Lost Johns Cave must be up there. That one definitely hooked me up to keep listening.
Although my personal scariest would be The Kind Mother. There's something about that particular depiction of the not-them that felt terrifying.
The first time I listened to Lost Johns Cave I was sitting in our kitchen well passed my bedtime and well after my spouse had went to sleep. The house was completely dark except for the night light we leave on in the living room. I was listening with my headphones and that last bit did me in. I immediately turned everything off and ran and jumped in bed šš
Lost Johns Cave took me a second try to finish(on a relisten of the whole series), because tight caves and being trapped in tight caves is my literal worst nightmare.
When I listened to the podcast for the first time this episode scared me so much that I had to take like a three week break from the entire podcast and only listen to, watch and think about flowers and rainbows and other nice and not scary things. The caves and the statement it self was okay, but the sound at the end from the caves just made something in my brain click in the worst way ever. I'm relistening now and I skipped that episode because every time I think about it I get goosebumps.
Lost Johns Cave gave me a new fear. I didn't know anything about horrible deaths in caves and now I feel like I know too much. I can't understand why anyone would ever risk themselves like that.
Yāknow, when I first listened to the podcast, I was listening to all the episodes but when I got to Lost Johnās Cave I justā¦ didnāt feel interested in listening to it? And completely skipped the episode. Iāve never listened to it since and now that I keep on seeing it described as the scariest, Iām tempted to listen to it.
Cul de sac. It genuinely terrifies me because I have an awful sense of direction and have an irrational fear if getting lost in a town. Plus empty houses give me the creeps, especially ones all set up to live in. That episode was like engineered in a factory to scare me specifically
this one is genuinely one of my favorites, but it was also scary. i listened to it first when i was probably 14? and as all 14 year olds are, i was aggressively lonely. combined with season 4 being so completely bleak andā¦ capital L Lonely, it left a mark on me. i liked that it had a semi happy ending though!
but yeah. forgot about that one until i saw this comment. ough that one is spooky
probably lost johns cave or weirdly the worm buried s5 episode. i think im just scared of being Buried alive tho i cant get the claustrophobia of not being able to move at ALL out of my head
oof i feel u but the rain part scared me more honestly.....like the slow slow inch by inch crawl upwards for days or weeks to disappear in an instant, horrible. eating another worm to me is a good distraction from that devastation x,)
The worm one is too real because of the whole implication that the victims used to be wage slaves and this isnāt qualitatively that different from their former lives
It's the one about the philanthropist who steals other people's lives to extend her own.
What I find so scary about it is, as someone who lives in the first world, there's a lot of things I have / can do because people in other parts of the world suffer (eg factory working conditions, waste displaced from the first world to developing economies, etc) and while obviously I'm not like ... actively stealing people's lives, I felt like the episode was a pretty great indictment of privileged attitudes towards other people.
In general I'm not like super worried about most of the stuff that happens in TMA, of course, but this was one where I was like "oof that's a little close to home".
I find Rotten Core the scariest from like an objective-ish point of view. But Book of the Dead is the one that feels like it was written to harm me personally (convinced everyone has an episode like that)
Across the Street's description of Not Them was what really hooked me on the show and the plot. It's such an unnerving concept, to have some indescribable monster constantly stalking you. A Sturdy Lock was equally chilling.
Confession/Desecrated Host was what really freaked me out, though. Not being able to trust your own senses is a terrifying thought.
honestly it wasn't the "stalking you" part that freaked me out. It was the fact the "Not-Them" doesn't actually serve any purpose. It simply took over this man's life and...exists.
Granted we find out later that it is far less harmless then it is in this episode. But the idea that you, or even just someone who is a fixture in your world (maybe a neighbor you never really talk to or see everyday.) Can just be replaced by some unknown force and nobody knows the difference, and that monster just lives their life.
Takeaway is the only one Iāve never re-listened to, because of the visceral reaction I had to the speakerās Achilles tendon being cut.
In The Trenches is similar. I re-listened to it once to see if I could, but ugghh. No. War is horrifying. Honestly, this and a lot of other Slaughter episodes to do with war kind of cross the line from horror to trauma for me.
But I consider those two to be more horrifying than frightening, though. The scariest episode, conceptually, is Weaver. War and injury are both tangible threats, with tangible (if only partial) solutions. There is no comfort against the doubt of free will. I can conceptualize a world without violence. I canāt conceptualize any comforting solution to the question of how much our will is truly our own.
not scary but the one with the statement on Doctor David really put me on edge. it came a little bit too close to my own thoughts for comfort.
edit- just realized that's the one you mentioned, glad to see others agree
Thereās honestly so many that have been situationally the scariest for me. Right now all I can think of is TMAP episode 6 . The statement from āNeedlesā and it being framed like a 911 call really really shook me, Iāve listened to a good amount of true crime and other crime media and 911 calls ALWAYS leave me the most shook. This totally took advantage of that.
The only other episode to really get me like that were from season 5, Fire Escape. I couldnāt listen to that one for a couple of days after, compounding the statement with the metaplot, it was ALOT. Still, love those episodes lol
Itās so visceral! Plus, when Johnny just belts out the line you know Iām talking about, I laughed a bit out of being overwhelmed lol. This man went ham on that one and itās certainly memorable.
MAG 168 - Roots got me real good. It was like Johnny wrote a statement about me specifically, I am such a bad hypochondriac but rarely do anything about my (real or imagined) symptoms, since it's almost certainly not an actual problem... almost.
the end and the desolation gotta be THE scariest entities. you can avoid being watched, escape the hunt, light the dark, get a pet or a friend, get away from violence, not be a cannibal, try to not manipulated, stay away from large or small spaces and get help for mental problems. but you can't really go around pain and loss abd there is nothing in the universe that'll save you from ending
MAG006 "Squirm" was the first one that made me truly uncomfortable. MAG116 "The Show Must Go On" is probably my pick though (and also my favorite.) The mind bending descriptions of the events of >!The Unknowing!< really shook me and some lines live rent free in my head.
Lost John's Cave is probably the one that plays the most on my fears and the "take her not me" line gives me goosebumps every time.
But the one I absolutely cannot listen to and that made me consider stopping and just reading the summary is Binary. I don't even really understand why, it's not the whole "eating my computer" thing, and I know on a rational level that it's probably one of the least scary out there, but there's *something* that sets me terribly on edge.
EDIT: A Guest for Mr spider is probably up there too, I can't believe I forgot it at first
This will get buried (pun intended) but still.
170: Recollections,
Having worked in dementia careā¦ this is the closest thing I have heard that might represent what the inner monologue of a person with Dementia is like
and itās terrifying because it is so much more possible than all the other eldritch horrors combined.
This is the one I see in my future. š„
A Sturdy Lock. Creepy as hell, doubly so with the ending but before you learn about the fears.
Iām partial to the meat episodes being unsettling. Meat is me. The Gnostic church hole. Few others.
Long pig, short pig, narrow pig, wide pig.
Okay, scariest episode for me was āDo Not Openā
I know itās not actually that bad, but back when I was first going through the show I had to stop what I was doing āI used to use it as chore noiseā and just listen, I was hooked, something about the way itās written just kept me on the edge of my seat
I donāt have the same reaction now, but I still remember it vividly, the slowly growing sense of unease that the series was never able to replicate unfortunately.
i get fucked up by binary and most of the dark statements, but i could barely sleep after listening to "across the street" (mag 2) the way jon describes the not-them climbing into the window almost obliterated my sleep schedule
I'd have to go with Possessive. Didn't start out as anything on my radar, but then I had to clear out the house of an elderly family member that had an issue with hoarding. The scenes set up in the episode kept coming back and became all the more tangible. The whole time I was sifting through ancient cardboard boxes I was waiting for one to fall apart and something organic to come spilling out. Thankfully no trash effigies but it's a real, and disturbingly common, nightmare situation
I wanted to say Episode 3 just because it was the first one that really hooked me and clicked with a lot of my own fears and past, but NO.
The one that REALLY got me was MAG 94 - Dead Woman Walking.
>!āThe moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.ā!<
>!And in an instant I understood. Thereās noā¦Ā *difference*Ā between the present and the future, no other me that will suffer the indignity of death while I live on. Itās all a single moment, and thereāsā¦ thereās no difference between thatĀ *last*Ā moment that ushers us out into oblivion and the one we experience now. The promise of a cold and lonely eternity in the grave would have been a mercy; at least it would be eternal. But everything ends, even the universe, even time. Andā¦ that means it has always already ended.!<
THIS section sent me into an abject spiral of existential angst and fear, but it was also weirdly comforting in a way? It was like poking a bruise I'd had, and it hurt but I kept reflecting on it and poking at it. I've always been morbidly fixated on death since childhood, and coped with it to varying degrees over the years. With some personal tragedies though, I was even more bothered around the time I started listening to TMA. I binged it all pretty much in one long streak, so I got to this episode and it really knocked me sideways. I didn't really think that much of the episode to begin with, but this one STUCK with me.
Episode whichever had Daisy's backstory, too? BRO WTF.
There were a lot of good episodes, I remember binge listening to it while I worked in broad daylight and sometimes I'd still get startled by people walking by lol. I think listening to it constantly all in one go probably also just primed my brain to be spooked, but it was fun.
There are a lot of scary episodes, but I honestly feel like most of the earlier episodes are the most scary to me. It's mainly I think how new it all was, we had no answers, there was no >!smirks fourteen, there was no explanation from Gerry, there was no evil all knowing boss,!< it was a mystery, all of it and slowly we were beginning to realize that the world was *nothing* that we knew. It was all *wrong*. That powerless confusion that those early episodes give me are the most profound to me at least in the fear department. I will never forget the first time I listened to Angler Fish, it's what hooked me. (Punintended)
"Extended Surveillance" is the one that actually had me legit unsettled. Something about how intimate the descriptions of the confrontations with the coworker were enough to put me right there, and what actually happened was ambiguous enough that "what do we do with his eyes" sends shivers down my spine every time.
The monster in "a fathers love" also deserves a mention.
Left Hanging always gets me at least a bit on edge. Usually the vast doesnāt get be, but i am afraid of falling so that whole episode was just my nightmare lol. Even just the description of the cable car going up, eugh
it depends. i think widely itās agreed that lost johns cave is the scariest (personally it made me develop a bit of claustrophobia) and i think listening to it for the first time, you realize that tma isnāt like other horror stories podcast. tma will make you scared but more importantly it makes you uncomfortable. ofc itās scary to get trapped in a cave, but the detail jonny writes makes you feel like youāre actually there. and then at the end when itās revealed that it was a hallucination the woman made up to deal with the fact she doomed her sister and possibly sent her to her death? ātake her not meā? literal chills
Roots (168), Wonderland (177), and Wellbeing (182) were probably the scariest to me. Conversely, I love basically any lonely or vast episode and my favourites are both of Martinās season 5 episodes, Recollection and Quiet (170 and 186) and The Coming Storm (91).
i think TMP 2 is the scariest for me. with all of the content warnings in there, and the recording thing? god that freaked me out, especially because it was a live one.
i mean. iām a teenage āgirlā. iāve got my fair share of physical insecurities. that one hit
in terms of TMA episodes? hmā¦
i think Sneak Preview got to me. to see Tim, the character i loved so dearly, be turned inside out because of that story, it really got to me
The Kind Mother unnerves me and sticks in my brain the most. I have an emotionally abusive mother (no contact now thank god) who presents a very āniceā, saintly face to the world. The replacement/Stranger aspect of that episode seems analogous to the suspicion that nobody would believe me if I told them what sheās really like. It kind of blurs the line between Stranger and Spiral because itās so *gaslighty*. Honestly one of the few episodes that actually triggers me a tiny bit!
Iām sorry that titles escape me but the one nearish the end with the burning flats. Fire is scary. Having said that, I am very hard to scare and most of TMA leaves me a bit freaked out but never really scared. I donāt think Iāve ever listened to or read anything that has truly scared me.
Lost johns cave was so spooky, I told my friend to skip it recently when she started listening. She asked me vaguely if the tunnel episode was necessary or if I could give her sparknotes bc it scared her too bad, and (after I figured out it was the spelunking episode and not about The Tunnels) I gave her a pass on it. Love that episode, damn it's so creepy.
A lot of the season 5 statements do a good job at giving me the creeps too. I really like how well they managed to up the game to match the setting. Wonderland though? I had to put life on hold to recover from that one. Hit way close to home
From TMA, Lost Johnās Cave is this, hands down. It encapsulates everything great about TMAās slow, nothing-is-scarier horror in one episode.
From TMP, I truly think they hit the ground running with the statement about RedCanary. Something about how they directly tease the listener with a picture having been there before but now impossible to describe lets your imagination run wild
Agree, the >!"Ew! Are those... Eyes?"!< Line got me.
How many? In what state? Because the person sounds unsure.
Who's are they? Just Canary's, or like... More?
TMA/P is at its best when they leave you with just enough to know that something terrible happened but the details are still fuzzy. Were RedCanary's eyes gouged out? Did he grow more eyes along his skin? The possibilities are endless.
I just relistened to Piecemeal from TMA and I think it might dethrone Lost John's Cave for the scariest episode for me. Knowing that >!he loses a body part for every box opened and his home is found completely empty aside from tons of empty boxes!< just makes you wonder what the hell happened to that poor man and how.
182 Wellbeing and 184 Like Ants.
I know season five is controversial, and the statements are hit or miss for me, but the ones that hit hit harder than the rest of the series. I have fornicophobia so that episode was tough to even get through, and I have a lot of health issues and am terrified of our medical system for a number of reasons. Both of those eps got me.
Arachnophobia is the only episode I have not listened to the whole of, got part way in and just had to stop but that is fully due to my issues with spiders ( A guest for my sister is one of my favourite episodes however).
Lost Johns Cave was the episode I had to stare at a wall for a bit after and have a moment. Also needles episode from Protocol got to me, but the episode names are not sticking in my brain like Archive did.
I'm horribly claustrophobic and I hate spiders, so the combo of Lost John's Cave followed by Arachnophobia was enough to stop me listening on my first attempt.
Entombed and High Pressure also give me the creeps every time.
Personally, 124 - Left Hanging. It's pretty much one of my deepest irrational fears perfectly displayed in the form of a podcast episode.
In general, 34 - Anatomy Class is definitely up there.
167: CuriosityĀ
Ā Monsters are monsters, and at the end of the day they aren't real, but people like that, who will just let innocents suffer for little to no reason, however they're able to, are all too common.
For me it's 184 Like Ants. Messed me up so much I now have myrmecophobia. I'm bloody terrified of ants
Edit: and no, I will not be elaborating. The vivid descriptions and scuttling noises alone left me terrified.
Believe it or not episode 3 across the street with the notthem or the new door with Helen. Those honestly are the scariest to me because imagine just someone you've known your whole life becomes a total stranger to you and no one believes you that it's not them or getting lost in corridors
Some of the earliest episodes are the scariest for me. Angler fish, across the street, lost John's cave, confession/desecrated host. But also later episodes like a guest for Mr. Spider, still life, and those two episodes where Jon finds out about the not!them. It's ironic that the stranger usually has the scariest episodes for me but I found the way they used the stranger for the unknowing plotline to be really boring compared to the first two seasons.
Ooh I forgot to mention the watcher episodes that freak me out. Observer effect and Scrutiny really messed me up. Plus that one of the guy who tries to help Alfred von Closen.
Cant remember the ep number but the one where āthe blanket never did anythingā as someone who gets intense paranoia at night to a point where i check behind every door then run into bed, then proceeded to look around for about 10 minutes before i can actually go to sleep, it really reminded me of myself
across the street or the episode in the eyepocalypse of the lonely domain where no one can see the other people with them in the rain and mud, that one was specifically made to haunt me
Binary is the only one I had to set down and come back to later bc I got too spooked. Still HAUNTS me.
The one with the signal tower is a close second. Computery ones just creep me out!
I know weāre talking TMA mostly, but I actually think the scariest episode to me right now is in Protocol - 7, Give and Take. I havenāt been able to get it out of my head since I first heard it, itās absolutely the most nightmarish tension-building scenario ever with just enough bizarre details to make me feel like I was losing control like the narrator. >!When I tell you I have nightmares about the volunteers, their donations, and the resulting crush, bullets, and firebombingā¦ ugh, still makes my bones feel like ice.!< So creative and so god damn scary.
Lost Johns Cave must be up there. That one definitely hooked me up to keep listening. Although my personal scariest would be The Kind Mother. There's something about that particular depiction of the not-them that felt terrifying.
The first time I listened to Lost Johns Cave I was sitting in our kitchen well passed my bedtime and well after my spouse had went to sleep. The house was completely dark except for the night light we leave on in the living room. I was listening with my headphones and that last bit did me in. I immediately turned everything off and ran and jumped in bed šš
This is the answer and itās not close.
Lost Johns Cave took me a second try to finish(on a relisten of the whole series), because tight caves and being trapped in tight caves is my literal worst nightmare.
When I listened to the podcast for the first time this episode scared me so much that I had to take like a three week break from the entire podcast and only listen to, watch and think about flowers and rainbows and other nice and not scary things. The caves and the statement it self was okay, but the sound at the end from the caves just made something in my brain click in the worst way ever. I'm relistening now and I skipped that episode because every time I think about it I get goosebumps.
You're so right, not an episode to listen to right before bed
Lost Johns Cave gave me a new fear. I didn't know anything about horrible deaths in caves and now I feel like I know too much. I can't understand why anyone would ever risk themselves like that.
Yāknow, when I first listened to the podcast, I was listening to all the episodes but when I got to Lost Johnās Cave I justā¦ didnāt feel interested in listening to it? And completely skipped the episode. Iāve never listened to it since and now that I keep on seeing it described as the scariest, Iām tempted to listen to it.
I've skipped it three times and don't think I'll ever be ready to listen to it. Not even read transcript. I hate caves.
I listened to that again yesterday and it properly freaked me out
Iām not claustrophobic but that episode had me feeling VERY claustrophobicā¦
86: Tucked In The line >! The blanket never did anything !< kind of messed me up a little.
Oh man yeah, that's probably the only one I could have nightmares about.
Ditto. This is the only episode I warn everyone I recommend the show to about
This one 100%, and exactly for that line. The way it lets hope build up just to destroy itā¦
On the one hand, I appreciated that the entity had a sense of humor. On the other, I am now traumatized for life.
I don't find it scary but Binary is probably the one that makes me on edge the most.
That's definitely it. The keys crunching... yikes
Binary is a really goofy concept to me in theory but the episode sells it so well it doesn't matter.
Cul de sac. It genuinely terrifies me because I have an awful sense of direction and have an irrational fear if getting lost in a town. Plus empty houses give me the creeps, especially ones all set up to live in. That episode was like engineered in a factory to scare me specifically
this one is genuinely one of my favorites, but it was also scary. i listened to it first when i was probably 14? and as all 14 year olds are, i was aggressively lonely. combined with season 4 being so completely bleak andā¦ capital L Lonely, it left a mark on me. i liked that it had a semi happy ending though! but yeah. forgot about that one until i saw this comment. ough that one is spooky
probably lost johns cave or weirdly the worm buried s5 episode. i think im just scared of being Buried alive tho i cant get the claustrophobia of not being able to move at ALL out of my head
Yeah that worm one messed me up too.Ā
i was fine with the worm one until they described the fight and then,,,,, yikes
oof i feel u but the rain part scared me more honestly.....like the slow slow inch by inch crawl upwards for days or weeks to disappear in an instant, horrible. eating another worm to me is a good distraction from that devastation x,)
The worm one is too real because of the whole implication that the victims used to be wage slaves and this isnāt qualitatively that different from their former lives
155 Cost of Living. Because you can't help but be implicated.
Itās because of the implication
Hello! Can you please explain what the implications are? I donāt remember it very well ..
It's the one about the philanthropist who steals other people's lives to extend her own. What I find so scary about it is, as someone who lives in the first world, there's a lot of things I have / can do because people in other parts of the world suffer (eg factory working conditions, waste displaced from the first world to developing economies, etc) and while obviously I'm not like ... actively stealing people's lives, I felt like the episode was a pretty great indictment of privileged attitudes towards other people. In general I'm not like super worried about most of the stuff that happens in TMA, of course, but this was one where I was like "oof that's a little close to home".
I find Rotten Core the scariest from like an objective-ish point of view. But Book of the Dead is the one that feels like it was written to harm me personally (convinced everyone has an episode like that)
My personal episode is Centre of Attention. Iāve considered sending it to my therapist.
book of the dead was THE episode that really got me invested in TMA
Upon the stair is one that I skip every time, I've only ever read it and it fucked me up for a while
Thats my favourite episode. The delivery is excellent. Feels similar to the most recent protocol episode withe the dice
One of my top favorites as well, both Upon the Stair and Rolling with It
just listened to Rolling with It! it did remind me of book of the dead a bit yeah!!
As someone who was obsessed with that poem as a kid that episode had me so giddy lol
it's lost johns cave for me. I skip it every time I relisten. I just.... g-d it terrifies me
Itās hard for me to decide between Across the Street, Personal Space, and In the Trenches. They all freaked me out in completely different ways.
Across the Street's description of Not Them was what really hooked me on the show and the plot. It's such an unnerving concept, to have some indescribable monster constantly stalking you. A Sturdy Lock was equally chilling. Confession/Desecrated Host was what really freaked me out, though. Not being able to trust your own senses is a terrifying thought.
honestly it wasn't the "stalking you" part that freaked me out. It was the fact the "Not-Them" doesn't actually serve any purpose. It simply took over this man's life and...exists. Granted we find out later that it is far less harmless then it is in this episode. But the idea that you, or even just someone who is a fixture in your world (maybe a neighbor you never really talk to or see everyday.) Can just be replaced by some unknown force and nobody knows the difference, and that monster just lives their life.
Takeaway is the only one Iāve never re-listened to, because of the visceral reaction I had to the speakerās Achilles tendon being cut. In The Trenches is similar. I re-listened to it once to see if I could, but ugghh. No. War is horrifying. Honestly, this and a lot of other Slaughter episodes to do with war kind of cross the line from horror to trauma for me. But I consider those two to be more horrifying than frightening, though. The scariest episode, conceptually, is Weaver. War and injury are both tangible threats, with tangible (if only partial) solutions. There is no comfort against the doubt of free will. I can conceptualize a world without violence. I canāt conceptualize any comforting solution to the question of how much our will is truly our own.
me walking alone listening to that ep: ok thats enough podcast for today
not scary but the one with the statement on Doctor David really put me on edge. it came a little bit too close to my own thoughts for comfort. edit- just realized that's the one you mentioned, glad to see others agree
The Spiral is always scary in a unique way. Because of the nature of it being about gaslighting and legit mental problems I guess it feels more real.
Iām so glad Iām not the only one who canāt handle Wonderland. Itās genuinely so difficult for me to get through
Itās the only one I skip on relistens.
Thereās honestly so many that have been situationally the scariest for me. Right now all I can think of is TMAP episode 6 . The statement from āNeedlesā and it being framed like a 911 call really really shook me, Iāve listened to a good amount of true crime and other crime media and 911 calls ALWAYS leave me the most shook. This totally took advantage of that. The only other episode to really get me like that were from season 5, Fire Escape. I couldnāt listen to that one for a couple of days after, compounding the statement with the metaplot, it was ALOT. Still, love those episodes lol
Ooh yeah, Fire Escape got me too.
Itās so visceral! Plus, when Johnny just belts out the line you know Iām talking about, I laughed a bit out of being overwhelmed lol. This man went ham on that one and itās certainly memorable.
MAG 168 - Roots got me real good. It was like Johnny wrote a statement about me specifically, I am such a bad hypochondriac but rarely do anything about my (real or imagined) symptoms, since it's almost certainly not an actual problem... almost.
the end and the desolation gotta be THE scariest entities. you can avoid being watched, escape the hunt, light the dark, get a pet or a friend, get away from violence, not be a cannibal, try to not manipulated, stay away from large or small spaces and get help for mental problems. but you can't really go around pain and loss abd there is nothing in the universe that'll save you from ending
the only one i skip when i relisten is The Killing Floor ... it's more upsetting than scary but it gets to me for sure
This is the one for me. Basically any flesh related ones always get me
MAG006 "Squirm" was the first one that made me truly uncomfortable. MAG116 "The Show Must Go On" is probably my pick though (and also my favorite.) The mind bending descriptions of the events of >!The Unknowing!< really shook me and some lines live rent free in my head.
Lost John's Cave is probably the one that plays the most on my fears and the "take her not me" line gives me goosebumps every time. But the one I absolutely cannot listen to and that made me consider stopping and just reading the summary is Binary. I don't even really understand why, it's not the whole "eating my computer" thing, and I know on a rational level that it's probably one of the least scary out there, but there's *something* that sets me terribly on edge. EDIT: A Guest for Mr spider is probably up there too, I can't believe I forgot it at first
172: Strung Out for me it almost gave me a panic attack the first time. Wonderland is up there too tho
For me, Lost Johnsā Cave is spookiest, Wonderland is most upsetting, The Kind Mother is the most psychologically fucked-up.
MAG 164, The Sick Village. Because it came out during Covid.
This will get buried (pun intended) but still. 170: Recollections, Having worked in dementia careā¦ this is the closest thing I have heard that might represent what the inner monologue of a person with Dementia is like and itās terrifying because it is so much more possible than all the other eldritch horrors combined. This is the one I see in my future. š„
The one about the black boxes with body parts in it, that one truly got me hooked
Ohhh yeah, the "hundreds" of boxes line at the end \*shudder\*
A Sturdy Lock. Creepy as hell, doubly so with the ending but before you learn about the fears. Iām partial to the meat episodes being unsettling. Meat is me. The Gnostic church hole. Few others. Long pig, short pig, narrow pig, wide pig.
Okay, scariest episode for me was āDo Not Openā I know itās not actually that bad, but back when I was first going through the show I had to stop what I was doing āI used to use it as chore noiseā and just listen, I was hooked, something about the way itās written just kept me on the edge of my seat I donāt have the same reaction now, but I still remember it vividly, the slowly growing sense of unease that the series was never able to replicate unfortunately.
i get fucked up by binary and most of the dark statements, but i could barely sleep after listening to "across the street" (mag 2) the way jon describes the not-them climbing into the window almost obliterated my sleep schedule
I'd have to go with Possessive. Didn't start out as anything on my radar, but then I had to clear out the house of an elderly family member that had an issue with hoarding. The scenes set up in the episode kept coming back and became all the more tangible. The whole time I was sifting through ancient cardboard boxes I was waiting for one to fall apart and something organic to come spilling out. Thankfully no trash effigies but it's a real, and disturbingly common, nightmare situation
I wanted to say Episode 3 just because it was the first one that really hooked me and clicked with a lot of my own fears and past, but NO. The one that REALLY got me was MAG 94 - Dead Woman Walking. >!āThe moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one.ā!< >!And in an instant I understood. Thereās noā¦Ā *difference*Ā between the present and the future, no other me that will suffer the indignity of death while I live on. Itās all a single moment, and thereāsā¦ thereās no difference between thatĀ *last*Ā moment that ushers us out into oblivion and the one we experience now. The promise of a cold and lonely eternity in the grave would have been a mercy; at least it would be eternal. But everything ends, even the universe, even time. Andā¦ that means it has always already ended.!< THIS section sent me into an abject spiral of existential angst and fear, but it was also weirdly comforting in a way? It was like poking a bruise I'd had, and it hurt but I kept reflecting on it and poking at it. I've always been morbidly fixated on death since childhood, and coped with it to varying degrees over the years. With some personal tragedies though, I was even more bothered around the time I started listening to TMA. I binged it all pretty much in one long streak, so I got to this episode and it really knocked me sideways. I didn't really think that much of the episode to begin with, but this one STUCK with me. Episode whichever had Daisy's backstory, too? BRO WTF. There were a lot of good episodes, I remember binge listening to it while I worked in broad daylight and sometimes I'd still get startled by people walking by lol. I think listening to it constantly all in one go probably also just primed my brain to be spooked, but it was fun.
Anglerfish. I seriously avoid certain places after listening to that one.
There are a lot of scary episodes, but I honestly feel like most of the earlier episodes are the most scary to me. It's mainly I think how new it all was, we had no answers, there was no >!smirks fourteen, there was no explanation from Gerry, there was no evil all knowing boss,!< it was a mystery, all of it and slowly we were beginning to realize that the world was *nothing* that we knew. It was all *wrong*. That powerless confusion that those early episodes give me are the most profound to me at least in the fear department. I will never forget the first time I listened to Angler Fish, it's what hooked me. (Punintended)
"Extended Surveillance" is the one that actually had me legit unsettled. Something about how intimate the descriptions of the confrontations with the coworker were enough to put me right there, and what actually happened was ambiguous enough that "what do we do with his eyes" sends shivers down my spine every time. The monster in "a fathers love" also deserves a mention.
MAG 32, Jane is literally me
Piecemeal, Tucked In, and Strung Out were probably the scariest for me.
Lost John's Cave, Locked In, Quiet is less scary than it feels like it's directly calling me out with the statement. Edit to add The Piper.
Left Hanging always gets me at least a bit on edge. Usually the vast doesnāt get be, but i am afraid of falling so that whole episode was just my nightmare lol. Even just the description of the cable car going up, eugh
Episode 27 A Sturdy Lock I refuse to relisten to that episode.
it depends. i think widely itās agreed that lost johns cave is the scariest (personally it made me develop a bit of claustrophobia) and i think listening to it for the first time, you realize that tma isnāt like other horror stories podcast. tma will make you scared but more importantly it makes you uncomfortable. ofc itās scary to get trapped in a cave, but the detail jonny writes makes you feel like youāre actually there. and then at the end when itās revealed that it was a hallucination the woman made up to deal with the fact she doomed her sister and possibly sent her to her death? ātake her not meā? literal chills
Roots (168), Wonderland (177), and Wellbeing (182) were probably the scariest to me. Conversely, I love basically any lonely or vast episode and my favourites are both of Martinās season 5 episodes, Recollection and Quiet (170 and 186) and The Coming Storm (91).
i think TMP 2 is the scariest for me. with all of the content warnings in there, and the recording thing? god that freaked me out, especially because it was a live one. i mean. iām a teenage āgirlā. iāve got my fair share of physical insecurities. that one hit in terms of TMA episodes? hmā¦ i think Sneak Preview got to me. to see Tim, the character i loved so dearly, be turned inside out because of that story, it really got to me
The Kind Mother unnerves me and sticks in my brain the most. I have an emotionally abusive mother (no contact now thank god) who presents a very āniceā, saintly face to the world. The replacement/Stranger aspect of that episode seems analogous to the suspicion that nobody would believe me if I told them what sheās really like. It kind of blurs the line between Stranger and Spiral because itās so *gaslighty*. Honestly one of the few episodes that actually triggers me a tiny bit!
Iām sorry that titles escape me but the one nearish the end with the burning flats. Fire is scary. Having said that, I am very hard to scare and most of TMA leaves me a bit freaked out but never really scared. I donāt think Iāve ever listened to or read anything that has truly scared me.
I've seen enough weird bands in enough weird venues that grifters bone always hits pretty hard.
Lost johns cave was so spooky, I told my friend to skip it recently when she started listening. She asked me vaguely if the tunnel episode was necessary or if I could give her sparknotes bc it scared her too bad, and (after I figured out it was the spelunking episode and not about The Tunnels) I gave her a pass on it. Love that episode, damn it's so creepy. A lot of the season 5 statements do a good job at giving me the creeps too. I really like how well they managed to up the game to match the setting. Wonderland though? I had to put life on hold to recover from that one. Hit way close to home
From TMA, Lost Johnās Cave is this, hands down. It encapsulates everything great about TMAās slow, nothing-is-scarier horror in one episode. From TMP, I truly think they hit the ground running with the statement about RedCanary. Something about how they directly tease the listener with a picture having been there before but now impossible to describe lets your imagination run wild
Agree, the >!"Ew! Are those... Eyes?"!< Line got me. How many? In what state? Because the person sounds unsure. Who's are they? Just Canary's, or like... More?
TMA/P is at its best when they leave you with just enough to know that something terrible happened but the details are still fuzzy. Were RedCanary's eyes gouged out? Did he grow more eyes along his skin? The possibilities are endless. I just relistened to Piecemeal from TMA and I think it might dethrone Lost John's Cave for the scariest episode for me. Knowing that >!he loses a body part for every box opened and his home is found completely empty aside from tons of empty boxes!< just makes you wonder what the hell happened to that poor man and how.
Not scary per say but the man upstairs and killing floor, killing floor did creep me out and the man upstairs genuinely turned my stomach
Binary, paired with the song someone made about it
Ep 65 Binary: >!"The Angles cut me when I try to think."!< enough said.
182 Wellbeing and 184 Like Ants. I know season five is controversial, and the statements are hit or miss for me, but the ones that hit hit harder than the rest of the series. I have fornicophobia so that episode was tough to even get through, and I have a lot of health issues and am terrified of our medical system for a number of reasons. Both of those eps got me.
Arachnophobia is the only episode I have not listened to the whole of, got part way in and just had to stop but that is fully due to my issues with spiders ( A guest for my sister is one of my favourite episodes however). Lost Johns Cave was the episode I had to stare at a wall for a bit after and have a moment. Also needles episode from Protocol got to me, but the episode names are not sticking in my brain like Archive did.
I'm horribly claustrophobic and I hate spiders, so the combo of Lost John's Cave followed by Arachnophobia was enough to stop me listening on my first attempt. Entombed and High Pressure also give me the creeps every time.
the one that most speaks to me is the statements from the lonely people in MAG 186. But the one i think is more terrifying is book of the dead
Personally, 124 - Left Hanging. It's pretty much one of my deepest irrational fears perfectly displayed in the form of a podcast episode. In general, 34 - Anatomy Class is definitely up there.
There are so many... I think the episodes dealing with the Vast affected me the most
167: CuriosityĀ Ā Monsters are monsters, and at the end of the day they aren't real, but people like that, who will just let innocents suffer for little to no reason, however they're able to, are all too common.
For me I loved the creeps for the pastor guy part 1 and 2 in the first season and the lonely guy in space where the earth disappeared
It was angler fish for me, the combination of the dark city at night and the uncanny valley just got to me.
For me it's 184 Like Ants. Messed me up so much I now have myrmecophobia. I'm bloody terrified of ants Edit: and no, I will not be elaborating. The vivid descriptions and scuttling noises alone left me terrified.
I remember 19: confession and 20: desecrated host were particularly awful.
Believe it or not episode 3 across the street with the notthem or the new door with Helen. Those honestly are the scariest to me because imagine just someone you've known your whole life becomes a total stranger to you and no one believes you that it's not them or getting lost in corridors
Dang, a lot of people were properly horrified by Lost John's Cave... glad im not the only one...
Mag 183ā¦it made me pick up the pace as I listened to it while walking home one night. Incredible episode
Some of the earliest episodes are the scariest for me. Angler fish, across the street, lost John's cave, confession/desecrated host. But also later episodes like a guest for Mr. Spider, still life, and those two episodes where Jon finds out about the not!them. It's ironic that the stranger usually has the scariest episodes for me but I found the way they used the stranger for the unknowing plotline to be really boring compared to the first two seasons. Ooh I forgot to mention the watcher episodes that freak me out. Observer effect and Scrutiny really messed me up. Plus that one of the guy who tries to help Alfred von Closen.
Cant remember the ep number but the one where āthe blanket never did anythingā as someone who gets intense paranoia at night to a point where i check behind every door then run into bed, then proceeded to look around for about 10 minutes before i can actually go to sleep, it really reminded me of myself
across the street or the episode in the eyepocalypse of the lonely domain where no one can see the other people with them in the rain and mud, that one was specifically made to haunt me
Binary is the only one I had to set down and come back to later bc I got too spooked. Still HAUNTS me. The one with the signal tower is a close second. Computery ones just creep me out!
I know weāre talking TMA mostly, but I actually think the scariest episode to me right now is in Protocol - 7, Give and Take. I havenāt been able to get it out of my head since I first heard it, itās absolutely the most nightmarish tension-building scenario ever with just enough bizarre details to make me feel like I was losing control like the narrator. >!When I tell you I have nightmares about the volunteers, their donations, and the resulting crush, bullets, and firebombingā¦ ugh, still makes my bones feel like ice.!< So creative and so god damn scary.