Sounds of Darkness

I’m a big fan of old-time radio. I love Lights Out, Weird Circle, X Minus One … it was horror at a time when people were maybe a little easier to scare. I find it kind of fascinating to learn what used to be deemed “horror” and compare it with today’s horror fare. (If you ask me, filmmakers seem to have given up on scaring people, and just want to shock people instead.) Many of these classic tales are nicely scary, and they let your imagination do all the dirty work.

Arch Oboler was a pioneer in radio drama. He did much of the writing for the radio show “Lights Out” in the 30’s, and he continued to work on the show (often with re-writes of existing scripts) in the 40’s. This album, released in 1962, features shortened versions of some of his old shows. Highlights include “The Dark” (quite disturbing) and a shortened version of the classic “Chicken Heart” (which I will forever associate with Bill Cosby). In the old days of the radio show, Oboler often changed gears to present a morality play rather than a horror show, and this album is no different with “The Laughing Man”.

If you have not been introduced to classic OTR shows such as Lights Out, maybe this album will whet your appetite. If you have, you can probably give this one a miss and just listen to the real radio shows instead.

Arch Oboler's Drop Dead! An Exercise In Horror!