Other Media for the Season

The Magnus Archives is a wonderful horror podcast that, at first, presents itself as an anthology series with a "Monster of the Week" format, which quickly devolves into an overarching plot where the characters are introduced to said monsters of the week, grapple with what it means to be human, and are forced to witness things no one should have to. Jonathan Sims, the Head Archivist of the Magnus Institute, reads aloud statements about different encounters with these monsters, which are revealed to be the workers of higher beings, and waves them away as the ramblings of lunatics. However, as I mentioned before, after his assistant has a chance encounter with one of these monsters, the monstrosities begin to become undeniable. With little to no help, Jon and his assistants, Sasha James, Tim Stoker, and Martin Blackwood, along with the audience, are introduced to a brave new world filled with eldritch horrors and ponder the weight of questions such as: "Is it wrong to feed the being that feeds you when it's necessary for your survival?"

The Magnus Archives is available on Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, and other places. It's also receiving a sequel series! Release date TBA but Rusty Quill has confirmed the return of the beloved universe this month of October, and will be crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

Red Valley is a sci-fi horror mystery drama centered around the concept of cryonic preservation, which is the preservation of humans in cryopods in sub-zero temperatures. The story begins with accounts man for Overhead Industries Warren Godby going on a wild goose chase for a particular budget review case, the Red Valley facility case. After receiving no information on whether this facility is even working anymore, Warren decides to head to the archives department where he meets Gordon Porlock, head archivist for Overhead. Gordon is cryptic and insists that Warren does not ask around about Red Valley anymore. According to Gordon, Red Valley is not a seed vault as it says on the budget review files, but a facility made for experiments on cryonics. Gordon gives Warren several cassette tapes that feature the audio logs of a former researcher at Red Valley, Aubrey Wood, and so their investigation into what exactly Red Valley is doing begins.

This podcast has excellent sound design, amazing character backstories, and is a great commentary on capitalism and the innocent lives that are forever damaged in the name of "bettering society". Highly recommend if you can tolerate audio gore and some highly unethical experimentation.

The final podcast on this section is the Unwell podcast, a podcast about ghosts, creepy towns, and parental relationships. The podcast follows Lily Harper as she returns to her mother's hometown where her mom, Dorothy or "Dot", is recovering from a twisted ankle. Lily meets several new people when she returns to her mother's boarding house: Wes, the 16 year old part-timer who makes it a point to help everyone and anyone, including Dot, and Abbie Douglas, the non-binary doctoral student who is studying the town, Mount Absalom, and it's decaying economy and infrastructure in hopes of providing a solution for the people. The podcast begins as a simple drama focused on the strained relationship between Lily and her mom, but turns into a big picture story where the strangeness of the town and some of its inhabitant are investigated further. Along the way, more characters are picked up, and more dynamics and horrors are introduced to the story.

This is another podcast with great sound design and great characters. No one is two dimensional, and many of them acknowledge the difficulties that come with being a person of colour in a American midwestern town such as Mt. Absalom. Highly recommend if you like found family and creepy towns with even creepier traditions.

To finalise this section, I recommend the story 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream' by Harlan Ellison. There is both a book and a video-game available, though the book is harder to come by. Ellison's story is a tale of science fiction, AI, and the human will to live. It's about the take-over of the world by a dominant AI that plays with the remaining 5 humans, who are all broken and battered by the trials the AI forces them through, which include terrible environments and acts. There are several video essays about this book which I highly recommend watching. A fitting story for anyone who likes other media such as 'The Matrix.'