The Freaky Deaky · The Freaky Deaky: A Paranormal Comedy Podcast

254 | When Ritual Goes Wrong: Weird Games & a TFD Curse

·1 hr 13 min·4 clips

A forum account says a woman heard footsteps, relit the candle, and felt an invisible hand brush her back.

1. The Freaky Deaky episode 254 focuses on “When Ritual Goes Wrong: Weird Games & a TFD Curse,” with ritual games like the Midnight Game, One Man Hide and Seek, and the Closet Game. 2. Scott and Christian host the show, and their banter matters because they keep interrupting the folklore explanations with jokes about candles, closets, and “the witching hour.” 3. The episode asks what happens when schoolyard dares and occult-style rules get mixed into modern internet folklore. 4. The Midnight Game requires a player to write their full name on paper, prick a finger, and let blood fall on it before surrounding it with candlelight. 5. At midnight, the player knocks on the front door 22 times, opens it, and invites the “midnight man” inside. 6. The game says the player must survive until 3:33 AM, keep moving, and relight the candle within 10 seconds if it goes out. 7. A paranormal forum account describes a young woman hearing footsteps circling her house, then feeling an invisible hand brush against her back. 8. The hosts note that folklorists connect the game to universal fears of darkness, and skeptics attribute the experience to fear, anticipation, and auditory or tactile hallucinations. 9. They also discuss how 3:33 AM gets treated as a witching-hour time, while one host says they have heard midnight, 3 AM, 4 AM, and even 5 AM used in different traditions. 10. The episode moves to One Man Hide and Seek, which is described as a version of hide-and-seek that summons a dark spirit to hunt a player through a home or abandoned building. 11. A first-hand account from a young man in an abandoned house includes footsteps coming from multiple directions, a shadow outside a closet doorway, and scratches on his arms after escaping. 12. The hosts tie that game to older European folk traditions that used children’s games to summon or test supernatural beings. 13. They repeatedly return to the idea that fear in isolated, dark spaces can make ordinary sounds feel like footsteps, whispers, or movement. 14. One host argues that cold spots and knocks may come from heightened awareness, circulation, airflow, or the brain reacting to stress. 15. The other host pushes back with stories about shared sensations and the possibility that some locations really do show unexplained cold spots or electromagnetic activity. 16. The Closet Game is presented as especially claustrophobic because it involves entering a dark closet or small room and staying there for five to ten minutes. 17. The episode’s tone stays conversational and off-the-rails, with jokes about bathrooms, closets, Molly Ringwald, and whether the hosts are aged out of youthful internet culture. 18. The format is loose and back-and-forth, with Scott narrating rules and Christian interrupting with skepticism, tangents, and running commentary. 19. Listeners who like folklore, ritual-game legends, and argument-heavy banter will probably enjoy this. 20. People wanting a tightly structured, serious paranormal breakdown will probably skip it.

As heard by us

Schoolyard ritual lore gets filtered through roast-heavy banter and self-mockery.

The episode starts without a polished opening and makes that looseness part of its appeal, moving through schoolyard rumor stories, creepy kid rituals, and memories that land harder when they are told sideways.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want schoolyard terror energy with jokes that keep tripping over the creepy stuff.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Freaky Deaky