... I just finished season one of this podcast called The Magnus Archives...I need to talk about it like now!
Statement Begins.
Why did I start listening to it? I started listening to this podcast on the suggestion of a friend. I was looking for something to listen to in the car while commuting to and from work and the lovely short bits of content were perfect.
What is it? The Magnus Archives is a horror podcast where Johnthan Simms, head archived of the Magnus Archives, London, attempts to catalogue statements taken from people about weird paranormal happenings. The institute does some investigation as to the validity of the claims and slowly, John organises the mess of unorganised statements left by his mysteriously missing predecessor.
What are the episodes like? Episodes have a fixed and familiar structure. John, states who gave the statement, when and what it concerns. When reading the statement he jumps into a storytelling mode, talking like he is the person giving the statement, something I did question slightly but guessed, at the beginning, that it was because this was a podcast and it had to sound good. Each episode is named well and I can recall most of them easily by just the name. They all have something interesting. All got my little brain turning with what ifs and wonders which is my favourite things about horrors like this. Open-ended stories that don't really have an answer, that leaves you to put the pieces together. They are just so much fun to listen to!
Any particularly cool? I don't want to spoil so I'm going to be vague. The first, 'Angler Fish', is very good. I think it's really a great introduction and way to let the listener know what they are in for without pushing them too far in. Just enough creep. Just enough mystery to get you listening more. I'm looking through the list of episodes and honestly, it's hard to tell which ones I loved more.
One called 'Lost and Found' is one that scared me a lot. Just a life being slowly torn apart by something seemingly innocent and no one else can tell... pretty horrible.
I also liked one called 'Strange Music' just cause I like a stories about creepy dolls. They've never really scared me since I actually have a couple of porcelain dolls that I love so I just find it funny that people find them creepy.
'Across the Street' Is one that got to me a bit. I don't know what it was about it that did though, whether it was the insane scribbling or the idea of being watched so much...
I could probably go on a while about specific episodes so I'll stop there. It's hard to say why they were so cool without spoiling.
...maybe I'll so a spoiler post to talk in more detail one day maybe. Comment if you would like to see that?
Bad news? Only bad news I have really is that the statements are recorded with bad quality. It's purposefully done to sound a bit bad quality for story purposes but it's kinda annoying in reality as it means I have to have it pretty loud to understand them sometimes and then they yell and scare me cause it's really loud at that point which would be fine for a horror podcast if I wasn't driving at the time...
Good news? Every so often they get someone else to come in a make a statement. We've had characters like a horror youtuber, a anatomy professor and others who work with John in researching at the Magnus Institute. As great as John is, it's nice to have a different voice break things up every once and a while.
Also the overarching story is great! There are little teases here and there of things that are building up in this universe and I was freaking out after this seasons ending. I just...I'm really sad about a character and was relieved that another is alright and, now I think about it, I'm impressed I care so much about them when for the most part they just get mentioned at the end of episodes.
Would you recommend? Hell yes! I've just had a small break to get through an audiobook but I'm really looking forward to the next season, the first was a blast! If you want to check it out it's in various places. I've personally been listening to in on Acast.
They've also just stated releasing the fouth season so there is plenty of amazing free content to treat your ears to.
Statement ends.
This is the first time I've blogged about a podcast...This is the first time I've blogged about horror... not sure what to link here.
So ya know what? Read my books!