Seeking out podcasts specifically designed to make you regret every life choice that led you to listening to terrifying stories in the dark while you’re home alone is a well-trodden pastime for veteran podcast listeners. Maybe you’re tired of boring old reality with its pedestrian horrors like student loans, fascism, and climate change, and you need some good old-fashioned supernatural dread to really spice things up.
Or perhaps you just enjoy the thrill of sprinting from your car to your front door because a podcast convinced you that something is definitely lurking in your driveway. Whatever your damage, horror fiction podcasts are here to exploit it with expert-level sound design that’ll make you jump at your own refrigerator’s ice maker and narratives so unsettling you’ll start seeing ominous symbolism in your morning toast. Here are some of the best horror-fiction podcasts in the world.
From Now
The USS HOPE returns after vanishing thirty-five years ago. Its lone survivor (Richard Madden) hasn’t aged a day. After media chaos, he reunites with his now-elderly twin brother. Their joyful reunion quickly unravels, revealing dark secrets that threaten their bond, and humanity’s future.
Bridgewater
When a relic from his past resurfaces, folklore professor Jeremy Bradshaw abandons his routine to unravel the mystery. He receives help from people who challenge his beliefs as he attempts to answer one question: can history be changed? This supernatural thriller stars Misha Collins, Melissa Ponzio, and Alan Tudyk.
The Left RIght Game
Tessa Thompson portrays an ambitious young journalist seeking recognition by documenting a group of paranormal enthusiasts obsessed with a seemingly innocent activity called the Left/Right Game. Her investigation leads her and the expedition members into a supernatural realm beyond their ability to comprehend or endure.
Tower 4
Mike Archer becomes a fire watcher in Wyoming’s woods after his mother’s death, hoping for peace to write his book. Instead, strange radio interference and eerie sounds in the forest disturb his solitude. Are these disturbances real, or is isolation driving him mad?
Limetown
A decade ago, over 300 people vanished from a Tennessee town without a trace. American Public Radio reporter Lia Haddock investigates the enduring mystery: “What happened to the people of Limetown?”
Morbid Forest
Travelers enter the Morbid Forest, where Ranger Harper leads them down woodland paths while sharing truly terrifying tales. Straying from the right path risks getting lost forever within the Morbid Forest.
Knifepoint Horror
Supernatural suspense stories written, produced, and narrated by Soren Narnia. Stories are licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA. Listen ad-free on Patreon. SpectreVision Radio is a podcast network exploring creativity, the esoteric, and the unknown. Discover the best episodes of Knifepoint Horror.
I Am In Eskew
A man trapped in the nightmarish, impossible city of Eskew continuously records his daily experiences, hoping someone outside will hear. The show regularly features body horror and disturbing content.
The Silt Verses
In this horror-fantasy serial, Carpenter and Faulkner worship an outlawed god, traveling along its great black river seeking revelations. As their pilgrimage continues and mysteries deepen, they face both a police manhunt and strange rural gods.
Janus Descending
Two xenoarcheologists survey a lost alien civilization orbiting a binary star, but face deadly creatures that destroyed the planet. The story unfolds from two perspectives, one told end to beginning, the other beginning to end.
Red Valley
A mystery drama exploring experimental science’s boundaries, confronting past, present, and future, and attempting to recall the Sonic 2 level select cheat.
Unwell
Lillian Harper relocates to Mt. Absalom, Ohio, to care for her estranged mother Dorothy following an injury. At her family’s generational boarding house, she uncovers conspiracies, encounters ghosts, and finds unexpected kinship among the residence’s eccentric inhabitants.
We’re Not Meant to Know
Certain knowledge remains forbidden to humanity. A horror anthology podcast explores these boundaries.
King Falls AM
King Falls AM focuses on a remote mountain town’s late-night AM radio show, featuring paranormal occurrences and unusual residents. New episodes release on the 1st and 15th monthly.
Woodbine: A Parkdale Haunts Production / Parkdale Haunt
When Judith’s best friend Claire inherits a mysterious house, everything changes. The house holds cryptic notebooks, eerie writings, and an unnaturally cold basement. Claire becomes increasingly strange as she uncovers secrets. After Claire disappears, Judith and co-worker Owen search for her, diving into a dangerous history.
This House Will Devour You
This podcast is a gothic horror epistolary audio drama told through letters between Jon and Elizabeth in the 1920s, spanning Ireland, England, and Egypt. A slow-burn tale of love, madness, murder, mysteries, and dead gods.
Welcome to Night Vale
Bi-monthly community broadcasts from Night Vale, a small desert town where every conspiracy theory proves real. The show advises listeners to tune in and take cover. New listeners can start with the current episode or begin at Episode 1 for a complete experience of this ongoing radio series.
Station Blue
Troubled Matthew Leads seeks purpose by becoming caretaker of an Antarctic research facility. This atmospheric isolation horror chronicles his battles with mental illness, heartbreak, and the oppressive atmosphere of Station Blue.
Petrified
Petrified is a horror audio drama anthology set in a darker Ireland, presenting chilling stories of ordinary people who encounter the supernatural and meet terrifying ends.
Borrasca
A psychological thriller starring Cole Sprouse as Sam Walker. Season 1 follows Sam recounting the summer his sister disappeared, uncovering Drisking, Missouri’s dark secrets. Season 2 brings Sam back to Drisking when a figure from his past seeks revenge, dragging him to the forests of his nightmares and the unresolved mysteries at the gates of Borrasca.
Observable Radio
Observable Radio is a found footage podcast featuring retro sci-fi and analog horror, created by Cameron Suey, Phil van Hest, Purpurina, Wendy Hector, and the Observable Radio Ensemble.
Wake Of Corrosion
A UK-based audio drama set in a nightmare-plagued apocalyptic world. An unknown terror grips the nation, driving survivors into hiding. Listeners follow broadcasts from Bunker A:12 as Professor Ryan searches for answers amid the ruins.
Ghost Wax
Ghost Wax is a horror fiction podcast following the last “reclaimer” as they investigate supernatural murders by raising the dead and recording their final testimonies on wax cylinders.
13 Days of Halloween
Sayuri finds herself inexplicably imprisoned at the Pendleton Rehabilitation Center with no explanation. Neither inmates nor the complex bureaucracy will reveal why she’s there—or whether the Pendleton is truly a prison at all.
Alice Isn’t Dead
A truck driver traverses America searching for her wife, whom she long believed dead. Her journey leads to encounters with inhuman serial killers, towns frozen in time, and a conspiracy far larger than one woman’s disappearance.
Believer: A Paranormal Mystery
Lara Campbell once believed in the paranormal but now fakes belief for profit. When her ex-partner vanishes near Oregon’s Bigfoot Highway, she must reconsider everything. BELIEVER is a spooky fiction audio drama about ghosts, cryptids, demons, cosmic entities, and the skeptical fake psychic caught among them.
The Black Tapes
The Black Tapes is a weekly podcast from Pacific Northwest Stories, hosted by Alex Reagan. This serialized docudrama follows a journalist’s pursuit of truth, her subject’s enigmatic history, and the ghosts, both literal and metaphorical, haunting them. Do you believe?
The Magnus Archives
This multi-award winning, record-breaking horror anthology weaves supernatural and eldritch elements with horror, mystery, tragedy, and romance into an epic metaplot. The Magnus Archives has captivated millions, becoming the world’s most popular horror podcast. Discover the best episodes of The Magnus Archives.
Do you know of another horror fiction podcast that you think should be on this list? Let me know
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