Disc 3

The Grandfather

Summary: Talking cat and weird old man.

This is a very strange story, specifically meant to question your idea of reality. It’s also got a good weird-but-not-scary vibe. That being said, hearing a cat screech morphing into an old Irish woman’s voice is more creepy than you’d expect. Still, I think the plot points and the motivations of the characters are too vague to allow for comfortable story listening. Are we dealing with an unreliable narrator? And more precisely, what in the name of fuck is going on? The characters give no indication of anything from their voices, the only things we kind of know are from each characters’ perceived words and actions by the Grandfather. I’m not as impressed by the audio in this story compared with the others in the collection although I did enjoy the cat purrs. I thought that Minnie was really difficult to hear, even when she was speaking normally. In particular, there’s a behind closed doors conversation between Minnie and her husband Kevin that I think is supposed to give us some big time clues but it is pretty muffled. Obviously the conversation is purposefully difficult to hear from our Grandfather perspective, but it was pretty frustrating because I couldn’t make out anything without cranking it up. The character of the Grandfather, the veteran Angus Scrimm, was superb and conveyed outrage with a dash of dementia very well. Also, is Kevin actually a dog or something? Is this really a world where kids can be put down? Can you imagine how many Asian kids would be put down for not getting a perfect score on their SATs? Also, what happens at the end when everything ‘splodes and there’s tons of rushing water? Is the rushing water supposed to mean something? And who’s banging at the door? Orderlies (Navy Seals?) from the nursing home? And while we’re at it, let’s back it up a bit. Is the kid really going to be put down? And is the Grandfather actually insane? If you pump up the volume on the secret conversation they are talking about putting dear old Grandfather in a home. Did Minnie’s brother really kill the Grandmother who is now embodied in a cat? Did the Grandfather really just straight up kill his daughter and the daughter was a willing participant? Up until the point that Minnie is by the water singing that wack Irish folk song, she didn’t seem like she lost touch with reality. Except that she wouldn’t say what was in the BBQ marinade–is that a sign of insanity? Not wanting to discuss marinade? To be honest, I did like what they were trying to do here. Points are deserved for originality, intrigue and effort. I just didn’t appreciate it enough and it wasn’t satisfying enough to be a great Tale because in the end I was just left with a huge W, T, and F.

-V
Honestly, I didn’t even relisten to this Tale before writing this review, because I remember it being the only Tale that I straight-up didn’t like, and I just didn’t want to hear it again. The cat/wife voice grates on me, I don’t understand the story, and I get annoyed with the “twists” that make it too much. Just, all of it, too much. Like Stephen, I thought the “putting down” of the boy was going to be the main plot, and it was a creepy one. And then the grandma is the cat? And the boy is evil? Or the grandfather is crazypants? If the whole point is just that the grandfather is demented, well, I don’t really think that’s an interesting story. Then it’s just showing/saying/telling weird stuff to be all THIS GUY’S HEAD IS WWWEEIRRRDDD with no real point (see also, why books should never include dream sequences unless they have a really good “clue” into something. I don’t want to just read weirdness for the sake of weirdness. Real life is weird enough).

Part of what annoyed me was that I didn’t know what the “world” was for this story. Was it supposed to be just a twisted version of real life, or more twilight-zone than that? I don’t mind unreliable narrators, usually, but I think it works better if you really KNOW they are unreliable. But then again, I didn’t listen to the Tale more than once, so I am an unreliable reviewer. I hate to dislike any TFBTP because overall they are fantastic, but I wish this had been something a bit more . . . satisfying? It had a vulnerable old man and a creepy kid and a talking cat, so all the pieces were there! They just were put together too haphazardly for me. I read this interview with the author, and he sounds smart and like he was doing something really ambitious with this Tale, so I will end with the caveat that it might just be over my head. But I still dislike it enough to not want to listen to it again and try to figure it out.

-C

At first, The Grandfather leaves a little too much to the imagination. Listening through it a second time, I got the feeling the writer added things as he went along, but never went back to make them fit into the story. The boy is going to the vet to be put down? When I first heard that I loved the absurdity and the straightforward way they presented it. But then they seemed to forget it in favor of some hereditary evil, and the only reasonable conclusion is that the grandfather is an unreliable narrator. Yet that makes the story very unsatisfying, because it loses all meaning (if he is unreliable, we need to know what is really happening or being said for the story to have a purpose). Even without understanding the story, the acting and sound effects are terrific, and help to create a wonderfully ominous atmosphere of confusion and mystery, which is one of the joys of Tales from Beyond the Pale.

Since my initial two times listening to this Tale, however, my opinions have changed.

I realized (on my third or fourth listen) that if you listen to the story with the thought that the grandfather is an unreliable narrator, just a senile old man, it works, and works well. It makes him a tragic figure, you feel bad for how crazy he is. Until the final scene, when the grandson kills the cat (his wife), and you realize that he was not crazy at all… It is chilling, and a wonderful addition to the collection.

-S

Next up: This Oracle Moon

This week, we move into disc 3 and take on Is This Seat Taken? by Sarah Langan.

Disc 3

Is This Seat Taken?

Summary: A young woman attempts to charm men into committing crimes for her and with her.

If there’s anything that Tales Beyond the Pale Season 1 delivers (and delivers BIG) it’s atmosphere. The music, sound effects and quality of the voice actors can almost take on physical forms. You can practically touch the bloody human flesh (ew) and feel the blackened wisps of misty shadows (chills!). Because of this, Is This Seat Taken? really stands out from the crowd, especially with its disturbingly cheery, mentally unhinged and sexually abused female protagonist. But this faux brightness is just part of a candy coating, a façade that reveals a dark twisted center. This is a Natural Born Killers prequel meets Bonnie and Clyde meets Girl Interrupted with a splash of 80’s flair at the end with Slow Burning Crimes by East Hundred. The strong Long Island accent (Hi, Fran from The Nanny) was a little annoying, but again much like Man on the Ledge it was more enjoyable with each listen. The actress was definitely channeling some of Marisa Tomei’s exuberant Brooklyn accent from My Cousin Vinny, which I adore. The story itself has some reveals and small twists which were not enough to ruffle the feathers too much so I can’t say that it is mind blasting, but it’s a solid story. The characters are sympathetic and psychotic. Robert didn’t have a wonderful childhood and Cassie had her own demons to overcome. Together, they find that they truly have some common interests, i.e. recreational homicide. The blossoming of their love all at once nails the idea of being a love-struck, angsty twenty something while also conjuring up some horrible memories relating to Columbine and/or the Menendez Brothers. Is this the first Tale with a happy ending? We can be happy that Cassie and Robert are deeply in love with each other and support one another other in their extracurricular activities. (Especially if support means “take a bullet for.”) I doubt the people who are about to get murdered by this killer couple think that this was a happy ending!

-V

This is a pretty slow boil tale, and it’s hard to know who to root for in the beginning, which makes it all the more interesting. Is she messing with him? Messing with “us”? Or just messed up? It’s a good mix of the listener knowing what’s kind of going on, so it’s not annoying cloy, while not knowing completely, so it keeps you guessing. I am a huge dork-fan of “found footage” type stories, and this has a similar feel, but not at all forced. It uses the self-narration-recordings well without being over the top, and I happen to really like Long Island accents, so that didn’t bother me as much as it bothered a certain other reviewer. And you learn something about mental psychoses, like zombie eyes, and how to properly strategerize cannibalism! Entertaining AND informative! I feel like Stephen’s and Viv’s reviews summarize the strengths pretty well, so I don’t have that much to add.  While it’s not at the top of the class for me (it’s not nearly as creepy or skin-crawly as some of the Tales . . . I would probably categorize it more of a thriller than as horror, really), it’s far from the bottom. It’s got great twists and Robert is one of the most sympathetic characters in the whole series, even when you learn he’s a psychopath, which is just some good writing right there.

-C

Is This Seat Taken is another great addition to Tales from Beyond the Pale. It is less atmospheric and less of a horror story than the other tales. Even though the subject matter is dark– a woman taking advantage of mentally unstable men to see if they will kill for her, all so she can write a book about it– the story feels lighter in tone than the rest of the Tales. It uses the radio format very well to make sure you only know what she is thinking, and not her current mark. Which makes it a great twist when you realize the mark has pieced together what she is doing, and has in fact turned the tables (at least to a degree) on her, and is using her as much as she is using him. The dialogue and acting are top notch, the voices fitting the characters perfectly. And wait, what is this? Is Fessenden right? An actual happy ending (of sorts)? While this is not my favorite of the Tales, it is a refreshing change of tone from the more atmospheric Tales (The Hole Digger, The Grandfather) and the more disturbing ones (Johnny Boy, British and Proud, Trawler). It is like a horror story palate cleanser.

-S

Next tale: The Grandfather

We are getting right into it today with our reviews of The Conformation by Paul Solet from Tales from Beyond the Pale Season 1. Again, these are spoiler filled discussions/reviews. Read at your own discretion!

Disc 2

The Conformation

Summary: A woman finds the perfect surgeon to help her achieve plastic perfection.

The Conformation pays homage to a long history of individual characters and/or an entire society dramatically succumbing to vanity and using plastic surgery to take a scalpel filled trip to Creepy Town. This plot device jogged ancient memories of that episode of the Twilight Zone with the people with pig faces. You know which one I’m talking about. It features that classic and world famous Twilight Zone WTF twist at the end. And in researching that episode (The Eye of the Beholder), I also stumbled on another thematically similar Twilight Zone episode called Number 12 Looks Just Like You. It features a world where teenagers undergo radical plastic surgery at a specific time. Each person is forced to transform  into one of 12 Cylon models, whoops I mean 12 human models that are not only pleasing to the eye, but also anti-aging. Obviously this transformation process has the potential to really mess with a person’s identity. Not to mention it would totally give you the willies. (“We love you Sharon”).

With all those paths being blazoned in visual media, it’s surprising that a story like The Conformation was created for very much auditory Tales from Beyond the Pale. Surprising until you actual listen to the tale because, well, if you ever wanted your very own collection of distressing sounds of human flesh being sliced, squished and squashed, then you just hit the grossness jackpot. I particularly like the addition of the sizzling beef bulgogi from the Korean restaurant following scenes from the surgical office–super gross. I enjoyed this story and this study of the human fascination with aesthetic and how it can reflect your true self, be it of low self-esteem, pure conceit or just a deranged and obsessive mind. The doctor’s assistant gives us some attempts at humor, which I appreciated (“We owe these guys 60 cervezas or a hand job–I hope you have cash.”) And although the character list is rife with male assholery between the superficial bro assistant and the pretty unstable doctor himself, I thought the character of Michelle was intriguing, especially when contrasted with the nose job bimbo. The voice actress made some really interesting choices in her voice quality. At first Michelle was so meek and timid until the listener (and the doctor) starts to realize that she is deeply unhinged and won’t stop chopping away her body. When she is confronted she loses her shit and screams the scream of a lady who just wants some goddamn plastic surgery, geez. Paul Grace’s foreboding and lyrical cello music was awesome too, giving the tale an extra boost atmosphere. This story and the promotion during the break totally made me want to watch Paul Solet’s film, Grace, despite my aversion to pregnancy movies (I’m looking at you, Juno and Baby Mama). So yeah, The Conformation. You’re beautiful. Don’t change a thing. Really.

-V

I think the most telling thing about Conformation is that I barely remember it. Most of the TFBTP stories I could remember my favorite parts and what I did and didn’t like, and the scariest bits no problem. In trying to write a review of this one, I was like, “oh, right. Crazy plastic surgeon. Yup.” And . . . that’s it. I think the biggest issue for me was just that I didn’t care about these characters. I am all for anti-heroes, I can root for serial killers to win (cough Dexter cough) but this wasn’t even anti-hero, this was just . . . crazy and mean and dumb characters whose motivations I didn’t really understand, and I didn’t really care what happened to the doctor or the patient. I fully admit this might be a reviewer bias; I like more character-driven stories, so if the characters annoy me, I’m probably gonna be annoyed with the story. These characters annoyed me. But it did have amazing sound effects. Amazingly gross and squinchy and give-you-a-bad-taste-in-your-mouth-for-an-hour. If you liked Human Centipede, you’d like this Tale.

-C

This story had potential, but the idea behind it is not at all original. Radio was the wrong format for it for sure. British and Proud has scenes of intense violence and sex that are all the more disturbing because we do not see them, and must imagine them in our minds. But the idea of obsession with plastic surgery taken to extremes has been done before, and so the only effect way for it to shock is visually. I think in a horror compilation, as a short 30 minute film, this could have been good. However, the idea has been done before, and better. Of particular note is the video game Bioshock, which is perhaps the best argument for saying video games can be art. As a game it is more artfully designed, written, and acted than most horror movies, and has an atmosphere that feels like a hellish version of a Disney World ride combined with wonderful art deco art and architecture. There is an insane doctor in that game, who gets obsessed with physical perfection and goes out of control with performing surgery to try and create perfection. It is disturbing and violent and atmospheric, and makes The Conformation seem tame by comparison.

-S

Stay tuned for our reviews of Disc 3: Is This Seat Taken

At this time, I’d like to bring your attention to the fantastic story specific posters for each tale from beyond the pale. These posters were designed and created by Gary Pullin and each one is signed by Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid. I bought one and I can vouch for the fact that they are of high quality and perfectly capture the tone and atmosphere of each story. Okay, onward and upward to the reviews and discussion!

SPOILERS BELOW!

YOU KNOW THE DRILL.

READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION!

(Just FYI, I will never get sick of this hilarious picture of my cat. Ever.)

Disc 2

British and Proud

Story Summary: Newly weds encounter a surprise during their honeymoon.

This episode is probably one of the more queasy ones from the set. There are some supernatural elements such as communication and contact through dreams but I think the stand out element from this story is the straight up gross out horror. The Foley artist really lets our ears have a bounty of guts being squished and bones being hacked. Dismemberment by machete (hello, Dexter!) and torture sex are not sounds you’d hear at the day spa. The audio is as gruesome as you can stand and these brilliant sound effects drive home the idea that radio can be just as gory as video. Your mind’s eye is limitless in its capacity to illustrate the icky sounds being piped into your brain courtesy of Tales from Beyond the Pale. The listener also hears some African drumming that helps to signify Sebastian’s dream state. This musical interlude really increases the stress and tension of the story as each piece unfolds to arrive at its gruesome conclusion. I also really liked the addition of the a baby crying during the wedding ceremony at the beginning of the story, a good audio foreshadowing if ever there was one.

As far as the story itself, I have major gripes. Similar to how some people who watch scary movies are put off by what they deem as the stupidity of the characters, i.e. “Don’t go into that dark basement by yourself, dummy!” I find what I perceive as stereotyping of the characters and geographical locations a little distracting and it made me a little uncomfortable because I thought the entire premise was slightly racist (a common concern that Simon Rumley has heard other listeners say). A British man marries an African woman whose family and background are completely unknown. Seriously? Why would you do that?? Here, I may reveal myself as too much on “The Spectrum” since I just can’t understand why you would marry someone so quickly without knowing everything about them—especially where there are huge red flags like how the other person has no friends and no family and how you’ve apparently never discussed having a family (surprise, I’m preggers!). And generally, I just find these kinds of Rom-Com style weak plot points to be painfully eye-rolling (if eye rolling can be an emotional state, which for me, it totally is). I’m supposed to feel happy for two people who barely know each other who then get married and then go to a remote, low-tech region of the Sudan (and you don’t even know the name of the place? for reals???) for their honeymoon? Also, the concept of mystery and doom being located deep in Africa, specifically Sudan is kind of tired and lazy. And do you know what is an even more overused trope? An African native portrayed as a savage, which is only seconded by an African woman portrayed as supernatural and able to manipulate dreams. I know there is leeway here to initiate a discussion on the interesting juxtaposition of a British man (from a former colonial power, arguably the colonial power of the late century) being used and abused by an Anglophile African man with 30 daughters. From this perspective, maybe there is satisfaction in exacting revenge on the proper British gent. Perhaps we are supposed to identify with Zalika’s father, Harold? But then again, I dislike the idea that Harold is psychotically obsessed with one of the whitest of white countries. I think this kind of discussion could go on and on without a satisfying conclusion so I’ll leave it here and just say that certain details of the story didn’t work for me and it was hard to muster sympathy for Sebastian and Zalika, especially when Harold is portrayed as a super charismatic and infinitely interesting psychopath.

Okay, I know I just said all those negative things but STILL despite all that academic fretting and over-analysis that my progressive over-sensitive liberal schooling has ingrained in me, the story is exciting and filled with gore & horror and may be exactly what you’re looking for in this collection of audio plays. It’s a tall drink of ominous and suspenseful mystery, sexy with a twist of demented mutilation at the end.

-V

So I’m not going to get into the racist thing much here, except to say this story could be kind of racist. I didn’t really notice it my first listen through, maybe because I am used to the horror story thing of using racism/sexism/homophobia, etc, to play on people’s most basic, carnal fears. Those fears are usually based in what you don’t know, and since Straight White Men rule, what you don’t know is black people and women and gay people, etc. This, and lots of horror stories, play on those fears of The Other. Like, the fear that black people are evil and cannibals and such. This story’s author should’ve maybe thought about making the Other not-black . . . making them, I don’t know, a Siberian isolated tribe, instead of one in Africa, or something. But that’s kind of a lot to ask of a short radio play that is relying on instant associations. I mean, everyone who’s seen National Geographic can picture an isolated tribe in the middle of nowhere Africa. But an isolated Siberian tribe? Not so much. ANYWAY that’s all I’m going to say about it, because it’s easy to get into a “he should’ve done it THIS way” spiral when evaluating anything. But we’re here to not judge what he COULD have written, but what he DID write. AND JUDGE I SHALL.

Despite that paragraph above, this is actually one of my favorites of the series. It’s straight-up horror. Nothing too fancy, just some supernatural, some squeamy making sex, and some major disfigurement (and maybe some racism, yes). Like all the TFBTP stories, the sound in this is awesome. It really establishes some creepy shit happening, some spooky sense of place and there are some spine-tingling screams and well-timed edits that gave me that kind of feeling I get on roller coasters, where I want to climb out of my seat because it’s terrifying but I also don’t want it to end. There’s a cool dream sequence to give it some extra supernaturalness, although I’m not sure it’s really necessary . . . it sets up an ominous tone early on, but c’mon, it’s TFBTP. The ominous tone is implied even when everything at first is sunshine and buttercups and a happy wedding. Maybe even BECAUSE everything at first is sunshine and buttercups and a happy wedding. Perhaps my favorite thing about this was it was balls-to-the-wall with the characters’ fates. I mean, these aren’t juicebox characters who you are kind of wanting to be chopped to bits. You are invested in Sebastian’s and Zalika’s unconventional love story, which makes their not so happy ending all the more gutting.

-C

More than any other story in Tales From Beyond the Pale, British and Proud uses discomfort to create horror. While it does contain some horror staples like an isolated community and a dream that supernaturally foreshadows the horror to come, I think its use of gruesome disfigurement combined with sex is where the real horror in the story comes from, and works as an incredible payoff to a wonderful setup. And it is a payoff that I think works better on the radio, where you must imagine it, visualize it in your head, than it would in a visual medium or in a written work. No special effects would do justice to the scene at the end of this story, and no written description would live up to the image created by the audio. It is a case of a story that was written perfectly for the medium in which it was presented.

-S

Stay tuned for our reviews of the second story on Disc 2: The Conformation

I realize that this is not the most properly controlled experiment seeing as the top potatoes are russet potatoes while the bottom ones are white potatoes. However, I’m pretty sure this technique will work for all varieties of potatoes.

If you want to preserve your potatoes and keep them from sprouting, add an apple. Although the ethylene gas from the apple preserves the potatoes, that same gas causes fruit to ripen faster.

Yay, science!

It’s the year of the DRAGON!

I made some badass red and gold kirigami dragon cards but did I remember to take a picture of them? No. So here is the picture of the pumpkin cheesecake that I made for the New Year’s Eve party I went to.

I am (We are) continuing the reviews of the Tales from Beyond the Pale. Today, I bring you our reviews of the second story The Hole Digger.

AGAIN. THESE ARE SPOILER CONTAINING REVIEWS.

IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY THAT SAYS

YOUR ENJOYMENT OF A STORY DOES NOT DIMINISH IF YOU ARE “SPOILERED”

THEN STOP READING.

IF THERE IS NO WAY THAT YOU WILL EVER LISTEN TO THESE EVER,

THEN GO AHEAD AND READ ON.

WHAT DO I CARE.

YOU’RE JUST MISSING OUT ON SOME OF THE BEST RADIO PLAYS THIS SIDE OF THE 2000′s.

Disc 1

The Hole Digger

Story Summary: Two brothers spend their summer vacation on Cape Cod and discover a mystery.

When I was a kid living in New England I was lucky enough spend some time on Cape Cod for a handful of summers. (Shit–I still go up there as an adult. Love it there.) Still, I never had something as exciting or traumatizing as what happens in this story happen to me. And apparently something like this actually happened to Larry Fessenden, who wrote and directed this story. I love the brothers, Tommy and Nicky. They’re really natural together which is not only because they are actual brothers, but also because they are talented young voice actors. Unfortunately, it is because of the strong interaction between the brothers and the wonderful older version of Nicky as the narrator, it makes the mother’s lines and delivery of the dialogue stand out as really awkward and decidedly unnatural. When this happens in a radio play, it can really take you out of the story. But this is my only small complain about The Hole Digger. In terms of audio effects–the sound of gulls and water, the scraping sound of the hole digger and the beautiful and haunting sound of the Whip-poor-will add vividness to the fantastic narration. I love this story. I like the underlying angst of a family breaking up. I like the ambiguous ending, which is so appropriate for horror. I like the creepy old New England tale about the cry of the Whip-poor-will. So what do I think happens at the end? I think the supernatural idea of the hole appearing and appearing despite being re-filled and drowning Tommy against his will is just as satisfying as the idea that Tommy just couldn’t take his adolescent angst anymore and came up with the entire charade himself. I think Tommy is portrayed as dark enough (and upset enough about his father’s disappearance from his life) to believe either ending. To each their own interpretation because it is a fantastic story and makes my top 3 with ease.

-V

I love this one, but I kind of hate it too. It has SUCH a great set-up, but it kind of tries to do too much. While certain Stephens might be blinded by nostalgia over their own boyhood shenanigans of boyhood shenanigannery, this story totally cops out at the end. OR DOES IT?? Ok, I think it does, but I can also appreciate that the openness of the ending lends itself to lively WHAT HAPPENED debate. Which is always fun. And while I agree with Stephen that stories can be great even if they lack solid resolution of what exactly happened (Pan’s Labyrinth is one good example), I think The Hole Digger dug itself into a hole–a PLOT HOLE, that is!–with this ending by not setting up enough details to support its  finale. BUT that being said, it has awesome horror moments. It’s told from a young boy’s point of view, which adds that innocent-in-peril hook; it’s got the gruesome and mysterious happenings going on in an idyllic setting, and it’s a really odd, but believable and intriguing circumstance. There was just a bit too much going on for me. I think this might be because it’s based on a true story, and maybe the author tried to insert too many true details into his fictionalized version? But on the other hand, these details did help flesh out the story. So, even with my complaints on the ending, this is my favorite Tale. Two shovels up!

-C

The setup for this story is about as classic horror as you can get. Maybe it is more relatable to me since my brother and I did everything together growing up, and we would have been fascinated by finding a hole like that on the beach. Whatever it is, this story had amazing atmosphere, and a setup where I was dying to find out what happened next, and at the same time worried for the kids. While certain Cams might be disappointed by the lack of a solid resolution at the end, I think some stories are better if we never really know what went on, as long as there are enough clues to let us as readers fill in the gaps. It makes storytelling an interactive experience– the listener takes part in connecting the dots and can make for an amazing experience, and an open ending can make the story stick with you much longer than a nice tidy conclusion.

-S

1. Friday, Janurary 13th, 2012

2. Friday, April 13th 2012

3. Friday, July 13th 2012

In the spirit of Friday the 13th, I’m starting a series of blog posts reviewing the Tales from the Beyond the Pale radio plays.

What is this, you ask? Well, Tales from Beyond the Pale are a series of radio plays in the age old tradition of Orson Welles’ frightening radio dramas. In their own words: “Radio Plays for the Digital Age.” The creep-tastic geniuses responsible for this revival are Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid. They honed their chops in world of horror as they have both written, produced, directed and acted in various film projects.

I am someone who enjoys scary movies and when I heard about these radio plays on NPR, I knew I wanted to listen to them and share them with my friend who is literary, loves podcasts/storytelling and a huge fan of horror. (They’re available in MP3 and CD format. You can buy the discs through Amazon or their website.) We both really really really loved these radio plays. As an avid podcast listener, it was great to be able to hear something different and new, yet comforting in its format and high quality audio production.

However, we found that we could only discuss the episodes with each other and there is a dearth of internet places to read about Tales from Beyond the Pale. We decided to write some SPOILER CONTAINING reviews of each episode. While they are reviews, hopefully they will provide some discussion about the mysteries and twists in each episode.

Since Cam’s boyfriend, Stephen, is also a horror fan and he’s easily the biggest fan of the three of us, he will also be providing another perspective on each episode as someone who is well versed in all things supremely scary (i.e. horror fan forums).

Here are some general reviews from each of us about the entire series:

The Tales from Beyond the Pale collection is a goddamn treasure. One of the strongest aspects of Season One is that each story is very different and you get a really wide range of scary settings and storylines–twists to straight up gore, tales on the high seas to communications from a distant moon. The intros are just as fun as the stories themselves and they really set the mood. In shaping these episodes Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid definitely took a page out of the old timey Orson Welles style programs. Larry Fessenden’s voice is perfectly creepy, he enunciates beautifully (refreshing after the sometimes weird and unexpected voices on This American Life, for example), and has a flair for drama. While you might think that radio plays are more mild than scary movies, think again. I got some chills listening to these at work, never mind those times when I was alone with my headphones in a dark room. A couple stories are so creepy that I can’t listen to them late at night. If you like podcasts, if you like creepy stories or if you just like high quality audio crack-cocaine, then you will truly enjoy this collection.

-Viv

The stories, the actors, and the sound staging are generally awesome. There’s a wide genre of horror represented: goofy pulp to suspenseful terror to gothic ghosts to demonic innocents to psychological and physical torture. And some stuff in between that I don’t even know how to define. Like with any ambitious story collection in any medium, there are hits and misses. But even the misses still had me thinking about them, and listening close. If nothing else, it was amazing to hear how a few well-placed sound effects can set a mood. The attention to details was outstanding, these guys obviously love what they are doing here. And will hopefully do it a lot more!

-Cam

This collection is amazing. Maybe it is the fact that horror as a genre always feels kind of old fashioned to me (after all, since the coming of the cell phone every horror movie is required to have the no-cell-service-scene), but doing horror as a radio show just seems so perfect. And for the most part, the stories live up to the concept. As I listened to them at work, slacking off from doing anything productive as the stories started to take hold, I felt more like I was sitting in front of an old fashioned radio in a dimly lit room, leaning in as the tension built. Most of these stories did what only the best types of fiction are capable of– they created a world of their own, one I was more than happy to step into for the length of the tale.

-Stephen

OKAY HERE IS YOUR CHANCE.

IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN TO THESE AND BE SURPRISED, STOP HERE.

DO NOT READ FURTHER.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

(INSERT TRUCK BACKING UP BEEPING HERE)

Disc 1
Man on the Ledge
Story summary: A man and a cop face off on top of an apartment building in New York City.

-V

-C

-S

You can get that stencil here.

I made a lot of different meringues: plain, almond and peppermint. It was a really good learning experience due to a lot of failed meringues. I own you now, egg whites.

All of which went into these Christmas gift bags that I made for my co-workers.

Those Ghirardelli peppermint barks are DELICIOUS, by the way. Good thing there was only one left for me to eat after filling the bags because I would have eaten them all.

You can see the almond meringues that I made in that bag. Also? Those fresh rosemary springs that I tied to each bag smelled SO good!

This is pumpkin cheesecake number three that I made for my holiday party at work.

Interesting to note: the cake up there that I made for my mom to bring to her holiday party did not come back. It was demolished. However, the cake that I brought to my work place? Most of it came back with me, much to the joy of my mom and James. I wonder who works with the fatties and who does not? I’ll let you decide.

Also, of course I made low-cal, low oil, oven crisped latkes. They were sooo good. I love latkes. Especially latkes without all the oil.

Yum! Hanukkah food. Is that apple sauce in the background? Yes it is. Apple sauce and sour cream. So delish.

First post of 2012 has 6 pics of food that I made. It’s a good start.

A friend sent me a link to these tiny ridiculously cute pies (cookie sized pies) from Smitten Kitchen. I made it a goal to bake some over Thanksgiving. They were too work intensive to be made all the time, but the results were delicious.

I stuffed them with apple and pear. If the ratio of crust to filling in a regular pie is 20% to 80%, then the ratio of these nano pies is flipped. 20% filling and 80% delicious delicious crust. As someone who doesn’t love pie filling, these cute cookie pies are a revelation in pie eating. Hello? Crust lovers? Someone has been going through your dream diary and making the pages COME TRUE.

I made cute little ruffled crusts for some of them! Sadly, you can eat them a lot faster than you can make them. They seem to be perfect for freezing and baking at will. This option must be further explored in the future.