Horror and Mystery, in a Podcast
July 31, 2018 10:35 AM   Subscribe

The Magnus Archives is a weekly horror fiction anthology podcast examining what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organisation dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird. Listen to a trailer or two. Start with episode 1.

The Magnus Archives is produced by Rusty Quill, and written and performed by Jonathan Sims, along with guest actors.
posted by meese (13 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
Also, Jonathan Sims really does sound like that. It's not a fake accent.
posted by meese at 10:38 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


I loved this at first, but it turned into more body horror/disgusting than I enjoy. Bugs, slaughterhouses and the like aren't really what I'm looking for.

It's very high quality if you like that, though.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:11 AM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love this podcast. Definitely recommended for fans of Welcome to Night Vale, Junji Ito, and/or the SCP Foundation.
posted by fermion at 11:54 AM on July 31, 2018


I agree with you Bulgaroktonos. I thought the first season was generally a lot of fun but in the second season, it seemed to ramp up the gore/disgust factor quite a bit.
posted by treepour at 12:05 PM on July 31, 2018


Was the transition to gore as jarring as Archive 81? First season was a nice slow burn mysterious building meta-story, while the second seemed to just consist of squelching noises (at least until I stopped listening).
posted by robocop is bleeding at 1:35 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


No no no I can't do this now I am still 150 hours behind on critical role.

Dammit.

queues first episode
posted by quillbreaker at 2:28 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


I really love the Magnus Archives. The individual stories are creepy, the framing device characters are fun and interesting, if doomed, and the mythology seems very coherent without necessarily being understandable. It’s a very well-done podcast. I also appreciate the author’s Aversion to violence as “fallback horror,” And a total refusal to rely on sexualized violence as a source of horror.
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:20 PM on July 31, 2018 [6 favorites]


Anyone up for 100+ episode fanfare run?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:21 PM on July 31, 2018 [3 favorites]


Was the transition to gore as jarring as Archive 81?
At some point, I will have to listen to the first season, as I came onboard for the second. The third season does not suffer from the audio body horror of mecha-Dan wheezing and sloshing about, though there is one episode in season 3 that involves the sounds of animal sacrifice. Fortunately, there's a pre-show warning about the noises you'll hear in that episode ("And a knife both of you have used to cut meat").
posted by stannate at 8:24 PM on July 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


there is one episode in season 3 that involves the sounds of animal sacrifice. Fortunately, there's a pre-show warning about the noises you'll hear in that episode ("And a knife both of you have used to cut meat").

Wait, what? What episode is this? I just went through the whole series in the last week, and I don't remember anything like that?
posted by meese at 9:16 PM on July 31, 2018


The backlog is huge but once the story starts going it gets really interesting. I loved the in universe explanations for why the Archivist records the way he does, the little side vignettes and the interplay of relationships between the characters are fun and honestly 100 episodes in, I enjoy each piece of fiction but the overarching story is far more fascinating to me. Plus they've rounded out the cast with some mostly stellar voice actors, and the diversity on display in terms of gender/sexuality is really lovely and affirming. [mild spoilers] I thought I was reading into some of the relationship cues between two of the male characters in the early episodes, until a few episodes ago when another character basically confirmed that, yep, this one has a major crush on the other one![/end spoilers] Podcast fiction is really blossoming with LGBTQ+ representation.
posted by ProtectoroftheSmall at 3:55 PM on August 1, 2018 [2 favorites]


I know what moment you're commenting about, ProtectoroftheSmall, but I thought it involved the revelation that one character is asexual. I really liked that.
posted by meese at 9:45 PM on August 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Meese, you're right, I can't believe I forgot to mention that part! They were both hinted at during that conversation, one directly after the other. I'm interested in seeing what comes of it.
posted by ProtectoroftheSmall at 4:20 AM on August 2, 2018


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