The spooky season is upon us. The leaves are turning all their glorious shades, pumpkins adorn doorsteps, and pumpkin spice wafts on crisp breezes. And as the weather turns colder, many avid podcast listeners turn their audio attention to spooky listens. They’re looking for spooky podcast recommendations that bring on the goosebumps, send shivers down the spine, or just give you a great jump scare. Not me, btw, because I’m a scaredy cat. But, I’ve been brave, and I’ve curated a list of the best spooky podcasts for the spooky season of 2023. (Not all heroes wear capes. You’re welcome.)
So, if you’re looking for an audio thrill this spooky season, check out this list of the best spooky podcast recommendations. You’re sure to find all the chills and thrills you’re after.
We Edit Podcasts Ultimate List of Spooky Podcast Recommendations 2023
1. The Lesser Dead
First up on our list of spooky podcast recommendations is The Lesser Dead. This spooky podcast is an immersive audio drama about a disparate group of vampires living in the wild-and-wooly world of 1978 New York City. The Lesser Dead features a slew of famous voices, like Minnie Drive and Jack Kilmer, who voices the narrator Joey Peacock.
Joey is an irreverent, eternally-young 19-year-old, through the episodes, introduces listeners to his unconventional family and its formidable leader, Margaret McMannis, voiced by Minnie Driver. Margaret has built a home for all of them under the subways of the New York City, and her strict rules have kept them safe and secure for decades… Until one night when Joey’s discovery of three little kid vampires turns their world upside-down forever.
The Lesser Dead stands out for it’s exceptional writing, amazing voice talent, and overall sound design. It’s the perfect spooky podcast for this spooky season.
2. RABBITS
Next up, we have the thoroughly spooky podcast, RABBITS. RABBITS takes you on a thrilling journey into an alternate reality game that holds dark secrets and life-altering consequences.
When Carly Parker’s friend Yumiko goes missing under very mysterious circumstances, Carly’s search for her friend leads her headfirst into an ancient mysterious game known only as Rabbits. Soon Carly begins to suspect that Rabbits is much more than just a game, and that the key to understanding Rabbits, might be the key to the survival of our species, and the Universe, as we know it.
This spooky podcast is super captivating and intriguing, all bundled up in mystery, and a winner for
3. Full Body Chills
If you’re looking for spooky podcast recommendations that will give you full body chills, we would recommend Full Body Chills!
This spooky podcast presents a series of chilling stories and thrilling tales that will make your skin crawl, your spine tingle, and give goosebumps to your goosebumps. These tales of terror are designed to leave feeling all the spooky feels long after you’ve finished listening.
If you loved hearing or telling scary stories as a kid, Full Body Chills is the grown-up equivalent.
4. The NoSleep Podcast
If you’re a fan of horror stories, “The NoSleep Podcast” transforms the best tales from the Reddit forum r/nosleep into spine-tingling audio dramas. It’s like having your own personal campfire ghost story session. The NoSleep Podcast takes the best horror stories from the Reddit forum r/nosleep and turns them into spine-tingling audio dramas. It’s like having a campfire ghost story session in your own home.
The NoSleep Podcast is a multi-award winning anthology series of original horror stories, with rich atmospheric music to enhance the frightening tales.
5. Archive 81
Next up in our list of the best spooky podcast recommendations is Archive 81. Archive 81 combines horror and found-footage technique as it follows the story of Dan, an archivist tasked to restore the audio recordings of Melody Pendras during her stay at the Visser Apartment. Through the episodes, you’re taken on a journey through mysterious tapes, supernatural entities, and sinister conspiracies.
This spooky podcast’s combination of intense music, excellent acting, and incredible worldbuilding make this the perfect immersive audio drama for the spooky season.
6. Video Palace
If VHS tapes and video stores are some of your favorite horror tropes, then you should check out Video Palace.
When video collector Mark Cambria watches a mysterious VHS tape, he begins talking in his sleep in a language that doesn’t exist. Mark and his girlfriend Tamra set out to investigate the tape’s origin and find themselves caught up in a web of conspiracy, occult, and dread surrounding a legendary video store with a sinister purpose beyond imagining.
Creepy, right?
Speaking of creepy and VHS, up next we have…
7. The Black Tapes
The Black Tapes is a docudrama series that delves into paranormal investigations and unsolved cases, immersing you in a world of eerie occurrences and unexplainable phenomena. It’s a fictionalized audio docudrama that will keep you on the edge of your seat as you unravel mysteries, unexplained phenomena, and unsolved cases.
The Black Tapes is all about one journalist’s search for truth, her subject’s mysterious past, and the literal and figurative ghosts that haunt them both.
And it poses the haunting question…
Do you believe?
8. The Storage Papers
Our next spooky podcast recommendation for the spooky season is The Storage Papers. If you’re into paranormal investigations and government cover-ups, then The Storage Papers is the spooky podcast for you.
In July of 2019, Jeremy made the fortuitous decision to make the only bid on an abandoned storage unit. At first disappointed by no apparent treasure, what he discovered instead is a trove of the most extensive documentation of seemingly unexplainable events he’s ever seen. Join him on his journey of discovery through the horrific, paranormal, and downright unusual events of each podcast episode and sink into the frightening reality that lurks just beneath the skin of our everyday lives.
This is a horror podcast, and make no mistake about that! So if that’s the flavor of podcast recommendation you love, The Storage Papers should be added to your list this spooky season.
9. Mayfair Watchers Society
Next up, we have the Mayfair Watchers Society. This spooky podcast brings Trevor Henderson’s creatures to life as it explores the world of cults, occultism, and supernatural occurrences.
The town of Mayfair is just like any other: tidy lawns and book clubs, bake sales, and Sunday school. And just like any other town, Mayfair has a secret – one that everyone knows, but almost no one says: Along the bus routes and down silent wooded roads, behind the mill and at the dark end of parking lots, at the edge of the porch, just beyond the lamp light, things move in the shadows. But, Mayfair is a town like any other: and a secret like this can only stay hidden for so long.
10. Borrasca
Another firm favorite in the horror podcast category is Borrasca, from QCODE. This is a bone-chilling podcast that takes you to the eerie town of Drisking, where secrets and horrors lie beneath the surface. Listen as Sam Walker unravels the dark history of the town.
It’s a gripping psychological thriller starring Cole Sprouse as Sam Walker. In the first season, we followed Sam as he painstakingly recounts the summer his sister disappeared; the friends he made, the legends he heard, the pain and confusion of loss. Over nine episodes, we uncovered the unspeakable secrets of Drisking, Missouri, and the people who live there. After leaving the audience with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, we are finally returning to Sam and the terrible truths of Drisking.
In Season 2, a ghost of Sam’s past arrives to drag him back to Drisking for revenge. Back to the forests that color his nightmares. Back to the mysteries he never solved. Back… to the gates of Borrasca.
11. The Magnus Archives
If you’re looking for more spooky podcast recommendations, then check out The Magnus Archives. This is a horror fiction podcast, produced by Rusty Quill, featuring guest actors, short stories, serial plots, and so much more as it examines what lurks in the archives of the Magnus Institute, an organization dedicated to researching the esoteric and the weird.
In each episode, you’ll Join Jonathan Sims as he explores the archive, but be warned, as he looks into its depths something starts to look back… New episodes every Thursday produced by Rusty Quill, featuring guest actors, short stories, serial plots, and more.
12. Malevolent
Do not fear the dark, fear what darkness brings…that’s the opening of the description for our next podcast, Malevolent. And if that doesn’t intrigue you then I don’t know what will!
But for the sake of great spooky podcast recommendations, I’ll give you a little more…
On Malevolent, Arkham Private Investigator Arthur Lester wakes up with no memory of who he is or what has happened, only a nameless, eerie voice guiding him through the darkness.
Blind, terrified, and confused, his journey will lead him towards a series of mysteries in the hopes of understanding the truth of what has transpired.
As cosmic horrors seep into the world around, Arthur must ask himself whether this entity truly seeks to help him, or are its intentions more…
13. Thirteen
In at number 13 on our list for the best spooky podcast recommendations we had to have Thirteen. This podcast brings you supernatural and psychological horror stories that will leave you questioning reality.
The podcast dives deep into the eerie and unexplained.
Thirteen will deliver feature-length, atmospheric, spooky stories told on the 13th of each month. If you’re looking to explore an eerie universe of supernatural and occult tales subscribe to this show.
14. A Voice From Darkness
Next up, prepare for a series of dark and unsettling tales in A Voice From Darkness.
On each episode, you’ll join parapsychologist and radio broadcaster Dr. Malcolm Ryder as he helps those who suffer the supernatural on his call-in radio show.
The radio call-in show concept works extremely well in terms of storytelling, as there can be a seamless mix between one-off stories and over-arching storylines. Add in the top-notch voice acting and stand-out writing, and it’s another spooky winner!
15. The White Vault
Explore the far reaches of the world’s horrors with our next spooky audio drama podcast, The White Vault.
By tuning in to The White Vault, you’ll follow the collected records of a repair team sent to Outpost Fristed in the vast white wastes of Svalbard. And together, you’ll unravel what lies waiting in the ice below.
The White Vault is a chilling audio drama that also makes use of the found-footage concept. And if you love this spooky podcast, you’ll be please to hear that Fool and Scholar Productions also released several canonical miniseries, some of which introduce elements and characters later featured or mentionned in the main show. These miniseries Artifact, Imperial, and Iluka. There’s also Avrum; Echoes, which is a standalone sequel that is set a decade after The White Vault.
16. SCP Archives
And our final offering on this list of the ultimate spooky podcast recommendations is SCP Archives. SCP stands for Secure. Contain. Protect, and the podcast explores the world of the SCP Foundation and the containment of mysterious and dangerous objects and entities.
There are things that go bump in the night. Fantastic things. Horrible things. Redacted things. The SCP Foundation was built to keep humanity safe from a world of beings it doesn’t want to know exists. Things of wonder. Things of destruction. And these things have files. A LOT of files.
This spooky podcast is a must-listen for fans of paranormal and supernatural mysteries.
Related read: The Ultimate List of Binge-worthy True-Crime Podcasts
Conclusion
With this list of some of the best spooky podcast recommendations for 2023, you’re sure to have the perfect spooky season. Whatever flavor of ‘spooky’ floats your (haunted) boat, there’s a spooky podcast out there for you! So light those Fall-scented candles, brew that pumpkin spice beverage, get cozy, and press play on these top spooky podcasts!
Did we miss your favorite spooky podcast? Got another thrilling audio adventure we should add to our list? Let us know!
Looking for more spooky podcast recommendations (or great fiction podcast recommendations across all genres in general!)? Then check out The End! Brought to life by Evo Terra, The End is first and foremost, a short-form newsletter highlighting completed audio fiction. But the site is a treasure trove of all kinds of completed audio stories.
