Suspense, X Minus One, Lights Out! Mercury Theatre and more...
October 26, 2015 8:47 AM   Subscribe

 
Back-to-back old time radio posts!
posted by davidjmcgee at 8:51 AM on October 26, 2015


*vocalizes before a big microphone with two gals in bobbed haircuts*
posted by The Whelk at 8:53 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


Ooh, I've listened to all of these, and they're great choices. The Cat Wife especially, is a good one. I feel like The Weird Circle is underrepresented in these lists. It was a smaller production, but it focused on more classical horror and suspense stories.
posted by boo_radley at 8:56 AM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


YESSSSSsssssssss
posted by Kitteh at 8:58 AM on October 26, 2015


Needs more Johnny Dollar.

Hey, insurance claims are scary!
posted by Chrysostom at 9:05 AM on October 26, 2015 [5 favorites]


And Radio Drama Revival is doing a run of Halloween stories now, too. Their version of the Masque of the Red Death is a fantastic adaptation for modern listeners.
posted by boo_radley at 9:07 AM on October 26, 2015


Yay! Here is where I get to recommend the outsidery Halloween radio dramarations of Judson Fountain. The demented, sing-songy voice of Molly in The Old Woman of Haunted House totally slays me and is frequently imitated in my household, usually to the great dismay of any living being within earshot.

Heck, I'm gonna change my ringtone to the old woman right now.
posted by Ennis Tennyone at 9:25 AM on October 26, 2015


See also: Escape, Lights Out!, Mysterious Traveler and Suspense.
posted by christopherious at 9:37 AM on October 26, 2015


I got so engrossed in the 80s CBC show "Nightfall" three years ago that I made an FPP about it. It's old-time-radio-meets-VHS-schlock-horror*, right down to the sleazy, cheesy synthesizer soundtrack.

* If Robert Aickman has been adapted for VHS-era B movie horror, that is.
posted by ryanshepard at 9:44 AM on October 26, 2015 [2 favorites]


Thank you for the Halloween gift. Karloff and Price in the same package.
posted by Splunge at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2015


No love for Inner Sanctum Mysteries?
posted by peppermind at 10:57 AM on October 26, 2015


peppermind: "No love for Inner Sanctum Mysteries?"
Which ones do you like? What's good?
posted by boo_radley at 11:43 AM on October 26, 2015


Sanctum?

DAMN NEAR KILLED 'UM!

(i'm sorry)
posted by entropicamericana at 12:50 PM on October 26, 2015


The Nitrate Diva's Fear You Can Hear: 31 of the Scariest Old Time Radio Episodes for Halloween. (Includes The Inner Sanctum's "The Vengeful Corpse.")
posted by Kylio at 2:30 PM on October 26, 2015 [1 favorite]


No love for Inner Sanctum Mysteries?

It didn't make their list but it was mentioned in the intro, so it got some love. Meanwhile, I get to grumble, "No love for Quiet, Please?"

When I saw the article title, I immediately thought of three shows, and only "The House On Cypress Canyon" made the AV Club's list. So my two glaring omissions are the incredible "The Thing On The Fourble Board" from Quiet, Please, which gradually moves from creepy atmosphere to perverse delirium (and which is included in Kylio's Nitrate Diva link), and Suspense's "Sorry, Wrong Number," which is not supernatural but has absolutely the scariest ending of any OTR I've heard (and which the AV Club does at least mention under the entry for "The Hitchhiker").

A couple of other really good ones not mentioned in either the AV Club or Nitrate Diva lists are a pair of Lights Out episodes, "Death Robbery," starring Boris Karloff and featuring the most unnerving creature vocal performance this side of "Fourble Board," and "The Coffin In Studio B," which is a fun meta episode, set during the recording of a Lights Out story.

I got so engrossed in the 80s CBC show "Nightfall" three years ago that I made an FPP about it.

"The Porch Light" is freakin' terrific, isn't it? And the '80s-slasher-by-way-of-Tales-From-The-Darkside vibe of "All Nighter" is pretty memorable, too. I've seen people online complaining that the soundtrack spoils the mood for them, but dammit, I love me some '80s horror synth and in fact it's the reason I checked out the show in the first place.
posted by brianrobot at 10:42 PM on October 26, 2015


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