Campfire Radio Theater

Haunted Air Audio

54 episodes listed below

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Scripted horror with teeth, texture, and dread.

The gist

Campfire Radio Theater stages standalone horror plays with rotating casts, cinematic audio, and little patience for easy comfort. Its stories move from haunted cases and pumpkin rules to vampire bars, graveyard secrets, occult notebooks, and scams with supernatural consequences.

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About Campfire Radio Theater

Campfire Radio Theater is a horror audio drama anthology with a taste for old rules, bad bargains, and rooms where reason stops working. The episodes are standalone, but the sensibility is consistent. Stories begin close to danger and let the listener catch up through dialogue, ambience, and dread. In "Paranormal Appraisal 151," a professor built on debunking hauntings walks into a case where rational explanations start to feel thin. "October Gods" turns pumpkin-patch folklore into rules with consequences, giving teen banter the same weight as an ancient warning. "Hollow Born" reaches into gothic inheritance, buried rites, family shadow, and a child who may be listening to more than memory. "Blood Drive" shifts into a predatory night world of bars, bodies, faith, and vampires. "Final Resting Place" makes a cemetery intimate and awful, using grief, vandalism, and sound itself as a source of fear. "The Heretic's Handbook" follows a trail toward an abandoned ranger station, occult symbols, and the discovery that someone has already crossed a line. "West Palm Readers" wraps street-level grifting and fortune-telling in a revenge story with supernatural teeth. The show is brisk, but it is not careless. It lets scenes breathe when silence, weather, or a hesitant confession can do more than exposition. Casts rotate, so the identity of the series comes from writing, direction, music, and sound design rather than a single host. That gives each episode room to adopt a new texture: folk horror, gothic melodrama, vampire noir, graveyard tale, haunted investigation, or urban con story. The language can be ornate when the story calls for it, then snap back to casual panic or dry humor. Horror often arrives through specifics rather than speeches. A pumpkin bleeds. A phone line is cut. A body lies in the woods. A voice answers from below. Campfire Radio Theater works best for listeners who want acted horror that feels crafted scene by scene. It is dramatic, literate, and willing to be nasty without turning sloppy. The result is a compact anthology where every episode feels like a locked door opening onto a different kind of dark.

Made for: Suited to horror fiction listeners who prefer acted scenes, immersive sound design, folklore, gothic atmosphere, and supernatural consequences over chat or recap. It also fits fans of standalone stories that move quickly but reward close listening.

What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its directorial consistency across rotating casts: each episode has its own world, but the same attention to performance, sound design, music, and exact physical detail. It makes ordinary objects feel cursed before the monster fully arrives.

In their own words

Horror radio rises from the dead! Experience the twists and chills of a modern horror anthology, fully dramatized and soundscaped in the tradition of terror classics from yesteryear, but with all the thrilling dynamics of a contemporary cutting-edge film soundtrack! Join us around the fire... you won’t believe your ears! Latest updates and behind-the-mic info can be found on Facebook @CampfireRadioTheater and Twitter @CampfireRadio Disclaimer: We cannot be held responsible for hauntings and demonic possessions that occur as a result of listening to this podcast!

As heard by us

Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Full-cast performances and detailed sound design turn alien invasion, haunted guilt, and occult danger into vivid, self-contained horror dramas.

Campfire Radio Theater stages fear through fully cast audio plays, moving from alien invasion to haunted guilt and occult menace. John Ballantyne repeatedly writes, directs, and produces stories in which narration establishes a firm dramatic frame before ensemble performances,…

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A cursed lighthouse turns your headphones into a place you'd very much like to evacuate.

Press play if you want

  • fully acted scares where voices, music, and sound design do the stalking
  • H.G. Wells, the Philadelphia Experiment, and the Flannan lighthouse mystery recast as intimate nightmares
Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
haunted investigationsfolk rules and cursesgothic family secretsgraveyards and restless deadvampires and predatory nightlifeoccult symbols and sacrificescams and supernatural revengeisolated rural terror

Talks about

Best episodes of Campfire Radio Theater

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Paranormal Appraisal 151Dec 1, 2025

A skeptical appraisal ranks fear until its own calm begins to feel less certain.

Paranormal Appraisal 151 builds from a clean case-file premise: Professor Stuart Sangred, chemistry chair and head of the Parapsychology Lab, brings media student Tyler Lambert to an interview about unexplained incidents.

October GodsOct 21, 2025

Halloween banter curdles into a curse when a bleeding pumpkin marks a debt to the Vine Wraith.

Shadowvale gives its Halloween legend a sharp little hook, turning a casual pumpkin-carving dare into something that feels less like mischief than trespass.

Hollow BornSep 14, 2025

An impossible birth turns a family letter into a warning about what Blackthorn has buried.

Hollow Born frames its gothic horror through an impossible birth: Lillian comes from Margaret's newly buried body, and Aunt Eleanor's letter tries to tell the truth without handing down the darkness tied to her mother.

Blood DriveApr 15, 2025

A forensic mystery turns into a vampire initiation, with Brother Bob Fargo as Amanda Mason's unlikely warning.

Campfire Radio Theater's "Blood Drive" frames Amanda Mason's death as the start of a vampire initiation, not the end of a case. She is first encountered as a sealed body under Dr.

Final Resting PlaceDec 23, 2024

A cemetery job, a grieving family, and a sound under the earth turn ordinary mourning into intimate horror.

Final Resting Place turns a summer cemetery job into a compact study of grief, routine, and the possibility that something is still active under the stones.

The Heretic's HandbookOct 14, 2024

A notebook, a mountain trail, and an abandoned ranger station drive this folk-horror story into dread.

Campfire Radio Theater threads The Heretic's Handbook around a tattered notebook found in the forest, and the result grows steadily more unsettled as warped scripture, pagan philosophy, and crude sacrificial imagery take hold.

The Devil and the Deep Blue SeaMar 25, 2024

A submarine horror tale where sonar does the haunting and the tension stays locked tight.

Campfire Radio Theater drops the USS Tennessee into deep water and lets sonar do the work of haunting. The piece is at its best when it treats naval procedure as a pressure chamber: clipped commands, tight steel corridors, and a contact that keeps closing until the language…

DesecrateOct 23, 2023

A graveyard ritual turns betrayal into direct, uneasy horror.

Desecrate opens in a graveyard under a decrepit wall and threads a buried secret through betrayal and unease. Campfire Radio Theater keeps the pressure on through Jen, Holly, and Brent, then pushes the story into occult territory with the symbol in stone, the noise from beneath…

Podcasts like Campfire Radio Theater

Episodes

  1. 1

    Winter's Bite

    Aug 30, 2026·41m
  2. 2

    The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings - Buttons

    Hidden gem

    Campfire Radio Theater presents “The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings - Buttons,” a horror story about a cat, a grieving father, and recorded communication buttons.

    Jul 20, 2026·28m·2 clips
  3. 3

    Ominous Thrill - The Chant Part 1 of 3

    Jun 21, 2026·24m
  4. 4

    Fallen Angel

    A 66-million-year-old dinosaur fossil contains microprocessor chips, suggesting technology existed before human civilization.

    Apr 27, 2026·31m·2 clips
  5. 5

    Paranormal Appraisal 151

    Professor Stuart Sangred and student Tyler Lambert investigate three paranormal cases, debunking each with scientific explanations like infrasound and sleep paralysis.

    Dec 1, 2025·33m·3 clips
  6. 6

    October Gods

    Three teens visit a haunted pumpkin patch in Shadowvale, ignoring its supernatural rules and unleashing a vengeful Vine Wraith.

    Oct 21, 2025·30m·2 clips
  7. 7

    October Chills: Partial Veil

    John Ballantyne introduces the folk horror podcast Partial Veil, created by Alison Cossett, set in a remote North Dakota town where officer Josie Ward investigates strange disappearances.

    Oct 5, 2025·12m·1 clip
  8. 8

    Hollow Born

    In a gothic horror tale set on the English moors, Eleanor raises her niece Lillian, who was born from her sister Margaret's coffin.

    Sep 14, 2025·36m·3 clips
  9. 9

    Blood Drive

    A single mother, Amanda, drives for a ride-share and picks up Violet, a seductive vampire who lures her to Club Crimson for an initiation night.

    Apr 15, 2025·40m·3 clips
  10. 10

    Final Resting Place

    A cemetery groundskeeper in 1993 works alongside his grandfather at a small-town graveyard, where the job carries a dark secret that never makes it into any official record.

    Dec 23, 2024·31m·2 clips
  11. 11

    The Heretic's Handbook

    A tattered notebook waits in the forest, full of warped scripture, pagan philosophy, and ugly drawings of sacrifice.

    Oct 14, 2024·42m·4 clips
  12. 12

    West Palm Readers

    A voice rises from the dark before the play gets a proper start.

    Jul 29, 2024·37m·3 clips
  13. 13

    The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

    Deep water already feels haunted.

    Mar 25, 2024·43m·4 clips
  14. 14

    Desecrate

    A cedar forest leads to the graveyard.

    Oct 23, 2023·40m·3 clips
  15. 15

    Ties of Blood Part Two

    In the conclusion of 'Ties of Blood,' Nikki is kidnapped by blood dealer Woodson, who reveals a black market supplying vampires.

    Sep 14, 2023·30m·2 clips
  16. 16

    Ties of Blood Part One

    Nikki Russo, a paper delivery person in Red Hill, suspects her new neighbor Corey might be a vampire as a series of abductions plague the town.

    Aug 28, 2023·29m·2 clips
  17. 17

    Last Resort

    Zack Creed, a drunk driver, finds himself in a mysterious bar where he gradually realizes he and everyone else are dead, trapped in a supernatural purgatory.

    Mar 20, 2023·32m·2 clips
  18. 18

    The Dreams of Wolves

    A courier rides into beast-haunted Virginia and tries to get the story down before age softens it.

    Oct 24, 2022·43m·3 clips
  19. 19

    The Road Ends at the Sea

    Scully visits his old friend Paul at a remote lighthouse, where Paul's obsession with solitude has spiraled into delusion, endangering Paul's wife Nan.

    Jul 12, 2022·30m·2 clips
  20. 20

    Campfire Radio Theater Promo

    Apr 9, 2022·1m
  21. 21

    Abominations

    In this horror tale, Jonah gets involved with criminals and a mysterious old man who can reanimate the dead, leading to moral chaos when he accidentally kills his pregnant girlfriend and seeks supernatural redemption.

    Mar 7, 2022·35m·3 clips
  22. 22

    The Bones of Saint Nicholas

    A divorced mother, Belinda, takes her daughter to see a mall Santa on Christmas Eve, but the Santa turns out to be a supernatural hitman who invades her home.

    Dec 13, 2021·35m·3 clips
  23. 23

    The Ghost of Lori Keegan

    After midnight, Angela feels it again.

    Oct 19, 2021·41m·4 clips
  24. 24

    Gerald

    A young boy named Gerald becomes entangled with a demonic entity named Tom, leading to animal mutilations and a friend's murder, culminating in a supernatural confrontation with his father.

    Nov 30, 2020·39m·3 clips
  25. 25

    The Thing on the Ground Floor Part Two

    In the conclusion of this horror tale, survivors trapped in the haunted Talbert building confront a toxic smoke that transforms victims by turning their organs inside out.

    Oct 26, 2020·29m·2 clips
  26. 26

    The Thing on the Ground Floor Part One

    "The Thing on the Ground Floor Part One" is a Campfire Radio Theater audio drama framed as a post-incident interview with TV producer Tricia Timmons, who was filming a police ride-along for the reality show Busted on Halloween 2019 when an explosion near the Talbot Building drew Officer Coward into an investigation.

    Oct 13, 2020·34m·2 clips
  27. 27

    The Resurrectionist Part Two

    Jamie, a psychic medium, confronts her past as she deals with the cult leader Saul who wants to exploit her ability to resurrect the dead.

    Jul 13, 2020·30m·2 clips
  28. 28

    The Resurrectionist Part One

    Truck driver Cal is on the run with his young daughter Jamie, who has psychic abilities to see ghosts, while being pursued by an occult group led by Jamie's mother Lila and a powerful figure named Saul.

    Jun 13, 2020·27m·2 clips
  29. 29

    Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

    Ellen escapes her abusive husband Bruce only to crash on a mountain road and encounter Moonface, a serial killer who displays his victims as scarecrows.

    Oct 24, 2019·34m·3 clips
  30. 30

    Blood Puppets

    Alice, a single mother and nurse, is haunted by violent nightmares of a puppet show that begin to manifest in reality when a hacked TV broadcast matches her visions.

    Jun 5, 2019·35m·3 clips
  31. 31

    The Woman in the Basement

    A couple moves into an old house with a dark history, where their infidelity and guilt intertwine with supernatural events.

    Oct 25, 2018·35m·3 clips
  32. 32

    God of the Razor

    A razor opens a gate.

    Jul 30, 2018·32m·3 clips
  33. 33

    Intensive Care

    John Ballantyne breaks the usual ritual.

    Jul 16, 2018·37m·3 clips
  34. 34

    Monster’s Game

    Rob hears voices.

    Oct 31, 2017·35m·3 clips
  35. 35

    Death and Alchemy

    Red Apron sounds too friendly.

    Oct 2, 2017·39m·3 clips
  36. 36

    Ravenous

    Redmayne hides its hunger.

    Jun 11, 2017·33m·3 clips
  37. 37

    Abduction at Willow Woods

    Two childhood friends, Sam and Ben, reunite to confront repressed memories of a mysterious abduction 30 years ago in Willow Woods.

    Jan 27, 2017·32m·3 clips
  38. 38

    Rites of Autumn

    A grandfather teaches his grandson pumpkin carving while revealing a dark past involving a friend named Larry and 'the work' to combat nightmares, which is later exposed as a serial killing ritual with bodies found in the cellar.

    Oct 24, 2016·26m·2 clips
  39. 39

    Woods Ferry

    Forgotten roads still point to Woods Ferry.

    Jun 5, 2016·34m·3 clips
  40. 40

    Whispers From Hell

    A couple moves into a house next to a cemetery, where Megan experiences strange occurrences, including a false intruder alarm and a mysterious old woman.

    Oct 25, 2015·29m·2 clips
  41. 41

    Night Delivery

    A summer job goes bad.

    Sep 20, 2015·38m·2 clips
  42. 42

    Ghosts of Flannan Lighthouse

    Hidden gem

    Wind steals the lamp.

    Mar 26, 2015·34m·3 clips
  43. 43

    RIP Part II

    The streets remember.

    Oct 27, 2014·34m·3 clips
  44. 44

    RIP Part I

    A couple on their honeymoon in London visits a Whitechapel pub, where they meet Old Jim, an expert on Jack the Ripper.

    Oct 5, 2014·26m·2 clips
  45. 45

    The Philadelphia Xperiment

    A strapped patient wakes into wartime, and nothing about the room feels safe.

    May 12, 2014·33m·3 clips
  46. 46

    Dreaming of a Dead Christmas

    Two college students, Tracy and Kendra, hit a man on a remote road and take him to a truck stop, only to discover he's a 'dead walker' spreading a zombie-like infection.

    Dec 15, 2013·29m·2 clips
  47. 47

    The War of the Worlds

    A firelit welcome curdles fast.

    Oct 27, 2013·37m·3 clips
  48. 48

    The Dentist

    George Rogers only came in for a tooth.

    Sep 1, 2013·30m·2 clips
  49. 49

    Hungry Hollow

    Mountains swallow the road before anyone gets a choice.

    Feb 6, 2013·31m·2 clips
  50. 50

    Twilight Road

    A young woman, Serena, dies in an accident and wakes up in a mortuary, where she reveals she experienced an afterlife of lost souls searching for the mythical Twilight Road.

    Oct 22, 2012·27m·2 clips
  51. 51

    The Haunted Cell

    A criminal named Max is interrogated by police and locked in a haunted jail cell, where he is tormented by the ghost of Skeeter Dempsey, an executed inmate who urges him to commit suicide to avoid the electric chair, leading to a shocking twist about Max's fate.

    Jul 29, 2012·27m·2 clips
  52. 52

    The Master’s Hungry Children

    Dawn creeps over a frozen plain.

    Mar 27, 2012·32m·3 clips
  53. 53

    Night Chills

    A couple moves into a new house, only to face a stalker ex-girlfriend and supernatural hauntings linked to a murder-suicide from the 1950s.

    Dec 31, 2011·30m·2 clips
  54. 54

    Demon Eyes

    Borrowed eyeglasses make the world terrible.

    Dec 17, 2011·33m·3 clips