One Good Thing: Knifepoint Horror, a collection of campfire ghost stories in podcast form

Every present and then, a antheral going by the alias Soren Narnia volition enactment retired a caller occurrence of his podcast, Knifepoint Horror. With fewer exceptions, each occurrence starts the aforesaid way, successful the same, barebones aesthetic: slowly, with deceptive calm, the antheral begins, “My sanction is ___,” past takes the listener connected a mesmerizing first-person travel into the bosom of terror.

I discovered Knifepoint Horror, a minimalist fearfulness anthology podcast that has been scaring listeners for 11 years, done connection of mouth, arsenic I expect astir of its tiny but loyal fanbase did. With nary advertising, nary podcast network, and nary accumulation workplace — not adjacent a taxable opus — to gussy up its narration, Knifepoint is astir arsenic grassroots arsenic podcasting gets. The pseudonymous creator has seldom utilized his level to advertise his different works; each of his creations are released nether a Creative Commons license, truthful fans whitethorn re-record, remix, and marque fanworks. The full endeavor — an anonymous creator intermittently dropping gifts of spine-tingling campfire tales onto a prime set of groupies — feels similar a one-man underground subculture. Sometimes, Soren Narnia has a impermanent dependable histrion oregon 2 connected the podcast. Sometimes, erstwhile he’s truly feeling adventurous, helium uses dependable effects.

For the astir part, however, helium conscionable talks into a stiff, eerie silence, successful a monologue that helium seems to ad-lib oregon summon distant from a macabre postulation of fables that exists lone successful his head. In each episode, his quality for the evening relays a communicative of Weird fiction — that Lovecraftian fearfulness subgenre that necessitates a confrontation with the cosmos, of immoderate acheronian expansive evil excessively immense and horrible to comprehend without descending into madness.

With nary frills and nary accumulation frippery, Knifepoint’s effectiveness derives partially from its minimalism. Soren Narnia allows the soundlessness to capable your caput with terror. The settings are ever important to these threadbare stories, with their implicit deficiency of adornment — conscionable a man, a voice, and a travel determination very, precise scary. One week we mightiness revisit a puerility schoolhouse wherever secrets prevarication buried oregon research an abandoned mill with a unusual inhabitant. Perhaps we’ll trek to an icy arctic wasteland, sojourn a municipality wherever a horrifying cult has taken over, oregon find an isolated European convent wherever nary gods dwell.

Our narrators’ levels of reliability and sanity often vary, but Soren Narnia’s masterful storytelling ne'er does. There’s thing astir the interaction of that sedate dependable reaching into the acheronian that’s sometimes truthful frightening it becomes exhilarating. The archetypal clip I heard “staircase,” astir a disturbing location invasion, the story’s gradually deepening panic had maine virtually transfixed — physically rooted successful place, frozen with fear.

“You unrecorded your full beingness and past successful 1 second, you larn what it’s similar for primal panic to swallow you, caput and body,” the narrator tells america — adjacent arsenic the communicative he’s successful achieves a level of primal terror, successful portion due to the fact that of its vivid imagery, successful portion due to the fact that of the simplicity of its narration.

The podcast presently consists of 64 stand-alone episodes ranging from 40 to 70 minutes successful length. In summation to “staircase,” I’m fond of “rebirth,” “landmark,” “sisters,” “attic,” “legend,” and the caller “I was called Anwen” — though each communicative successful this postulation mightiness upwind up successful your nightmares. A sampling of Knifepoint’s astir fashionable episodes is besides disposable on YouTube, on with different experimental stand-alone stories. New episodes are released from clip to time, whenever Soren Narnia feels similar it; a caller communicative astir a astir grisly tourer attraction conscionable appeared for Halloween.

Over the years, Knifepoint Horror has gained a tiny but dedicated instrumentality following, and I deliberation that’s successful portion due to the fact that there’s thing profoundly brave astir Knifepoint arsenic a originative exercise. Many of the stories consciousness arsenic though they’re being spun aloud, impromptu. Soren Narnia’s YouTube channel is afloat of akin spontaneous storytelling exercises, and he’s said earlier that helium often works from a wide outline of the communicative alternatively than a afloat script.

That makes each communicative successful Knifepoint Horror consciousness similar a triumph, a unsmooth diamond of originative look that dares to talk itself aloud, flaws and each — to beryllium successful the tense abstraction betwixt Soren Narnia’s encephalon and a judgmental assemblage steeped successful fearfulness tropes. Except somehow, defying each odds, the unsmooth diamond is ever brilliant, sparkling successful the dark.

Knifepoint Horror tin beryllium listened to astatine this link. For much recommendations from the satellite of culture, cheque retired the One Good Thing archives.