Episodes

Why is the best seat at a Hungry Ghost Festival performance left empty? Thursday Thrills explores Chinese ghost folklore and unseen guests honored in the seventh lunar month. Henrique Couto follows Singaporean getai, Taiwan's water lanterns, and Hong Kong's Yu Lan traditions, distinguishing Daoist Zhongyuan observances from Buddhist Yulanpen and ancestor remembrance. Food, incense, joss paper, and regional taboos reveal practices that reach beyond a scary story. Discover who the offerings are fo...

Buster Crane's first love has returned, but the woman he still loves has no reflection. In The Ties That Bind by Rob Fields, a reunion at Strickfield University pulls Buster between childhood sweetheart Talia Mirren and Romy Jillian, a vampire who refuses to let him go. A confrontation in a crowded nightclub turns romance into a dangerous contest of jealousy, blood, and loyalty. This mature Weekly Spooky vampire story gives a second chance at love a supernatural price. Buster must face what he w...

The Lost Boys, Jason Lives, and Fright Night bring vampires and resurrected slashers to This Week in Horror History for July 27–August 2, 2026. Revisit Santa Carla's nightlife, Tommy Jarvis' graveyard mistake, and the forbidden woods of The Village. Cherie Dimaline's Empire of Wild adds Métis folklore and a missing husband with a familiar face; The Collector takes the spotlight with a thief trapped inside someone else's murder plan. Birthdays and a Fright Night recommendation complete the week. ...

Laughing Sal's mechanical cackle carries across the midway, but why does a carnival attraction feel so threatening? Henrique Couto and Michelle explore the funhouse figure's history in July 2026's Monthly Spooky. The strange-news roundup also visits Michigan's Hooga Hooga camp legend, a Japanese service investigating allegedly haunted homes, and UFO reports near Virginia. Michelle closes with a reported glitch involving a McDonald's glass and a duplicate with the same crack. From a manufactured ...

A haunted bride, a village of ancient sorcery, and a wife becoming a cat bring Halloween to July on Unknown Broadcast. Six classic old-time radio dramas fill over three hours: Here Goes the Bride, Ancient Sorceries, The Lord of the Witch Doctors, Mirage, Cat Wife, and Beware of Tomorrow. Hear CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and Lights Out, with work by Algernon Blackwood, Arch Oboler, and John Dickson Carr. Expect gothic secrets, murder, and killer robots in a vintage horror maratho...

Bigfoot hunts a wind-farm guard, ancient vampires spend their anniversary in a closed mall, and a courier pedals through the zombie apocalypse. Four Weekly Spooky stories celebrate Summerween with creatures, dark comedy, and work that could cost more than a paycheck. A desperate manager's interview at a black-glass tower completes the lineup with a recruiter for Hell. Stories by Michael Kelso, Rob Fields, Michelle Antisocial, and Killian Crane. Nearly two hours of horror turn night shifts, deliv...

The Houses October Built (2014) follows five friends searching for America's most extreme haunted attractions, until masked performers follow them beyond the haunts. Henrique Couto and Rachael Redolfi explore Bobby Roe's found footage film on Cutting Deep into Horror, tracing its documentary origins, real haunt performers, and the elusive Blue Skeleton. Full spoilers cover the ending, comparisons with Hell House LLC, and the boundary between a theatrical scare and abuse. Discover how a Halloween...

The 1916 Jersey Shore shark attacks changed how Americans feared the water. Sydney's 1935 Shark Arm murder case began when a captive shark vomited a tattooed human arm. Henrique Couto follows both cases in this Shark Week edition of Thursday Thrills, separating disputed details from the evidence. The journey also examines the unverified Black Demon, the Stronsay Beast, and megalodon's place in prehistory. Real shark biology adds river hunters and long-lived Greenland sharks. Explore the history ...

A howl tears through a Puerto Rico summer camp, and counselor Jonathan Edwards finds his dream job has been built over a supernatural danger. Camping With Chupacabra by Douglas Waltz sends him beyond Camp Clemente's cabins into a bat-filled cavern and a monster-hunting mission beneath the mountains. Wilderness skills, a Zippo lighter, and dynamite may be his best defense against the creatures waiting below. This Weekly Spooky horror story reimagines Chupacabra lore as pulpy creature fiction. Bef...

Dracula, Maximum Overdrive, and Deep Blue Sea lead This Week in Horror History for July 20–26, 2026. Frank Langella's seductive vampire shares the calendar with The Hills Have Eyes, Jordan Peele's Nope, and Carrion, the game that lets you become the escaped monster. Stephen King's killer-machine siege takes the spotlight before engineered sharks turn an underwater laboratory into this week's recommendation. Birthdays round out a tour of gothic romance, desert terror, and science gone wrong. Find...

Brian Barrett was himself online; the adults in the TalHotBlond romance were hiding behind invented identities. In 2006, the 22-year-old student and coach was murdered outside his workplace near Buffalo. Terrifying & True traces Thomas Montgomery's teenage Marine persona, Mary Shieler's use of her daughter's identity, and the jealousy that crossed from chatrooms into real violence. Messages, physical evidence, and the investigation reveal how the deception unraveled. Follow the case beyond its s...

Music comes through a hotel wall, a private club witnesses impossible predictions, and spies carry deadly secrets aboard the Taurus Express. Unknown Broadcast gathers The Walls of Jericho, Three Good Witnesses, The Singing Walls, and The Avengers for over two hours of old-time radio suspense. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler move through psychic terror, wartime murder, amnesia, and stolen gold. Apparitions and guilt unsettle people who thought their crimes were hidde...

A runaway opens scripture devoted to an imprisoned demon goddess, while a mercenary drags his cameraman into a cult's abandoned asylum. Four Weekly Spooky horror stories make ambition, cruelty, and curiosity dangerous: Sin, Gamble with the Devil, Breaking the Seal, and The Bad Schoolgirl. A witch's curse and vampire cheerleaders with soul-powered jewelry complete nearly two hours of occult horror and dark comedy. Stories by Rob Fields, David O'Hanlon, and Douglas Waltz. From a Catholic academy t...

What if everyone mistakes your stillness for death? The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe follows a man whose catalepsy makes being buried alive an obsession. Weekly Spooky presents the complete reading, from the accounts that feed his fear to the vault, alarms, and escape devices he builds against it. Each safeguard promises control, yet his imagination keeps returning to a sealed coffin. This classic literary nightmare turns medical uncertainty into claustrophobic suspense. Enter Poe's story...

Trevor Henderson's Cartoon Cat turns the look of an animated friend into an internet horror nightmare. Thursday Thrills explores the fictional monster's rubber-hose style, distorted nostalgia, and creepypasta appeal, asking why a familiar cartoon grin can feel wrong when it appears outside the screen. The episode follows its imagery and folklore before an original story enters an abandoned mall after dark. Explore how playful shapes become threats when their rules stop making sense. Listen for t...

A truck driver's nightmare shows a monster dragging him into the woods. Then his delivery route reaches the same bridge, and his daughter Angeline knows what is waiting there. Driving a Truck Can Be a Nightmare, Literally by Michael Kelso turns shared dreams into a warning that grows harder to ignore with every late run. This Weekly Spooky highway horror story puts a father's ordinary job between a child's premonition and a creature beside the road. Can knowing the next stop change what happens ...

The Blair Witch Project, The Fly, and The Only Good Indians lead This Week in Horror History for July 13–19, 2026. Revisit the 1958 teleportation nightmare, Stephen Graham Jones' supernatural reckoning, the mutations of The Island of Dr. Moreau, and a vengeful killer whale in Orca. The Strain takes the spotlight with vampirism as an outbreak before the weekly recommendation enters Maryland's woods with three student filmmakers. Birthdays complete the week. Follow the path from scientific hubris ...

Some Taos residents described a distant diesel engine that never stopped, even when investigators struggled to find its source. Terrifying & True follows the Taos Hum in New Mexico, from disrupted sleep and daily life to the 1993 investigation. Microphones, surveys, and hearing research tested a mystery heard by only part of the community. Industrial noise, tinnitus, auditory perception, and government-secrecy theories enter the discussion without becoming findings. Could one name be gathering s...

A ship drifts with meals still waiting, and a secret club deals cards that choose who must die. Unknown Broadcast brings four old-time radio mysteries into over two hours of suspense: Sea Fever by Ian Martin, The Young Man with the Cream Tarts by Robert Louis Stevenson, Last Night by Cornell Woolrich, and Fool's Gold. CBS Radio Mystery Theater, Escape, Suspense, and The Whistler follow a deserted vessel, a deadly game, a missing ranch guest, and a bank teller's planned theft. Each apparent escap...

A stolen stop sign awakens a local terror, and a family's hunting tradition hides a bargain with a forest god. Four Weekly Spooky horror stories turn folklore and childish dares into dangerous encounters: The Legend of Oopsie Poopsie, The Stop-Sign Man, Ol' Bones, and Why Am I Here? From an Adirondack creature with a ridiculous name to a lonely boy's question for a Ouija board, each tale gives curiosity a price. Stories by Joe Solmo, Bryce Gibson, and Morgan Moore. Two hours of dark comedy, fore...

A possessed child is hidden beneath a church, thieves interrupt a coven, and an investigator tracks a hellhound. Released for Evil Dead Burn's opening weekend, this Weekly Spooky collection gathers eight original horror stories into nearly five hours of demonic chaos. Cursed books, a haunted Texas inn, a high-school outbreak, and the demon goddess Hellweaver turn familiar places into battlegrounds. The stories share the film's appetite for occult mayhem while telling their own tales. Hear posses...

Siren Head turns an emergency warning into something that may be calling you closer. Created by horror artist Trevor Henderson in 2018, the fictional creature spread through games, videos, and fan stories until it acquired the feel of a rural urban legend. Thursday Thrills follows the monster's distorted broadcasts and connection to analog horror, asking why a shape glimpsed across a dark field can be more frightening than a clear view. From sirens to lonely roads, explore how familiar sounds of...

Something in Algonquin Park is listening for the next camper to move. In Branch Manager by Gary D, also known as Blue Fire Raging, three Toronto telemarketers trade their call centre for a weekend in the woods. Fog and snapped branches give way to shredded tents, missing friends, and a forest that seems to be crawling toward them. Kenny's escape from work becomes a struggle against a sound-sensitive creature rooted in the landscape. This Canadian wilderness horror story mixes body horror and dar...

The Descent, Blood Feast, and MADiSON lead This Week in Horror History for July 6–12, 2026. Explore splatter cinema's bloody beginnings, an instant camera that invites horror into every shot, and a cave expedition trapped with something below. Fear Street Part Two: 1978 adds Camp Nightwing's slasher nightmare, while Burial Ground takes the spotlight with Italian zombie chaos. Birthdays and a Phantasm II recommendation bring the Tall Man and his silver spheres back onto the calendar. Find a watch...