Settle in for some unsettling tales …
My thing this week is another podcast, but quite different from last week’s. I found the podcast “No Darkness But Ours” through an interview with Gemma Files, on an episode of The Scares That Shaped Us.
I’ve been a fan of Files since reading “Experimental Film,” a delightfully creepy novella about lost films and lost gods; I find her brand of allusive (and elusive) horror really compelling, and often quite haunting. The “Scares” podcast, about Arthur Machen’s “The White People,” was wide ranging and absolutely fascinating, and you should definitely give it a listen.
Files has her own podcast, with Simon Bestwick, in which they read their own short stories, often before they’ve seen print publication. It’s a little rough around the edges — there’s a lot of background noise, and the readings aren’t always smooth and polished — but the stories are scary and the hosts are delightful. The roughness is one of the things that draws me in: it’s like listening to friends share their unsettling tales at a quiet get-together, and you get to see the workings of their writers’ minds in action. It’s a throwback to some of the early podcasts I was listening to when the format first appeared and anyone with a microphone and a basic understanding of RSS could share their little projects. The slick polish of contemporary podcast production can seem very cold in comparison to the genuine warmth of a podcast like “No Darkness But Ours.”
Don’t take my word for it, though; give a listen to their Halloween episode, where they’re joined by Stephen Volk for three very different, but very creepy, tales:
