Journeys into Darkness part 3: the Terrifying World of Audio Drama

I am bringing you on a journey into a world of the sinister and macabre, previously discussing 1973 classic The Exorcist and some other horror films that have crossed my path. But now I bring you to the particularly unnerving world of horror audio drama, where the mind's eye can create terrors far more horrific than anything that can appear on screen.

The Woman in White is a 2001 BBC adaptation of a novel by Wilkie Collins. It is not a supernatural story although there are moments when you think it could go in that direction. Rather it is a gothic sensation novel and an example of the heiress-in-danger subgenre. This radio adaptation follows the shifting points of view of the novel by changing its focus over the four episodes from square-jawed hero Walter Hartright (played by Toby Stephens) to indomitable and resourceful heroine Marian Halcombe (Juliet Aubrey) and back again, with Jeremy Clyde and Philip Voss playing the villains Sir Percival and Count Fosco. The drama follows the basic outline of the plot, with its mysterious woman in white showing up at opportune moments together with its sinister villains whose dark secrets threaten to undo them and the resourceful heroes working to thwart them. The real stars are Aubrey's Marian (capturing well the qualities that had 19th century correspondents writing to Wilkie Collins asking if the character was based on a real woman and if so would she be open to a proposal of marriage) and Voss's Fosco (ever-so-polite, ever-so-sinister). Maybe you should read the book first but if you have already done that or couldn't be arsed the drama is available on archive.org.

Dead Air is an audio drama from an Irish podcast factory, part of their Petrified strand of horror dramas.To be honest, it is not great. It features an Irish talk radio host working the graveyard shift who starts finding himself talking to an increasingly creepy caller, with things getting increasingly edgy. The drama uses sound well but the plot seemed a bit woolly. And Dead Air featuring intrusive ads for another non-drama podcast in which two excitable blokes go on about how much they love their mammies did rather wreck the buzz. But if you want to find out for yourself, check it out here.

The Haunter of the Dark meanwhile is the latest of the Julian Simpson loose adaptations of H. P. Lovecraft stories made for the BBC and packaged together as the Lovecraft Investigations. I may need to listen to this again, but my initial feeling with this was that it was a bit weak compared to its predecessors. Its plot in particular seemed overly complicated plot, while the narrative featured some odd leaps of logic. That said, it did have one of the best depictions of Mythos related sanity deterioration I have come across in a dramatic presentation. It can be downloaded or streamed from the BBC here, but if you haven't listened to any of the other Lovecraft Investigations yet don't start with this one: go to the first one, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (which is also the best).

images:

The Woman in White (archive.org)

Petrified (SoundCloud)

The Haunter of the Dark (BBC)