommendation — The FlyDavid Cronenberg's The Fly celebrates its 40th anniversary with a story that remains romantic, disgusting, funny, tragic, and profoundly human. Jeff Goldblum plays scientist Seth Brundle, whose revolutionary teleportation experiment goes horribly wrong when an unnoticed fly enters the pod beside him. The machine combines their genetic material, beginning a physical transformation that neither science, intelligence, nor love can reverse. With Geena Davis as journalist Veronica Quaife, Academy Award-winning makeup effects, unforgettable body horror, and a devastating central relationship, The Fly remains one of the defining horror movies of the 1980s—and an essential addition to any early Halloween horror watchlist. Plus, Weekly Spooky returns Wednesday with another original horror story, followed by more terrifying history, strange mysteries, horror movie discussion, and unexplained broadcasts throughout the week. From The Others and Cujo to Jason Goes to Hell, Lovecraft Country, The Monster Squad, and The Fly, this week in horror history proves that terror can hide inside a locked mansion, wait outside a stalled car, move from body to body, follow a family across America, gather the classic monsters, or emerge from a teleportation pod. The calendar may still say August, but the Halloween horror pregame is officially underway.

William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin stand at the center of one of the most famous and ethically troubling stories in the history of human experimentation. After an accidental musket blast on Mackinac Island in 1822 tore through St. Martin's ribs, lung, diaphragm and stomach, Army surgeon Beaumont saved his life. The wound healed into a permanent gastric fistula - a living opening through which Beaumont could observe human digestion directly.Beginning in 1825, Beaumont tied food to silk thread and lowered it into St. Martin's stomach, extracted gastric juice through tubes, measured temperature and recorded the effects of illness, exercise and emotional disturbance. The work culminated in his 1833 book Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion and helped transform the science of digestion. It also documented pain, weakness, vertigo and distress, sometimes followed by a decision to continue.Beaumont was not only St. Martin's doctor. He was also his employer, provider and investigator. In 1832, a labor agreement called St. Martin a "covenant Servant" and required him to "obey, suffer and comply" with reasonable and proper experiments. This episode examines that contract, the imbalance behind it and the limits of consent without erasing St. Martin's agency. He refused surgery, returned to Canada, negotiated payment, left repeatedly, permitted some later examinations and ultimately rejected Beaumont's final efforts to bring him back.Terrifying & True separates the documented medical history from later sensational claims that Beaumont deliberately preserved the opening or kept St. Martin as a literal prisoner. The surviving record is more complicated: lifesaving care, groundbreaking science, economic dependence, negotiated participation and a physician who increasingly spoke of recovering control over another man's body.Inside this episode:· The 1822 musket accident on Mackinac Island· Alexis St. Martin's permanent gastric fistula· Food-on-thread tests and gastric juice collection· The 1832 "obey, suffer and comply" labor contract· Consent, dependence and St. Martin's repeated departures· The later report of an eight-foot grave and efforts to obtain his stomach after deathBeaumont's work changed medicine. But when a scientific breakthrough depends on another person's body, labor and pain, who owns the discovery - and who gets remembered as fully human?We're telling that story tonight. 

Unknown Broadcast rides a wall of wind into four old-time radio horror and radio suspense stories where the weather closes every exit. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler tune in with hurricanes, flooded waters, wartime peril, and crimes that refuse to stay buried. Come in out of the rain if you like. The signal has already locked the door behind you.☂ Hurricane — A desperate pair reaches an isolated beach house and discovers the storm outside may be safer than the armed standoff within. ⚓ Flood on the Goodwins — A harrowing wartime crossing of the English Channel becomes a struggle against black water, fog, and a commander with death at the tiller. ⚡ Night of the Storm — A condemned man has only hours left while three people who know he is innocent race the weather and the clock to save him. ☔ Man in the Storm — An embezzler hopes a flood will cover his tracks, only to learn that bad weather has a talent for uncovering worse men. The classic OTR signal fades under the thunder—but something is still knocking from the other side of the rain.

Four scary travel horror stories unleash a Wendigo, a rat-infested ghost ship, a doomed passenger flight, and an escaped serial killer stalking a summer highway. Celebrate Summerween and Halloween in summer with this complete horror fiction anthology packed with supernatural terror, survival horror, cannibalism, killer animals, and roadside nightmares.A routine airplane journey becomes a terrifying supernatural loop when violent turbulence, a grieving old man, and the cries of a dead child lead toward an unavoidable crash. Then a championship basketball team's cannibalistic pact goes horribly wrong after one member consumes something inhuman and transforms into a ravenous Wendigo. Two shipwreck survivors escape a shark-filled ocean only to board an abandoned ocean liner overrun by thousands of flesh-eating rats. Finally, a teenage boy joins his truck-driving uncle for a summer road trip and encounters an escaped serial killer inside a blood-soaked highway truck stop. This Summerween horror compilation features: “The Last Flight Out” by Charles CampbellA haunted airplane story of grief, ghostly passengers, severe turbulence, and a deadly flight trapped in a horrifying cycle.“Be Careful What You Eat” by Rob FieldsCannibal athletes discover the terrible consequences of breaking a supernatural pact when uncontrollable hunger creates a deadly Wendigo.“The Ship of the Cannibal Rats” by David O'HanlonShipwreck survivors board a mysterious ghost ship and discover that its enormous population of killer rats has developed its own brutal society.“Love, Burgers, and the Open Road” by David O'HanlonA summer trucking adventure becomes a roadside slasher nightmare when an escaped serial killer massacres everyone inside a remote truck stop.These terrifying tales combine airplane horror, haunted flights, Wendigo folklore, cannibal horror, ghost ships, killer rats, shark attacks, nautical horror, serial killers, truck stop horror, road trip terror, supernatural curses, dark comedy, and survival stories.Perfect for listeners searching for scary stories, horror audiobooks, horror fiction podcasts, supernatural stories, creature features, serial killer stories, haunted travel stories, scary road trip stories, ocean horror, Summerween entertainment, and Halloween podcasts. The highway is hot, the ocean is endless, and something hungry is waiting at every stop.Halloween may still be months away, but the journey into darkness has already begun.

Join filmmaker Henrique Couto and Rachael Redolfi as Cutting Deep into Horror keeps Summerween rolling and gets an early jump on Halloween season with Hell House LLC (2015), Stephen Cognetti's cult found footage horror movie about a Halloween haunted attraction inside the abandoned Abaddon Hotel. This spoiler-filled Hell House LLC review and ending discussion digs into the movie's mockumentary setup, haunted-house scares, creepy clown mannequins, cult rumors, basement terror, and the opening-night catastrophe that turned a seasonal haunt into a nightmare. If you're already building your Halloween horror movie watchlist, this is one worth revisiting. Henrique and Rachael break down why Hell House LLC works so well as both found footage horror and a fake documentary, including the movie's clever camera logic, background scares, strange noises, sleepwalking, moving figures, malfunctioning equipment, and the growing realization that something inside the Abaddon Hotel may be much worse than the haunt its crew is trying to build. The episode specifically digs into how the documentary structure strengthens the movie rather than simply providing an excuse for the cameras to keep rolling. The conversation also continues the haunted-attraction discussion from The Houses October Built, comparing the two movies' approaches to Halloween haunts, extreme haunted houses, found footage storytelling, and spooky-season atmosphere. While The Houses October Built travels through the world of real haunted attractions, Hell House LLC traps its characters inside one location and slowly turns the business of manufactured fear into something terrifyingly real. Then it's time to enter the Abaddon Hotel itself: its sinister history, rumors of cult activity and suicide, the increasingly disturbing behavior of the Hell House crew, the terrifying clown figures, the disastrous opening night, the panic in the basement, and the revelations waiting in the recovered footage. Henrique and Rachael follow the mystery all the way through the movie's final trip back to the hotel and discuss why its relatively simple scares can still create so much dread. For fans of Halloween movies, haunted house horror, found footage movies, supernatural horror, horror mockumentaries, creepy clowns, abandoned hotels, haunted attractions, spooky season movies, and Summerween, Hell House LLC has become one of the modern horror movies that feels almost tailor-made for October. Inside this episode:Why Hell House LLC works so well as a Halloween-season horror movieSummerween, spooky season, and the appeal of Halloween haunted attractionsHell House LLC vs. The Houses October BuiltWhy the mockumentary and found-footage format feels convincingThe Abaddon Hotel and its disturbing historyCreepy clowns, mannequins, background scares, and slow-building dreadSleepwalking, strange noises, camera problems, and escalating supernatural activityThe Hell House crew's increasingly disastrous haunt preparationsOpening night and the deadly basement sequenceThe Hell House LLC ending and the final return to the Abaddon HotelWhy this one deserves a spot in the Halloween horror rotationSharpen your machetes and straight razors — we're Cutting Deep into Horror.

On August 12, 2026, daylight will vanish along a path crossing Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and beyond—and old stories say the Moon may not be the only thing responsible. In this Thursday Thrills episode, Henrique Couto follows the monsters once blamed for eating the sun: celestial dragons driven off by drums, the severed immortal head Rahu, the Norse wolves Sköll and Hati, a ravenous black squirrel, and the Eternal Bat that gnaws at the edge of the world.It is a fun, eerie ride through solar eclipse folklore, ancient mythology, totality, strange animal behavior, doomsday legends, and the oldest fear in the sky: what if the sun does not come back? Plus, learn where the 2026 total solar eclipse will be visible and how to watch it safely without letting an actual eye injury become the scariest part of the day.

Body horror stories rarely get more disturbing than “LET DOWN” by Morgan Moore, a narrated horror story told through the innocent perspective of a six-year-old girl who cannot speak and is trying to care for her hungry baby brother.Her family is collapsing under sickness, poverty, neglect, and her father's gambling addiction. When the food and baby formula run out, she remembers one simple fact: mothers make milk. Armed with a child's incomplete understanding and a pair of kitchen scissors, she tries to solve the problem herself.This gruesome horror short story blends psychological horror, graphic body horror, domestic dread, and childlike innocence into a shocking nightmare. Start your spooky season early with one of Weekly Spooky's most disturbing horror stories—made for listeners who seek scary stories, creepy stories, narrated horror stories, and unsettling horror narration.Weekly Spooky is a horror fiction anthology and spooky podcast bringing you weekly horror stories, terrifying fiction, and Halloween horror all year long.

The Sixth Sense, Piranha, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Antropophagus, Lady Killer, and The Bat headline this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering August 3 through August 9. As summer horror reaches its hottest, strangest stretch, we're starting our early Halloween horror pregame with killer fish, emotional ghost stories, murderous housewives, hurricane-party paranoia, forbidden cult cinema, and Vincent Price lurking inside a classic old-dark-house mystery. Inside this episode: August 3, 1978 — Piranha releases in the United StatesJoe Dante turns the post-Jaws killer-animal boom into a fast, funny, and surprisingly vicious summer creature feature. Genetically altered military piranha escape into the water system, transforming lakes, rivers, vacation spots, and summer-camp swimming holes into potential feeding grounds. August 6, 1999 — The Sixth Sense releases in the United StatesM. Night Shyamalan changes the modern ghost story with the haunting tale of Cole Sear, a frightened child surrounded by dead people no one else can see. Beneath the famous twist is a deeply emotional horror movie about grief, loneliness, empathy, and the things both the living and the dead are desperate to say. August 3, 2016 — Lady Killer 2 #1 reaches comic shopsJoëlle Jones brings back Josie Schuller, a stylish midcentury homemaker, devoted mother, and highly efficient professional killer. The horror comic transforms domestic perfection into a bloodstained performance where violence is already inside the home, wearing gloves, preparing dinner, and cleaning up after itself. August 5, 2022 — Bodies Bodies Bodies releases theatrically in the United StatesA24 traps a group of wealthy, deeply dysfunctional friends inside a mansion during a hurricane. When a party game becomes a possible murder investigation, slasher tension collides with social-media anxiety, buried resentment, toxic friendships, accusations, and spectacularly bad decisions.Deep-Cut Spotlight — AntropophagusJoe D'Amato's notorious Italian cult-horror film sends unsuspecting visitors to a beautiful but eerily abandoned Greek island where paradise has become a sun-bleached trap. Also known as Anthropophagus and The Grim Reaper, the movie earned a reputation as one of those forbidden video-store horrors whispered about by genre fans because its most extreme moments supposedly had to be seen to be believed. It is grimy, excessive, mean-spirited, and inseparable from the dangerous mystique created by its alternate titles, shocking cover art, and cult-cinema notoriety. Horror Birthdays This Week: John Landis, M. Night Shyamalan, Vera Farmiga, and Tobin Bell enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to An American Werewolf in London, The Sixth Sense, The Conjuring, Bates Motel, Orphan, Saw, and some of modern horror's most recognizable filmmakers, paranormal investigators, and moralizing masterminds. Weekly Recommendation — The BatVincent Price enters an old-dark-house mystery filled with locked rooms, hidden money, suspicious residents, secret passageways, clawed gloves, and a masked killer known only as the Bat. Released in 1959, The Bat delivers classic black-and-white comfort horror with thunderstorms, creaking hallways, shadowy intruders, and the cozy feeling that someone could appear at the far end of the corridor at any moment. It is the perfect late-summer watch for horror fans already pregaming for Halloween and preparing for the arrival of spooky season.From Piranha and The Sixth Sense to Lady Killer, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Antropophagus, and The Bat, this week in horror history proves that terror can swim beneath summer water, stand silently in the corner of a child's room, hide behind domestic perfection, explode during a hurricane party, or wait inside a darkened house.The calendar may still say August, but the Halloween horror pregame starts now.

The USS Indianapolis sinking remains one of the most devastating naval disasters of World War II. On July 30, 1945, Japanese submarine I-58 torpedoed the heavy cruiser in the Philippine Sea after it completed a secret mission delivering components for the Little Boy atomic bomb to Tinian.Indianapolis sank in about twelve minutes. Nearly nine hundred sailors and Marines reached the water alive, but only 316 of the nearly twelve hundred people aboard survived. For more than three days, the survivors drifted across miles of open ocean with little food, almost no fresh water and failing life jackets. They endured burns, injuries, dehydration, hallucinations, exposure and real shark attacks whose exact death toll can never be known. No rescue force had been sent to find them. The Navy's movement-reporting system failed to recognize that an entire warship was missing, and patrol pilot Wilbur Gwinn discovered the survivors only after a faulty antenna drew him to a hatch above an enormous oil slick.In this episode of Terrifying & True, we follow the secret atomic mission, the attack by Mochitsura Hashimoto's submarine, the twelve-minute sinking, the desperate work of men such as Lewis Haynes, Thomas Conway and Edward Parke, and the dangerous open-ocean landing by PBY pilot Robert Adrian Marks. We also examine the court-martial of Captain Charles McVay, the campaign to clear his name, the 2017 discovery of the wreck, and the way Quint's famous Jaws monologue transformed a complex institutional disaster into a shark legend.Inside this episode:USS Indianapolis and the secret Little Boy atomic bomb mission Japanese submarine I-58 and commander Mochitsura Hashimoto The twelve-minute sinking and nearly nine hundred men in the water Sharks, dehydration, hallucinations and more than three days at sea Wilbur Gwinn, Robert Marks and the accidental rescue Captain Charles McVay's court-martial and eventual exoneration How did a decorated American cruiser vanish between major bases without triggering an immediate search - and why did it take fifty-five years to correct the blame placed on its captain? We're telling that story tonight.

Unknown Broadcast returns with a full night of classic old time radio horror, vintage radio suspense, OTR mystery, Golden Age radio drama, and eerie anthology storytelling from four legendary radio programs: CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler.Tonight's transmission features “A Choice of Witnesses,” “Leiningen Versus the Ants,” “The King's Birthday,” and “Patients for the Doctor” — four classic radio dramas about blackmail, murder, moral corruption, survival horror, killer army ants, Nazi-occupied Europe, hidden resistance, psychological suspense, medical horror, and a lonely mountain doctor whose patients may not be there by accident.

Four scary animal horror stories unleash killer hippos, a rage-fueled werewolf, a shape-shifting monster dog, and a demon-possessed cat. Celebrate Summerween and Halloween in summer with a complete horror fiction anthology filled with supernatural creatures, deadly animal attacks, cursed pets, survival horror, and dark comedy.A documentary crew travels deep into the Colombian jungle to investigate Pablo Escobar's infamous cocaine hippos—but the expedition becomes a blood-soaked fight for survival when the enormous animals attack. Then former Malibu model Dani Boy returns to Strickfield carrying a werewolf curse that transforms her whenever her anger becomes uncontrollable.A horror writer moves his family into an isolated house where scratching inside the walls leads to thousands of rats, supernatural creatures, and the disturbing transformation of the family dog. Finally, an aging calico cat develops glowing red eyes, unnatural aggression, and a demonic condition that may be capable of passing into a new host.This Summerween horror compilation features:“Stay Hungry” by David O'HanlonA killer animal survival story about documentary filmmakers, an infamous poacher, and Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippos running wild in the Colombian jungle.“Wolf Rage” by Rob FieldsA supernatural werewolf story set in Strickfield, Ohio, where a former model discovers that anger—not the full moon—awakens the monster inside her.“My Dog, Doug” by David O'HanlonA darkly funny creature feature about a shape-shifting dog, a haunted new house, an enormous rat infestation, and vicious supernatural brownies.“Feline Troubles” by Douglas WaltzA demonic cat story in which a family pet becomes violently possessed and begins hunting the children inside an isolated farmhouse.These terrifying tales combine werewolf horror, killer animal attacks, cocaine hippos, jungle survival, demonic possession, cursed cats, monster dogs, shape-shifters, haunted houses, supernatural pets, creature features, body horror, dark comedy, and Strickfield horror.Perfect for listeners searching for scary stories, animal horror stories, horror audiobooks, horror fiction podcasts, werewolf stories, killer animal horror, demon stories, possessed pet stories, monster stories, supernatural thrillers, Summerween entertainment, and Halloween podcasts.The summer night is warm, the moon is rising, and the animals are beginning to behave strangely.Halloween may still be months away, but something hungry has already escaped into the darkness.

As Halloween season creeps closer, Terrifying & True begins the descent into darker stories with a special compilation of disappearances, ghost ships, lost colonies, missing people, wilderness mysteries, and unexplained cases that still haunt history.This is Vanished Without a Trace — a chilling collection of scary true stories about the places where people entered the dark and never came back.Inside this special Terrifying & True compilation:The Lost Colony of Roanoke — An entire English settlement vanishes from early America, leaving behind one haunting clue and centuries of theories. The Lost Franklin Expedition — A doomed Arctic voyage disappears into ice, starvation, fear, and one of exploration history's most disturbing mysteries. The Mary Celeste — A ship is found drifting across the Atlantic with its crew gone, its cargo intact, and no explanation that fully satisfies the imagination. The Disappearance of Angela Hammond — A late-night phone call turns into a terrifying missing-person case that still chills those who hear it. The Bennington Triangle — A quiet stretch of Vermont becomes linked to a series of strange disappearances, eerie folklore, and wilderness dread. Dyatlov Pass Mystery — Nine hikers die in the Ural Mountains under circumstances that have fueled decades of fear, investigation, and speculation. The Vanishing of Brandon Swanson — A young man disappears while speaking to his father on the phone, leaving behind one of modern true crime's most haunting unanswered questions. The Alaska Triangle — A massive wilderness region becomes infamous for vanished planes, missing travelers, strange legends, and stories that feel tailor-made for the Halloween season. Together, these stories form a journey through real mystery, dark history, eerie folklore, and the unsettling truth that sometimes the scariest thing is not finding a body, a killer, or a confession. Sometimes the scariest thing is finding nothing at all.

Hungry Ghost Month runs August 13 through September 10 in 2026, with the fifteenth-day Hungry Ghost Festival falling on August 27. Why do some getai and wayang performances in Singapore and Malaysia leave the entire front row empty?Thursday Thrills explores the Chinese ghost folklore, religious traditions and regional beliefs behind seats reserved for unseen guests. Henrique traces the differences among the seventh lunar month, the Daoist Zhongyuan Festival, Buddhist Yulanpen or Ullambana observances, ancestor remembrance and offerings for wandering spirits. We also examine food, incense, joss paper and documented Ghost Month taboos involving roadside offerings, nighttime swimming, reserved seats and major life events.From Taiwan's water lanterns and Hong Kong's Yu Lan traditions to Singaporean getai, this respectful supernatural folklore journey separates living cultural practice from sensational internet horror - and asks who a performance is really for when its best seats are left empty.

A vampire love triangle, paranormal romance, and deadly second chance collide in “The Ties That Bind” by Rob Fields—a mature vampire horror story set in the supernatural town of Strickfield. Buster Crane has never forgotten his childhood first love, Talia Mirren. He also cannot stop loving Romy Jillian, the mysterious woman whose pale skin, cold touch, and missing reflection reveal a terrifying secret: Romy is a vampire.When Talia unexpectedly returns during Buster's first year at Strickfield University, their long-lost romance reignites instantly. But Romy refuses to surrender the man she still loves. A confrontation inside a crowded nightclub pulls all three into a dangerous supernatural love triangle filled with jealousy, betrayal, blood, vampire transformations, violent revenge, and one final choice that could bind them together forever.Perfect for fans of vampire stories, vampire romance, paranormal romance audiobooks, adult horror fiction, supernatural love triangles, dark fantasy, and narrated scary stories. Celebrate Summerween, Halloween in July, and Halloween in summer with the Weekly Spooky horror fiction anthology—and begin spooky season early with a seductive, dangerous story of love after death.

The Lost Boys, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Fright Night, The Village, and The Collector headline this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering July 27 through August 2. Summer horror gets vampiric, supernatural, folklore-soaked, and dangerously familiar as we revisit an iconic 1980s vampire movie, the resurrection of Jason Voorhees, M. Night Shyamalan's isolated village nightmare, a brutal home-invasion trap thriller, and a modern Métis horror novel about a loved one who returns profoundly wrong. Inside this episode:July 28, 2020 — Empire of Wild receives its U.S. publicationCherie Dimaline's supernatural horror novel follows Joan, a woman searching for her missing husband. When she discovers a charismatic preacher who looks and sounds almost exactly like him—but insists he is someone else—her search leads toward Métis folklore, the rogarou, stolen identity, grief, and an ancient hunger wearing a familiar face. July 30, 2004 — The Village releases in the United StatesM. Night Shyamalan transforms an isolated community surrounded by forbidden woods into a haunting story about fear, control, ritual, and the dangerous power of a carefully protected lie. The villagers have been taught that creatures wait beyond the boundary, certain colors must never be worn, and safety depends upon everyone obeying the same rules. July 31, 1987 — The Lost Boys releases in the United StatesJoel Schumacher gives vampire horror leather jackets, motorcycles, beach fog, neon boardwalks, and unforgettable 1980s style. Beneath the lights and nightlife of Santa Carla, a gang of young vampires offers danger, immortality, and the seductive promise of never having to grow up. August 1, 1986 — Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives releasesTommy Jarvis accidentally resurrects Jason Voorhees with a bolt of lightning, transforming the Crystal Lake killer into a fully supernatural slasher icon. Faster, funnier, and more self-aware than many earlier entries, Jason Lives combines gothic cemetery imagery, summer-camp terror, black comedy, and one of the franchise's most memorable versions of Jason.Deep-Cut Spotlight — The Collector A desperate thief breaks into a wealthy family's home and discovers that a masked killer has already transformed the property into an elaborate maze of wires, traps, locked rooms, and carefully arranged suffering. The Collector captures the brutal energy of late-2000s horror, combining home-invasion suspense, post-Saw trap horror, survival-thriller momentum, and the terrifying idea that every possible escape route has already been anticipated by someone waiting inside.Horror Birthdays This Week: David Warner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Wes Craven enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to The Omen, Waxwork, Predator, The Terminator, Aliens, Planet Terror, The Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Scream.Weekly Recommendation — Fright Night A teenage horror fan becomes convinced that his charming new neighbor is a vampire—but nobody believes him. Desperate for help, Charley Brewster turns to Peter Vincent, a washed-up television horror host who has spent his career pretending to battle monsters. Funny, stylish, spooky, and filled with practical-effects vampire horror, Fright Night remains one of the great horror-comedies of the 1980s. It combines the vampire-next-door premise with suburban paranoia, late-night horror television, supernatural action, and the realization that imaginary courage may suddenly need to become real.From Empire of Wild and The Village to The Lost Boys, Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, The Collector, and Fright Night, this week in horror history proves that the most dangerous monsters do not always remain hidden. Sometimes they wear the face of someone you love, live inside your community, move into the house next door, or rise from the grave when lightning strikes.

Summerween arrives with a laugh you can hear from across the midway. In this July edition of Monthly Spooky, Henrique Couto and Michelle dive into Laughing Sal, the towering carnival animatronic whose haunting mechanical cackle became American folklore. They explore how this six-foot funhouse nightmare evolved from a popular midway attraction into a cryptid-like legend—appearing in movies, museums, and paranormal stories. Discover the strange history behind one of America's creepiest cursed objects and why we fear the mechanical as much as the supernatural. Perfect for horror enthusiasts who love cryptid encounters and supernatural folklore.They trace the strange history of this six-foot mechanical nightmare, from her early days as one of America's most popular funhouse attractions to her appearances in movies, museums, and pop culture. Why did generations of amusement-park visitors love Laughing Sal? Why does her endless recorded laughter feel so threatening today? And how did a freckled, gap-toothed carnival figure become one of the world's most uncanny animatronic dolls?Before entering Laughing Sal's funhouse, Henrique and Michelle take a funny, creepy trip through the month's strangest spooky news, cryptid folklore, paranormal investigations, UFO reports, and archaeological mysteries.Inside this episode:Gracie the missing giraffe is finally found alive in Texas after spending two weeks on the loose.Butler County, Ohio deputies confront a snake hiding beneath a resident's bed.Lansing, Michigan introduces the Hooga Hooga, a hairy, Bigfoot-like summer-camp cryptid said to tunnel beneath a local nature center.A Japanese real-estate service sends investigators into stigmatized homes overnight to test them for ghosts and paranormal activity.A rare Antarctic titanosaur fossil is rediscovered after sitting unnoticed inside a drawer for decades.Centuries-old royal tombs in Barcelona contain unexpected remains and far more bodies than researchers anticipated.Divers recover a haunting carved face and possible ritual animal bones from a Polish lake.The Pentagon investigates a reported swarm of mysterious UAPs and watercraft near the Virginia coast.Archaeologists enter a sealed chamber beneath a medieval Ukrainian castle and search for additional underground rooms.Michelle closes the episode with a wonderfully unsettling Glitch in the Matrix story about a childhood McDonald's collectible glass that apparently duplicates itself—complete with the exact same crack.Come for Laughing Sal. Stay for cryptids, ghosts, UFOs, secret chambers, ancient burials, haunted real estate, bedroom snakes, and one deeply suspicious drinking glass. This funny and frightening Summerween episode is perfect for fans of creepy carnival history, animatronic horror, haunted attractions, paranormal podcasts, Bigfoot folklore, unexplained mysteries, Halloween in July, and the early spooky season.

Halloween in July begins with classic old time radio horror, vintage suspense, gothic mystery, witchcraft, Lights Out terror, and spooky season nightmares. Unknown Broadcast returns with an extra-large Halloween-in-summer transmission featuring six eerie radio dramas from CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, The Whistler, Lights Out, and The Mysterious Traveler. This classic OTR horror lineup includes Here Goes the Bride, Ancient Sorceries, The Lord of the Witch Doctors, Mirage, Cat Wife, and Beware of Tomorrow — stories of haunted brides, occult villages, witch doctors, jealous murder, catlike transformation, killer robots, artificial life, and sci-fi horror from the Golden Age of radio.

Celebrate Summerween and Halloween in July with four complete narrated Halloween horror stories featuring Bigfoot, vampires, zombies, demons, supernatural folklore, and terrifying encounters after dark. In this special Weekly Spooky horror compilation, a night watchman is hunted across a remote wind farm by a violent Sasquatch, a centuries-old vampire couple spends its anniversary inside a shopping mall after closing, a bicycle courier risks his life delivering supplies during the zombie apocalypse, and a desperate manager discovers that his mysterious new employer may be recruiting workers for Hell itself. These four scary stories combine Bigfoot horror, Sasquatch attacks, vampire horror, zombie apocalypse survival, demonic bargains, workplace horror, dark comedy, supernatural suspense, cryptid encounters, and Halloween campfire storytelling into one feature-length audio horror anthology. Start spooky season early with this Summerween horror special, perfect for listeners searching for Halloween stories, scary stories, horror fiction, creepypasta, cryptid stories, vampire fiction, zombie horror, supernatural thrillers, narrated horror podcasts, and frightening stories told around the campfire. “I Guard Windmills, and I'm Not Sure If I'll Survive the Shift” Written by Michael KelsoA survivor of two disastrous supernatural jobs accepts an overnight security position at a remote wind farm. But when he discovers a burned turbine and evidence of something enormous moving through the surrounding forest, his quiet night shift becomes a brutal chase involving a furious Bigfoot with a violent grudge. “A Night at the Galleria” Written by Rob FieldsA seemingly young couple hides inside a shopping mall for an after-hours anniversary celebration. When three thieves break into the deserted galleria, they have no idea that the romantic strangers watching them have remained together since the Black Death—or what the ancient vampires intend to do next. “Send Beer” Written by Michelle AntisocialIn a city devastated by the zombie apocalypse, bicycle courier Felix and a flock of homing pigeons keep isolated survivors supplied with groceries and medicine. But when a regular customer stops responding and one of the birds returns covered in blood, a routine welfare check reveals an infected family and an unexpectedly useful bottle of vodka. “Torture and Other Job Skills” Written by Killian CraneAfter losing the management position that defined his life, a cruel and desperate man answers a mysterious help-wanted advertisement. The address leads him to a black-glass office tower where revenge, torture, and complete moral surrender are not workplace violations—they are requirements for employment. Turn down the lights, escape the summer heat, and celebrate Halloween in July with four tales of monsters, bloodsuckers, the undead, and infernal employment. Summerween begins now on Weekly Spooky.

Join filmmaker Henrique Couto as Cutting Deep into Horror explores The Houses October Built (2014)—a found footage nightmare about five friends hunting the most extreme haunted houses across America. Discover how this supernatural folklore film captures real haunted-house horror, extreme-tourism fears, and the dark secrets lurking behind roadside attractions. Perfect for early Halloween spooky season listening.Henrique is joined by Rachael Redolfi for a spoiler-filled review of director Bobby Roe's Halloween horror film, which blends fictional found footage with real haunted attractions, genuine haunt performers and documentary-style material.The group's road trip becomes increasingly dangerous as their search for a secret underground attraction called the Blue Skeleton draws the attention of masked performers who begin following, filming and confronting them far beyond the supposed safety of the haunts.Henrique and Rachael discuss the film's documentary origins, its countdown toward October 31 and the way it transforms the excitement of Halloween tourism into something threatening and deeply uncomfortable.The conversation explores:The documentary origins of The Houses October BuiltReal haunted houses and Halloween attractionsHenrique and Rachael's personal haunt experiencesTouch passes and interactive haunted attractionsThe mystery surrounding the Blue SkeletonHaunted-house actors dealing with frightened or violent guestsExtreme haunt legends and McKamey ManorThe difference between theatrical scares and genuine abuseWhy human villains can be more frightening than supernatural monstersComparisons with Hell House LLCThen Henrique and Rachael go completely behind the curtain to explain The Houses October Built ending, including the kidnapping at the Halloween festival, the group being separated, the coffins, the threat of being burned alive and Brandy's horrifying buried-alive finale.Does the movie's ambiguous conclusion make it more frightening? Is the Blue Skeleton an extreme haunted attraction, a criminal organization or something even darker? And why does this unsettling movie continue to stand out among modern Halloween found footage films?Celebrate Summerween, enjoy some Halloween in July horror, and begin building your early Halloween movie watchlist with The Houses October Built.Next time on Cutting Deep into Horror, Henrique and Rachael continue their Summerween haunted-attraction double feature with Hell House LLC.

Just in time for Shark Week 2026, Thursday Thrills dives into true shark attacks, megalodon legends, terrifying sea monsters, and the bizarre unsolved murder exposed when a captive tiger shark regurgitated a human arm.We revisit the 1916 Jersey Shore and Matawan Creek attacks, the Black Demon of Baja, and Sydney's infamous Shark Arm case.Along the way, meet the Stronsay Beast, centuries-old Greenland sharks, river-roaming bull sharks, and sand tiger embryos that eat their siblings before birth. It is a fun, eerie ride through shark horror, cryptid folklore, sea monsters, true crime, ocean mysteries, and the nightmare behind Jaws.

Chupacabra horror, Puerto Rico folklore, summer camp terror, and violent cryptid attacks collide in “Camping With Chupacabra” by Douglas Waltz—a complete scary story from the Weekly Spooky horror fiction anthology podcast.Jonathan Edwards is a veteran camp counselor who has spent twenty years teaching wilderness survival, training young counselors, and sleeping beneath the stars. When he accepts a permanent position at the newly constructed Camp Clemente in Puerto Rico, the fresh cabins, tropical forest, mountain trails, and private lake seem like the beginning of his dream job.Then an unholy howl rolls out of the jungle.The frightened counselors whisper an old name: El Vampiro de Moca—the Chupacabra.After a savage nighttime attack tears through the camp, Jonathan discovers that the property was built directly over an ancient protective sigil. Beneath the nearby mountains lies a bat-filled cavern, a supernatural portal known as the Well of Chupacabra, and a pack of reptilian creatures waiting for another chance to enter our world.Armed with wilderness experience, a loyal Zippo lighter, and a case of dynamite, Jonathan and camp owner Paul Williams descend into the darkness to seal the well before the Chupacabras return. But destroying one monster nest may reveal that Puerto Rico is hiding far more supernatural secrets than either man imagined.Fans of Chupacabra stories, cryptid horror, scary camping stories, Puerto Rico legends, summer camp horror, wilderness survival, monster attacks, cave horror, creature features, supernatural thrillers, and complete horror audiobooks will find plenty to fear—and plenty of pulpy monster-hunting fun—in this episode.Pack your supplies, keep the cabin doors barricaded, and listen closely when something howls beyond the firelight. Tonight on Weekly Spooky, camping season becomes hunting season in “Camping With Chupacabra” by Douglas Waltz.

Dracula, The Hills Have Eyes, Nope, Maximum Overdrive, and Deep Blue Sea headline this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering July 20 through July 26. Summer horror gets seductive, sun-scorched, mechanical, extraterrestrial, and shark-infested as we explore gothic vampires, desert survival horror, reverse-horror gaming, Jordan Peele's terrifying vision of spectacle, Stephen King's killer-machine apocalypse, and genetically engineered sharks loose inside an underwater laboratory.  Inside this episode:July 20, 1979 — Dracula releases in the United StatesFrank Langella gives Count Dracula a dangerous combination of gothic romance, theatrical charm, and supernatural menace. This version of Bram Stoker's vampire proves that evil does not always need to force its way through the door. Sometimes it gets invited inside.July 22, 1977 — The Hills Have Eyes premieres in Tucson, ArizonaWes Craven turns an ordinary family road trip into a brutal desert survival nightmare. When a shortcut leaves the Carter family stranded far from civilization, the open landscape becomes a trap filled with heat, isolation, violence, and another family watching from the hills.July 23, 2020 — Carrion releasesThis reverse-horror video game flips the familiar monster formula by letting players become the creature. A growing mass of teeth, tendrils, and hunger escapes through a research facility while terrified scientists and guards discover that containment has completely failed.July 22, 2022 — Nope releases in U.S. theatersJordan Peele turns the sky into a haunted house in a strange and ambitious collision of UFO horror, creature-feature spectacle, Hollywood exploitation, western imagery, animal behavior, and the dangerous human need to capture the impossible on camera.Deep-Cut Spotlight — Maximum OverdriveStephen King steps behind the camera for one of the loudest and most gloriously unhinged killer-machine movies of the 1980s. After Earth passes through the tail of a comet, trucks, vending machines, arcade games, lawn equipment, and other everyday technology suddenly turn against humanity. At the Dixie Boy truck stop, a group of survivors becomes trapped by eighteen-wheelers that appear to have developed personalities, grudges, and a deep hatred of human beings. With a goblin-faced truck, massive explosions, diner panic, homicidal machinery, and AC/DC blasting through the chaos, Maximum Overdrive remains a greasy, absurd, and unforgettable piece of Stephen King horror history.Horror Birthdays This Week: Diana Rigg, Josh Hartnett, Willem Dafoe, and Lynda Carter enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to Theatre of Blood, Last Night in Soho, Halloween H20, The Faculty, 30 Days of Night, Trap, Shadow of the Vampire, The Lighthouse, Nosferatu, and The Initiation of Sarah.Weekly Recommendation — Deep Blue Sea Researchers inside an isolated underwater facility genetically engineer mako sharks while searching for a medical breakthrough. Unfortunately, making enormous predators more intelligent turns out to be a catastrophically bad idea. Packed with violent storms, flooding corridors, underwater laboratories, corporate hubris, giant sharks, and one of the most memorable shock moments in 1990s horror, Deep Blue Sea remains a fast, fun, and wonderfully ridiculous summer creature feature. From Dracula and The Hills Have Eyes to Carrion, Nope, Maximum Overdrive, and Deep Blue Sea, this week in horror history proves that summer terror can wait inside a gothic mansion, watch from the desert hills, escape from a laboratory, descend from the sky, take control of an eighteen-wheeler, or circle silently beneath the water.

The murder of Brian Barrett became one of the most disturbing true crime cases of the early internet age: a deadly online love triangle built on catfishing, fake identities, chatroom deception, jealousy, and obsession.In 2006, 22-year-old Brian Barrett was shot and killed outside Dynabrade Corporation in Clarence, New York, near Buffalo. At first, the murder seemed almost motiveless. Brian was a college student, athlete, Little League coach, and future teacher with no obvious enemies. But investigators soon uncovered a digital trail involving Pogo chatrooms, Yahoo instant messages, online romance, and a username that would become infamous: TalHotBlond.This episode of Terrifying & True investigates the real story behind the Brian Barrett murder, the TalHotBlond case, and the online deception that led to violence. Thomas Montgomery, a 46-year-old married father, had been posing online as an 18-year-old Marine sniper named Tommy. Mary Shieler, a 45-year-old mother in West Virginia, was posing as her own teenage daughter, using the girl's photos and voice to maintain the fantasy. Brian Barrett entered the situation as himself — a real 22-year-old man caught between two adults hiding behind fake ideAs the lies unraveled, Montgomery became consumed by jealousy, humiliation, and obsession. The online rivalry moved from Pogo games and instant messages into the workplace, where Brian and Thomas both worked. Then, on September 15, 2006, Brian walked to his pickup truck after his shift and was ambushed with a .30-caliber rifle.We examine the evidence against Thomas Montgomery, the DNA on the peach pit, the missing rifle, the chat logs, the TalHotBlond deception, Mary Shieler's role, and why the case became known as the internet love triangle murder. But at the center of the story is not a screen name, a scandal, or a twist. It is Brian Barrett — a son, brother, friend, coach, student, and future teacher whose life was stolen by obsession.We're telling that story tonight.

Unknown Broadcast returns with a full night of horror fiction anthology classics: CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler. Four eerie stories of supernatural mystery, impossible apparitions, and noir crime spanning the Golden Age of radio drama. Immersive vintage suspense for late-night listening.Tonight's eerie OTR lineup includes “The Walls of Jericho,” “Three Good Witnesses,” “The Singing Walls,” and “The Avengers” — four strange stories of impossible apparitions, wartime murder, hidden bodies, haunted walls, stolen gold, ghostly revenge, and crimes that refuse to stay buried.

Demons, Satanic cults, and supernatural revenge collide in this horror fiction anthology. A runaway discovers a forbidden book devoted to an imprisoned goddess. A mercenary raids an asylum to film a cult. A cursed man awakens to humiliation and dark magic. Four tales of demonic possession, occult rituals, and vampire mythology—expertly narrated with dark comedy and spine-tingling twists. Perfect late-night horror for spooky season enthusiasts.“Sin” — by Rob FieldsA murderous runaway hiding inside a Catholic academy discovers a forbidden scripture devoted to Hellweaver—and begins a bloody ritual to become the imprisoned demon goddess's devoted daughter.“Gamble with the Devil” — by David O'HanlonA delusional soldier of fortune hires a desperate cameraman to film his promotional reel, then drags him into an abandoned asylum for a heavily armed assault on a Satanic cult whose rituals have summoned something horrifyingly real.“Breaking the Seal” — by Douglas WaltzAfter a drunken encounter with a practicing witch, a hungover man awakens with a bloody pentagram on his chest and an unstoppable bodily curse that only the woman he insulted can remove.“The Bad Schoolgirl” — by Rob FieldsA foul-mouthed, daywalking Master Vampire enters Strickfield High and follows a squad of vampire cheerleaders into the woods, where stolen souls are being used to power their supernatural jewelry.

What could be worse than dying? Waking up after everyone has already buried you.Weekly Spooky presents a complete reading of “The Premature Burial” by Edgar Allan Poe, a claustrophobic gothic horror story built around one of humanity's oldest and most terrifying fears: being buried alive.Tormented by a medical condition that can make him appear dead, a man becomes consumed by accounts of premature burial. He studies coffins, graves, crypts, and horrifying cases of people awakening beneath the earth. As his obsession grows, he takes increasingly desperate precautions to ensure that he will never open his eyes inside a sealed coffin.But fear has a way of following us into the darkness.This classic Edgar Allan Poe audiobook is perfect for listeners searching for buried alive horror stories, gothic horror, classic scary stories, macabre fiction, claustrophobic horror, literary horror, and complete Edgar Allan Poe readings.Tonight, the most terrifying place imaginable is not a haunted house.It is six feet underground.

Cartoon Cat is one of the creepiest viral horror monsters to crawl out of internet folklore. In this episode of Thursday Thrills, we dive into the Cartoon Cat urban legend, explore its origins in modern internet horror, and talk about why old cartoon imagery feels so unsettling when it turns sinister.From rubber-hose animation and creepy vintage cartoon aesthetics to internet monster lore, creepypasta-style fear, and the strange power of distorted childhood nostalgia, this episode explores why Cartoon Cat has become such a memorable modern horror icon.We'll look at the legend, the style, the nightmare fuel behind the character, and an eerie original story about what happens when something impossible starts moving inside an abandoned mall after dark.If you love internet horror, creepypasta, urban legends, creepy cartoons, analog-style nightmare imagery, Trevor Henderson-style monsters, and spooky campfire storytelling, this ride into Cartoon Cat territory is for you.

A truck driver's terrifying nightmare begins coming true in this supernatural highway horror story about prophetic dreams, a demonic roadside creature, and a daughter who knows something is waiting for her father in the dark.After dreaming that a towering monster tears him from his delivery truck and drags him into the woods, an ordinary car-parts driver tries to convince himself it was only a nightmare. Then he reaches the same bridge from his dream. He sees something enormous watching from the trees—and his eight-year-old daughter Angeline already knows exactly what he saw.As Angeline's psychic dreams become increasingly urgent, every late delivery run brings her father closer to the creature lurking beside the highway. Is the nightmare a warning that can still save him, or a vision of something that has already decided his fate?“Driving a Truck Can Be a Nightmare, Literally” by Michael Kelso is a suspenseful scary story blending truck driver horror, road horror, shared nightmares, psychic premonitions, family terror, creature-feature suspense, and a frightening supernatural monster encounter. Fans of horror stories, highway legends, demon stories, cryptid fiction, dark-road encounters, psychological suspense, and immersive audio fiction will want to keep their doors locked for this one.Tonight on the Weekly Spooky horror podcast, one father must decide whether his daughter's nightmares are childish fears—or warnings from something real waiting beside the road.You can purchase books from this author here: https://geni.us/michaelkelsoauthor

Mid-July horror gets mutated, vengeful, infectious, and lost in the woods in this episode of This Week in Horror History, covering the week of July 13 through July 19. This time, we're digging into mad-scientist island nightmares, supernatural revenge literature, one extremely angry killer whale, a science-fiction body-horror classic, biological vampires, and the tiny independent movie that changed horror marketing forever.Inside this episode:July 13, 1977 — The Island of Dr. Moreau opens in U.S. theatersBurt Lancaster brings H.G. Wells' nightmare of science without conscience to the screen in a sweaty, pulpy story filled with animal-human mutations, unchecked authority, and a scientist convinced that nature would be better if he personally rearranged it.July 14, 2020 — The Only Good Indians is publishedStephen Graham Jones delivers one of modern horror literature's sharpest supernatural reckonings as four Blackfeet men discover that something from their past has memory, purpose, and antlers waiting in the dark.July 15, 1977 — Orca opens in New YorkThe post-Jaws creature-feature wave gets stranger, angrier, and surprisingly tragic when a killer whale driven by grief, intelligence, and patience begins pursuing the human responsible for an unforgivable act.July 16, 1958 — The Fly releases in the United StatesA scientist, a teleportation machine, and one tiny insect create one of science-fiction horror's most unforgettable transformations, turning a dream of human progress into a cruel nightmare of mixed bodies and irreversible mistakes.Deep-Cut Spotlight — The StrainGuillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan drag vampires out of the velvet cape and into the quarantine zone as a passenger plane lands at JFK filled with the dead. What follows treats vampirism like a biological outbreak capable of spreading through New York while officials argue, deny, and react too late.Horror Birthdays This Week:Patrick Stewart, Larry Cohen, Corey Feldman, and James Brolin enter the birthday roll, bringing connections to Lifeforce, Green Room, It's Alive, Q, The Stuff, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, The Lost Boys, Gremlins, and The Amityville Horror.Weekly Recommendation — The Blair Witch ProjectThree student filmmakers enter the Maryland woods with cameras, recording equipment, and a local legend, creating a landmark of found-footage horror built from darkness, disorientation, improvised performances, and the terrifying possibility that the footage might be real.Plus, Weekly Spooky returns Wednesday with another fresh original horror story, followed by more terrifying history, strange mysteries, movie talk, and unexplained broadcasts throughout the week.From The Island of Dr. Moreau and The Only Good Indians to Orca, The Fly, The Strain, and The Blair Witch Project, this week in horror history proves that terror can spread through laboratories, guilty memories, dark water, crowded cities, and one cursed corner of the internet.