Only one week and a bit to go for you Halloween celebration, so get inspired for the Feast of Fear by listening to this week’s offering!

Philadelphia Xperiment

Mysterious patient X, a John Doe, claims to have been part in a most horrid experiment while in naval service during World War II. The year is now 1951, but X’s outbursts and persistence of having seen most horrible, strange and unnatural things keep him institutionalized and disliked by the personnel as well. There’s something about him that’s not quite normal.

Everybody believes it would probably be for the better, if X forgot what he thought to have seen. But as a hypnosis therapy by a new, young doctor unleashes more details of X’s memories –  the true horror begins.

This episode has an explicit disclaimer!

Around the Campfire

I had listened to a couple of Campfire Theater stories before and if you have been around for last years late, late Halloween Episode, you will know that I’m very fond of them and eager to point you in their direction for some nice horror stories.

What really stuck with me with this particular story, was the description of the ship, X had been on during the experiment, and the events taking place there. It’s an eerie tale, working very much on your brain and I especially liked how the things in his description reminded me of a certain, well-know New England writer, who suffered from night terrors. And I can’t get around thinking that I might have been reading some of his, or related, stories at the time, which enhanced my experience.

The “Philadelphia Xperiment” is Gothic horror in a very 40ish Radio Drama setting, and once again serves to you a chilly tale with some very reserved music and Sound Design. Yes, I also start to see a pattern and I think I might be on the trail of a very effective horror writing formula. Because, also this time, the story really got to me at the very end.

Partly, I blame this on character Captain Bridgewater, played by Joe Stofko, who set me right into the 40s-50s area. His rhetoric and voice somehow placed me, stronger than anything else in this story, into a very alluring Old Time Radio horror feeling, only to have me exposed to the great Weird Fiction later on. This double horror combo hit me hard  – and once again let me “Turn the Lights Back On!”

Philadelphia Xperiment by Campfire Radio Theater

Original Release Date:  May 11th, 2014
Written & Directed by: John Ballentine
Cast: Dr Underwood  –  David Ault
Patient X  –  Jack Kincaid
Captain Bridgewater  –  Joe Stofko
Nurse  –  M Sieiro Garcia
Additional Voices  –  John Ballentine, Blaine Hicklin, Glenn Hascall
Runtime:  32:58 min
License:  unclarified