This is boring nonsense. Not in the “gradually building suspense” way. In the “I loathe every word out of the characters’ mouths because it is more boring nonsense” way.

The first half of the opening chapter showed a lot of promise, and there is an attempt at a slow burn style horror story, just not the best example of that narrative style I’ve come across. The voice acting was great, which is what you hope for with a stacked cast but don’t always get - screen acting and voice acting being so different, but this group did a great job. My biggest issue with the production is with the writing. I understand everyone has a style that they cling to; but, here it use felt sophomoric. A lot of repeated phrasing (How many times can Ruby “stab her hand into the dark”?) and an overuse of what I can only guess the author meant to be nicknames (the pale woman, the lanky man, the gaunt man, etc.) when we already know the character’s names. It just led to the narration of a scene becoming overly complicated and sometimes confusing.

The story is interesting and allows the listener to be in the moment of the story. Listened to this 3 times. Can’t stand it when people use these opportunities to voice their own stupid issues. This is a well narrated story by a well known actor worthy of your time. This rating shouldn’t be used as a podium for some yahoo who acts like they know what the listener wants. I look forward to more stories from this narrator and producer.

I luved this!!! Such a great series. Great all star cast, twisted storyline and old-school creepshow theme music

Someone said this sounds like the late Bill Paxton? I think you meant Will Patton, who is alive & well, thank God, & did indeed narrate this. As much as I will listen to him narrate almost anything, I had to hit pause on this podcast. I’m trying to figure out where the scare factor is, not to mention the interest factor. If this were a book I might be more patient, anticipating several more hours that could allow for this lengthy buildup, but for an 8 episode podcast to be 2 episodes in and not even on the same planet as whatever the point of this is supposed to be, I’m very disappointed. This whole episode is about courtship and a move to a graphic sex scene. The narration + the sound effects, give me one or the other, both seemed like overkill and again, WHERE IS THIS GOING? After the first episode I was on the fence but this episode clinched my decision to move on with my life and find Will Patton somewhere narrating something that actually delivers on what its supposed to be. I don’t care WHO wrote it, they need to understand that the story arc for an 8 episode podcast of 25 mins apiece, needs to move differently than the story arc for a 10 hour audiobook. It’s sad because the narration is great and clearly the audio production is solid, but nothing can save a bad plot or no plot or a story that moves likes molasses on a winter day.

The title pretty much says it all. Second episode in and nothing has happened. But we are treated to and extended scene of two people eating and drinking loudly. I’m sure that’s cool for some folks, but I’m out.

The one star reviews are clearly unfamiliar with Zahler. Yes, it’s uneven and goofy in places but it’s stylistically consistent with his body of work. If you’re not into it, you’re not into it but I certainly am. It’s like Zahler wrote his own entry into the Lovecraft mythos and it’s beautiful. Wyatt Russel Lili Simmons are fantastic. The Foley artists and sound mixers outdid themselves. Narration is on-point and all of the voice cast should be proud. Listening to this paints such a vivid picture I may as well have been watching a movie. Hopefully this gets adapted as intended, but even this version of the story is excellent.

This story had promise, but the poor voice acting, jumpy plot and numerous, awkward descriptions of sexual encounters really sank it. The writing is sophomoric at best, and laughable at many junctures. Really not that good.

You have to listen with good headphones or it doesn’t do it enough justice. This is just like a movie and this guy sounds just like the late and great Bill Paxton. Great job! So well done!!!

So, I loved this at first. But o had to throw in the towel at the beginning of episode 3. The author chose to give each character a “nickname”. I can only hear “Lanky Fellow, Pale Girl, or Slender Boy” 2000 times before I want to rip my hair out. Many of those scenes consist of 2 people, so a simple he or she would do just fine. You know, that and their names. Other than that, I loved it. But it became all I could focus on.

There are many podcasts out there where people read scary stories, or even where people act out short stories. But until now, there’s been nothing that combines high quality writing with serious acting, at a lengthy and pace something like that of a tv miniseries. Other “scary story” or horror podcasts suffer from goofy acting and bad writing, while audio books by competent writers may be 8-12 hours long and are not really intended to be consumed audibly. This really has it all, and is perfectly suited for the podcast medium. I imagine this is what it would’ve been like if radio had continued to develop as the primary medium for entertainment.

They have top billed actors, but the story and dialogue is so forced. The two characters that are supposed to anchor the story are the faux hipster intellectual pseudo speak that you get irritated, but they belong to one another. Literally the main character’s friends spends the first episode looking for ‘foxes.’ They should have just had Will narrate the entire thing. I basically committed to seeing where this story would lead to.. just listen to Doctor Sleep audiobook, far more interesting. The tall lanky man, the white pale woman, is repeated 500 times. Look I have it three stars because it’s good production, story is lacking.

The writing (both the hamfisted narration in the style of a verbose film script and the incredibly stilted failing-to-sound-clever dialogue) is godawful; the story ends up veering into some truly staggering racism (it makes Temple of Doom seem like a thoughtful and respectful ethnographic survey of religious practice in rural India); the voice acting is uneven but generally pretty good; the sound effects and general audio quality are phenomenal. You owe it to Vincent D'Onofrio not to listen to this podcast.

This series started off good, but then they added random sexual scenes with ridiculous sound effects... I think majority of us came here to hear A well written horror story, not weird sexual sounds. We all get it, normal people have sex but we don’t have to hear 2 to 3 minutes of ridiculous sound of effect.

starts out ok but by the end stops making any sense

Good story but the narrating is extra. Less narrating more acting. I dnt need to kno how long someone’s finger nails are.

The two main characters are extremely obnoxious (they both speak like they’re reading out of a thesaurus, I guess to make them seem “smart”? It’s bad) but the actual story itself is good and creepy.

Fangoria should be embarrassed to have their name on this. This reads like a child writing with a thesaurus. Every descriptor chosen is awkward and there is a constant over use of specific details that distract from the story telling. For some bizarre reason we are constantly told the exact length of holes, fingernails, distances, etc. It just honestly feels like a bad creepypasta

Straight-up the scariest podcast I’ve listened to. Great story, top notch voice acting, and awesome sound editing. Listen with earbuds for an even more immersive experience. Love it!

Excellent, just top shelf, from story to acting to editing. Thank you for a really fun ride.

Repetitive descriptions, meandering plot. One would expect better from Fangoria. Comes across more like Fanfic-ia.

Just nasty. Nothing creative.

Nice short audio drama with a lot of horror elements. Great voice acting!

this is billed at the first of its kind, ear movie. what a load of nonsense. its not even an audio drama. its an enhanced audio book at best. Read almost entirely by a single narrator with some music and sound effects. That makes for a multicast audiobook at best. Not an audio drama and certainly not a 'ear movie' the first of its kind. What a misleading bunch of nonsense. Id buy an audio book if I just wanted someone to read a story to me. THis isnt even dramatized, so its not a dramatization. Total scam

Listened to most of the episodes so far. On the last one about. I would prefer people keep making shows like this. Like audible original type stuff, love the different voice actors. The main character woman’s voice, sounds absolutely beautiful, which tells me they got great voice actors to pull that off because I don’t know if she is absolutely beautiful. Ha. The story had just enough creepiness lingering in each episode, so bravo. Would listen to another from this director/cast. 5 stars!

This show has really lame writing and I couldn’t continue listening when it turned into a cliché young people drama from the point of view of a nerdy boy

This series isn’t without its charms. The voice acting is great. The sound design is top notch. It starts out promising enough, but goes downhill in the third act. Major plot elements don’t get the attention (or exposition) they deserve, and too many things get glossed over. It’s like the writer started out assuming a 12-part series, and after the 6th part was told he had to wrap it up in two. This could have been better. It’s not awful as is, just really disappointing. Maybe next time?

The only reason I got through the entire show was the promise that it would get better. It did not. If you want to hear Will Patton say “lanky fellow” about 200 times this is the podcast for you. The writing is just that bad. I don’t want to trash on something that so many people like, but I find no redeemable qualities in this podcast. It starts with a love story between two characters that are as dull as dirt. It seems like they add sex to add some dimension to this weak romance but eventually you just end up with some awkward groaning and two characters that are still dull as dirt. The characters are unlikable from the start and when things start going bad you’ll have no connection and no desire for them to survive. To save you some time I’m going to add a short synopsis of the story, so, SPOILER ALERT The love story takes about four episodes with the only scary thing being a nightmare were Ruby, the pale girl (as it is so laboriously repeated), has white hair growing out of her mouth and hands. Walter, the lanky fellow, has some awkward and snobbishly eloquent conversations with Ruby. They have sex. Time skips and they go to her fathers house. Walter snoops a little they have some more sex and Ruby tells the story of an arsonist in the woods and weird fingerprints in her bedroom. They go to bed and a red eyed albino kidnaps them. They are tied up in a cave and she eats weird fruit. She turns into a monster, her dad frees Walter, Walter gets away from a bunch of crab monsters like Ruby, but in the hospital the albino and the crab monsters show up. Walter kills himself so he doesn’t turn into a monster. Yeah, everyone dies and I think most people will be glad this crap fest ends like that.

Not sure why so many 5 star reviews. Production is good. Story is Not that good. The first 4 or 5 episodes are kind of pointless and there are only 8 episodes. It’s only in the last two episodes that the plot comes out. Wouldn’t recommend.

TBH it took me a few episodes to get used to the narrator’s repetition of “the lanky man” & “the pale woman” — but after awhile I fell into the groove and just let Will Patton’s voice and the killer narrative work its magic. This thing is packed with juicy atmosphere and some amazing voice work (ALL HAIL VINCENT D’ONOFRIO), plus it went in a completely insane direction I did not anticipate. I loved how the end tied everything together. Minus 1 star for the mostly unlikable characters, and the really unnecessary super freaky sex scene — other than that, it’s gold.

I loved this. Listening to it at night with my eyes closed, I could see the movie playing out and was genuinely scared! It always remains a couple steps ahead of its audience. A lot to admire here: from the sound design, to the writing, and voice talents. More please!

I love that this is out right before Christmas! So great to have a spooky, mysterious story to listen to on the long ride back to Grandma's house. And it's great that I don't have to wait for each epsisode. I can binge on the first four on the way up and last four on the way back home.

Love that it’s snackable in episodes, well produced and done

This is one of the scarest stories I've ever listened to. It's human and inhuman in all the best ways. I highly recommend it.

Never heard anything like this. Creepy as hell but I couldn’t stop listening. S Craig Zahler strikes again.

I can listen to this show over and over and over again. BRILLIANT!

is that all the episodes are out already...but the best part is I don't have to wait to start listening to it all over again. The narrow caves is my favorite thing to happen this holiday season.

Tell your brother your sister your mother your priest that they have to listen to this piece of pure magic audio

the artwork drew me in and the audio keep me here. Listened to all of the episodes back to back, even during a conference call!!!

the best name in cult horror is bringing us a new genre of podcasts. loving this A+++++++++++++++++++

If you like to take the joy out of the holiday season, this is the podcast for you!

Okay, so outside of a few weird parts that were - ummmmm - not really SFW, you should listen to this show with a group of friends because it truly is like going to the movies. Great script, great acting and one hell of a creepy story!

Keep these shows coming. If this is any indication of where horror is going, I'm all in!

Ear movie is my new favorite podcast term. Great job, FANGORIA!

Exciting to see FANGORIA get into podcasting. Look forward to hearing all the episodes!