Tales From Beyond The Pale Podcast

Ginger Nuts Of Horror

2/15/2020

Debuting in 2010, Tales from Beyond the Pale was created by auteur, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid from their love of classic 1930s radio dramas and as a response to the current state of the indie film world. Originally the only way to listen to the episodes would be if you were in the live audience, heard it through other outlets, or purchased an episode. In October of 2019, Tales from Beyond the Pale – The Podcast was established, releasing a past episode each week that can be downloaded/streamed for free on Android or IOS. Each month I will be providing a review of the episodes that were released.

So not to repeat myself, if you’re interested in learning more on its creation, how it’s produced, or my views on the podcast as a whole, please check out my original review.
Let’s get into it:

I wouldn’t say the episodes are better than the October 2019 kickoff, since an anthology is based on opinion, but they fit more with the podcast style. In the initial review I acknowledged that despite my amazement for the skill to make a live episode, there was concern of the “live” audience’s reactions taking you out of the story. This is not the case for the episodes I will be discussing in this review, as they were all recorded in studio. More importantly they’re all from Beyond the Pale’s third season.

All coming from season 3 does not affect the individual stories themselves, though they share similar themes of isolation, but it does offer a fun incentive for the audience to continue listening thanks to Fessenden’s opening and closing segments. Throughout the episodes, a season-long story arc unfolds as Fessenden, alone in a lighthouse, encounters a growing creature he calls “Shape.” While we only get a minute of his interaction with Shape, it’s enough to keep you intrigued about how it’ll turn out, though by the end you will wish they provided an extra few minutes to that story.

Much like the series throughout, this season provides many horror legends from both in front and behind the camera that would pique the interest of any horror fan. However, I will admit the strongest showcase of this medium’s potential comes from the writers/directors that’d be deemed “independent” or “up-and-coming.” You’ll find that while the episodes done by these horror icons are well done, they’re traditional in terms of audio drama.

I haven’t heard all the episodes in Beyond the Pales’ run, but I can say from what I did hear, this season has proven to be a masterclass in audio horror, deserving a place with the classic audio dramas that they were inspired to modernize. The only thing I leave this season wishing is that the order was altered to hit a little harder at the end.

Ep. 5: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Hound – Written by Dennis Paoli and Directed by Stuart Gordon – 30 minutes

The Allure of a jade amulet proves troublesome for two aristocratic grave robbers.
Collaborating horror icons, Barbara Crampton and Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak), come together and return to another H.P. Lovecraft tale. Their collaborative work has played a major influence on my own horror journey and offers a crowd-pleasing start to the season. The only thing better would be if Jeffrey Combs was involved.

While it’s more straightforward (as mentioned earlier) than other episodes, The Hound features, arguably one of the season’s highlights which involved the main cast in a kinky three-way. The episode is funny yet played serious. It’s a period piece but doesn’t get bogged down in exposition and where Gordon’s theatrical background proves useful.

Thanks to the talent attached and being the first episode of the season, it’s guaranteed to be remembered. For me it’s one where nostalgia won in the end, but I think you’ll find that despite an amazing sound design with the creatures and the humorous sex scene, it faces incredibly tough competition for “best of” episodes.

Ep. 6: Junk Science – Written and Directed by Brahm Revel – 36 minutes

Space can be a lonely place. For Pike and his computer AL, friendship may mean the difference between life and death.

To paraphrase Fessenden, this is their $50 million sci-fi script, and it’s probably the one I went in assuming it’d be the most problematic. The reason? As you’re dealing with the future, space, and other unknown territories to our modern human comprehension, there’s the worry that there’ll be a lot of “scene painting” dialogue. I was wrong. Revel plays it the same way it’d be presented on screen and it works for the better.

In my first article I explain how a good portion of episodes were meant to be features that weren’t going anywhere so they were cut down and altered to fit the format. Junk Science gives that perception. It contains elements and gaps of time that feel like there was more there. The “gaps” aren’t necessarily a criticism, because it still made me want to see it on screen, wishing someone would invest in an original sci-fi/horror, but they are noticeable enough to mention.

With the plot being compared to 2001 meets Event Horizon (maybe), Junk Science holds its ground thanks to the working-class feel. And despite the many plot devices that can fall into cliché, they’re altered enough to be fresh.

Ep. 7: The Ripple at Cedar Lake – Written and Directed by Glenn McQuaid – 29 minutes

A scientist, his wife and his lover get in over their heads in this 1950s crime of passion set within the multiverse.

First, a round of applause for Glenn McQuaid for telling a story that is already tricky to do visually, but to make it work through purely auditory means is outstanding. I spent the first half of the episode in awe that it was being pulled off. I am someone who obsesses about the “science” of a film’s loops, dimensions, and time travel, so having multiple versions of our three main characters seemed like quite a task for strictly audio. Yet once you let the story take you there’s no confusion about which version of the scientist you’re following.

I have really no criticism of the piece after it finished as this was a personal favorite for me. The sound design works wonders and assists the listener through the multiverse without becoming overbearing or on-the-nose. What starts off as an almost throwback to an EC Comics (Tales from the Crypt) plot enters the modern age with a bang.

Ep. 8: Food Chain – Written by April Snellings and Directed by Larry Fessenden – 39 minutes

Four hunters set out to trap the elusive Big Foot but it’s not long before the hunters become the hunted.

Speaking of EC Comics and villainous, over-the-top characters getting their comeuppance, Food Chain is the most fun you’ll have in season three. Within the writing and performances this is this season’s pinnacle of horror comedy. Don’t let that fool you, because the last ten minutes could give Saw a run for its money. I won’t spoil cringe-worthy brutality, but not being able to see what happens allows the brain to come up with something much worse than could be produced on screen.

The last third does have a tonal shift that works, but based on the silliness of the opening, can make it feel slightly jarring. I’m not referencing the plot being more than they bargained for, but rather commenting on cohesion throughout. Even if you have a drastic shift it should always feel like it belongs in the same “world.” However, thanks to the silliness described, this issue does not cause enough interference to detract from its enjoyment, and in fact provides the most relisten appeal.

Ep. 9: The Tribunal of Minos – Written and Directed by James Felix McKenney – 37 minutes

Two Americans traveling in Greece find themselves in a mysterious labyrinth haunted by ancient myths and recent memories.

Where Ripple at Cedar Lake had a hurdle in trying to deal with its complex story through audio, The Tribunal of Minos finds itself on the opposite side of the spectrum. It’s primarily two people talking in a featureless labyrinth with a few instances of “spectacle.” This lack of action does provide horror fans with a beautiful performance by Angus Scrimm that feels bittersweet as he was reaching the end of his iconic career in the genre.

As mentioned in my overview of the season, this is one that may be overshadowed by other impressive episodes. The reasoning lies in its structure and character arc. We are introduced to two characters that are meant to be very difficult but find mutual respect in their journey. Mizuo Peck plays a young woman who is angry at the world and protesting the system, and Angus Scrimm represents the very thing she hates; an old, rich, white male. Throughout we come to learn that Peck’s character is a trust fund baby and can afford to make these sacrifices because of the very system she protests. There’s little tension between the two and any of the external threats never come close enough to cause alarm. Unfortunately, by the end we are left with exposition of the ancient Greek mythological story and two people (mainly Scrimm) talking about their life and regrets.

Ep. 10: The Chambers Tape – Written and Directed by Graham Reznick – 39 minutes

Life got you down? We have just the tonic! Relax, breathe deeply and close your eyes. Let the calming effects of The Aviary work its magic on you.

This should have closed out the season. An awesome display of using the medium in innovative ways. It plays like a self-help audiobook with some twists. This review I’m making brief for fear of providing too much information and ruining the experience.

The only form of criticism (more of a warning) I could mention, deals with the concentration needed for this episode. Chambers Tape requires sitting in silence and participation to really invest in the story, thanks to the many subtleties provided. Like most, I listen to podcasts while doing something else (walking my dog or driving), all the other episodes can be listened to without issue when doing these activities.

Unlike the other episodes that could work in another medium, this is audio drama through and through, raising the bar into an artform.

Ep. 11: Natural Selection – Written and Directed by Larry Fessenden – 35 minutes

On the path to find a new species in the storied Galapogos Islands, a TV Naturalist and his cameraman encounter terrors in the night.

Fessenden, eco-horror, and a creature feature. I could end the blurb here and people who know his work will understand. It has some hilarious banter, inventive with its narrative style, and goes in a direction entering body horror territory. Right up my alley.

I mention the narrative style because it’s presented as found footage (or found audio?). This may be a turn off for some, but Fessenden does it in such a way that doesn’t feel like a gimmick. I admit it helps having Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd (Merry and Pippin from Lord of the Rings) together, as their chemistry is felt through the soundwaves.

It may not be to the same comedic extent as Food Chain (also directed by Fessenden), but Natural Selection is some of the most fun I had during the season. A quick self-contained story with some great spectacle and creature sound designs.

Ep. 12: Guttermouth – Written and Directed by Jeff Buhler – 30 minutes

Martin hears strange voices coming from the drain. Passion, obsession and madness collide when he investigates.

Who would’ve thought a tale about a sewer being would have so much beauty in it? Maybe beauty isn’t the right word…

I give Buhler credit for making fresh a premise that could’ve fallen into a “been there, done that” category. Obviously, that doesn’t mean it avoids clichés entirely, but it kept my interest with its brilliant use of sound design and vocal distortion.

My biggest issue came from an element that suggests the story may have come from a larger story, which is the marital problems. We are presented with a scenario that should have Martin stuck in a crappy/stale relationship, giving reason to his obsession with this voice. I’ll admit little is given to understand why he’d want out. His relationship has elements that are common in any marriage (busy at work, different schedules, common frustrations from living together, etc.), but both seem to love each other, checking in, and trying to make it work. Because of their mature relationship the end with his wife feels tacked on to provide justification for Martin’s actions and diminishes some of what we just listened to. Up until the last few minutes, Guttermouth was the surprise hit of the season.

Ep. 13: Little Nasties – Written and Directed by Eric Red – 30 minutes

Things are not quite as they seem when Heather Knox and her daughter, Bethany, arrive at a child beauty pageant, after dark…

I was excited to hear about Eric Red’s involvement in the series as a fan of his work, and the fact he was adapting his own short story made it all the better. I’ll champion Bad Moon and Body Parts constantly to the point of comical exhaustion from fellow collaborators.

As I’ve stated many times, the beauty of anthologies is that each person is allowed their favorite segment/episode based on their own tastes. While I’m trying to look at each episode individually, Little Nasties unfortunately comes off as the weakest use of the medium. The story itself has plenty of opportunity to satirize the world of child beauty pageants. However, even for an audio drama where dialogue is crucial to paint a mental picture for the listener, it’s so narrative-heavy and on-the-nose that it detracts from just how much fun it could’ve been. Maybe it’s one of those instances of being too close to the source material, because scenery and internal thoughts were described that were neither necessary to the plot or established through other means. Oddly enough the most successful part is the last four minutes of the episode, its gun shots and yelling establish a vivid picture.

By itself Little Nasties is good, offering laughs and a perfect violent end, but fell short as a whole.

Ep. 14: Cannibals – Written and Directed by Joe Maggio – 38 minutes

An embittered auteur encounters the young filmmaker who has been cannibalizing his work, a game of cat and mouse ensues.

Cannibals is a one-act play that despite a few variations you know where the story is headed. However, thanks to the performance of Vincent D’Onofrio, it’s a hell of a good time getting there. It also makes an interesting statement on these up-and-coming directors who use the term “homage” or “inspired by” to justify copying shots, characters, or plot devices from an older film.
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Maggio manoeuvres you through the story in a way that he knows you know where it’s going, then in the last third we’re given the “twist.” Yet we know the twist is coming as well. Without using a redundancy of comments, it’s difficult to discuss this piece as its very good, but sadly gets lost going up against some amazing work throughout the season.

Season’s score: 5 out of 5

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Coming Soon. Net

2/12/2020

The iconic decade-long radio drama Tales From Beyond the Pale: The Podcast has announced two new episodes are on the way for fans over the next week, beginning with a terrifying Valentine’s Day story Die Sleeping My Sweet by Glenn McQuaid and followed by Larry Fessenden‘s Who Killed Johnny Bernard?.

The brain-child of McQuaid (I Sell The Dead, V/H/S) and Fessenden (Depraved, Habit, Until Dawn), the podcast has received rave reviews and five-star ratings across the board on platforms from iTunes to Spotify, startling listeners with its remarkable variety of stories, its caliber of talent, and immersive production value.

Just in time for your Valentine’s Day weekend, Tales presents a twisted love story with McQuaid’s Die Sleeping My Sweet, which he describes as, “bringing together my love of soap opera melodrama, bear porn, and medical thrillers.” The piece is the third in a loose trilogy within Tales that includes The Crush (Episode #3) and The Ripple at Cedar Lake (Episode #7), and continues McQuaid’s exploration of bold queer characters caught up in peculiar situations.

“The format of the audio drama has allowed me to explore characters, stories, and tone in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise,” McQuaid said. “The further I delve beyond the Pale, the more confident I am in leaning into the exploration and experimentation of auditory possibilities.”

Of Who Killed Johnny Bernard?, which premieres February 20th, Fessenden says, “It speaks to the broad opportunity offered by the Tales platform that I was able to process my grief at the loss of a friend by delving into a sweeping Tale that brought together so many of my themes of fate and belief and sudden violence and love, all in an ambitiously structured nifty half hour entertainment. We are so grateful to have an audience for our stories.”

Both Die Sleeping my Sweet and Who Killed Johnny Bernard? were performed at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in front of a live audience.

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HORROR SOCIETY

10/9/2019

Tales From Beyond The Pale To Launch As Free Weekly Podcast

OCT 9, NYC — After eight years of covertly producing the best standalone half-hour episodes in audio drama, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is set to haunt new ears as a free weekly podcast.

McQuaid (V/H/S, I Sell The Dead) and Fessenden (Depraved, The Last Winter, Habit) will launch the podcast on October 10, 2019 with a brand new audio drama entitled REAPPRAISAL, written and directed by McQuaid and featuring Fessenden as a mysterious stranger determined to buy a property from an unstable seller played by TALES regular Clay MacLeod Chapman (author of the acclaimed new novel “The Remaking”). The following week, October 17, brings IN THE WIND, a creature feature set on a chilling mountaintop besieged by flying monsters. Both audio dramas were performed live in Oregon’s Timberline Lodge as part of the 2016 Overlook Film Festival.

Following these two new world premieres, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, THE PODCAST will offer up a different episode each week, mixing premieres and new content with tales plucked from archives comprised of 40+ half hour recordings by a diverse swath of genre writers and directors including Graham Reznick (Dead Wax, I Can See You, Until Dawn), Stuart Gordon (Re-Aniamtor, From Beyond), Eric Red (The Hitcher, 100 Feet) , Paul Solet (Grace, Bullet Head), Jeff Buhler (Pet Sematary, Jacob’s Ladder), Ashley Thorpe (The Hairy Hands, Borley Rectory), Sarah Langan (author “Audrey’s Door), and April Snellings (author “Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin”), as well as McQuaid and Fessenden themselves.

Produced by Fessenden’s maverick production shingle Glass Eye Pix (Depraved, The Ranger, Most Beautiful Island, The House of the Devil, Stake Land, I Sell The Dead) and originally released as 4 multi-episode seasons in lavish box sets illustrated by genre talent from Gary Pullin to Graham Humphries and Brahm Revel, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE features voice performances by Vincent D’onofrio, Barbara Crampton, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Amy Seimitz, Kate Flannery, Leon Vitale, Lance Reddick, Tony Todd, Dominic Monaghan, A.J. Bowen, Pat Healey, Joshua Leonard, Martin Starr, Ana Asensio, Cooper Roth, Samuel Zimmerman, Jeremy Gardner, Kevin Corrigan, James Le Gros, Roxanne Benjamin, Misha Collins, Larry Fessenden and many other adventurous thespians.

While Inspired by old radio dramas featuring Boris Karloff and Orson Welles, TALES is decidedly modern in its approach, pushing the boundaries of immersive audio entertainment, offering up diverse styles and tones in its embrace of the vast potential offered by the genre of the macabre. Tales has earned awards and accolades in its near decade-long history (“Remains the genre’s best contemporary offering”—Rue Morgue Magazine) – and new listeners will now be able to enjoy this beloved series on their favorite podcast platform.

Fessenden says, “It has been a great pleasure producing TALES over the years and we look forward to getting these immersive pieces out to a new audience.”

McQuaid adds, “From the writing and direction to the performances, sound-design, music, and foley, I am beyond proud of our anthology of audio drama and can’t wait to get it out to new ears. We’re here to put fear in your ear.”

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SCREEN ANARCHY

10/9/2019

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE to Launch as Free Weekly Podcast

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Collider

10/10/2019

Larry Fessenden & Glenn McQuaid’s ‘Tales from Beyond the Pale’ Launches Free Weekly Podcast

If you’re looking for a weekly installment of spooky storytelling, set your figurative dials and literal podcast subscriptions for Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s Tales from Beyond the Pale. The long-running horror storytelling showcase launches in weekly free podcast form today, October 10, 2019.

The Tales from Beyond the Pale podcast will launch with the audio drama Reappraisal, written and directed by McQuaid and featuring Fessenden as “a mysterious stranger determined to buy a property from an unstable seller” played by author Clay MacLeod Chapman. Next up, Tales launches In the Wind on October 17, “a creature feature set on a chilling mountaintop besieged by flying monsters.” Both audio dramas were performed live in Oregon’s Timberline Lodge as part of the 2016 Overlook Film Festival.

Tales from Beyond the Pale will deliver a new audio drama performance each week, mixing in premieres and new content alongside recordings from the archives of more than 40 performances. In addition to Fessenden and McQuaid themselves, Tales features a massive list of genre talent that includes writers and filmmakers like Graham Reznick (Dead Wax), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) and Jeff Buhler (Pet Sematary) as well as actors like Vincent D’onofrio, Barbara Crampton, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Amy Seimitz, Tony Todd, Dominic Monaghan, Misha Collins, and many many more.

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THE A.V. CLUB

Larry Fessenden’s Tales From Beyond The Pale is coming to haunt your earbuds weekly

After eight years as a series of standalone audio dramas, like a restless poltergeist graduating from knocking ashtrays off of coffee tables to full-on supernatural mayhem Tales From Beyond The Pale is stepping up its efforts to haunt listeners’ earbuds with a new weekly podcast. The first episode, Reappraisal, launches tomorrow, October 10, and spins a tale of a “mysterious stranger determined to buy a property from an unstable seller,” as a press release puts it. That’ll be followed by the snowbound creature feature In The Wind on October 17.

Billing itself as “radio plays for the digital age,” Tales From Beyond The Pale is the brainchild of film directors Larry Fessenden (Depraved, Habit) and Glenn McQuaid (V/H/S, I Sell The Dead) through Fessenden’s Glass Eye Pix shingle, and keeps alive a tradition of aural terror that goes back to the days of Orson Welles and Boris Karloff, but with an updated, genre-hopping modern twist. The A.V. Club saw both Reappraisal and In The Wind performed live at the 2017 Overlook Film Festival, where we wrote about the simultaneously cozy and chilling experience:

Fessenden, who’s done just about everything there is to do in the indie-horror world—writing, directing, acting, producing, you name it—clearly relished his role as a diabolical gentleman who gives a fed-up family man a way out in the EC-comics style first story, “Re-Appraisal.” The second, “In The Wind,” had sort of a Stephen King-meets-Fargo vibe, telling the story of a folksy female cop who encounters winged monsters at a snowy mountain resort. (How apropos.) Both stories were engrossing, and watching the foley artists clink glasses together and stomp empty shoes on pieces of wood was a treat.

Following the premiere episodes, Tales From Beyond The Pale: The Podcast will release episodes weekly, mixing together archival recordings and new stories written by horror screenwriters, authors, and filmmakers like Graham Reznick (Dead Wax, I Can See You, Until Dawn) and Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond). A wide variety of actors, including Vincent D’onofrio, Barbara Crampton, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Amy Seimitz, Kate Flannery, Leon Vitale, Lance Reddick, Tony Todd, Dominic Monaghan, A.J. Bowen, Pat Healey, and many more lend their voices to the recordings.

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RUE MORGUE MAGAZINE

10/9/2019

EXCLUSIVE COMMENTS: GLASS EYE PIX LAUNCHES “TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE” AS WEEKLY PODCAST

For the past eight years, Glass Eye Pix topper Larry Fessenden (DEPRAVED, WENDIGO) and filmmaker Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD) have been creating fear for your ears with the horror audio anthology TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE. Today, they’ve launched the series as a free podcast, and RUE MORGUE spoke with them about the project.

The TALES podcast, which you can check out here, begins with a new aural terror tale, “Reappraisal,” which McQuaid wrote and directed with Fessenden playing a mysterious stranger attempting to buy a property from an unstable seller played by author/TALES contributor Clay McLeod Chapman. Next week, on October 17, Fessenden’s “In the Wind,” a snowbound saga of flying monsters attacking a tram car (“I call it FARGO meets THE MIST,” Fessenden says), will premiere; both were recorded live at the Overlook Film Festival in 2016.

Further down the line are a pair recorded at New York City’s Lincoln Center last year (pictured above): Fessenden’s metaphorical werewolf story “Blackout” and McQuaid’s “Die Sleeping, My Sweet,” about dark secrets extracted from the mind of a comatose patient. “That one,” McQuaid says, “is essentially the third in a TALES trilogy inspired by EC’s CRIME SUSPENSTORIES comics—the first one being ‘The Crush,’ and the second being ‘The Ripple at Cedar Lake.’ ” The podcast will also showcase TALES from the archives written and directed by a wide spectrum of talents, such as Stuart Gordon, Eric Red (THE HITCHER), Graham Reznick (I CAN SEE YOU), Paul Solet (GRACE), Jeff Buhler (PET SEMATARY, THE MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN), Ashley Thorpe (BORLEY RECTORY) and authors Sarah Langan and April Snellings.

Fessenden has enjoyed his frequent acting turns in TALES, particularly when McQuaid is the one guiding him. “Glenn often gives me a role,” he says, “and we have a great relationship when he’s directing me. I remember that only during the rehearsal that day, which is very much the nature of TALES, did I hook into something—and quite honestly, I was channeling Angus Scrimm. I think you can feel that when you listen to it.”

Throughout TALES’ history, the duo have sought to expand the audio-drama form beyond preconceived parameters. “Very often, the advice is: Keep the production small, since an audience can’t really perceive of more than four lead characters in an audio environment. And we just laugh at them! We’re always pushing the envelope.” McQuaid seconds, “In a way, it’s still a fairly conservative format to this day. There are an awful lot of people out there doing old-time radio-show kinds of work, which is great, but it’s almost as if filmmakers never moved on from the silent era, you know? With audio drama, you can be as experimental as you want, and say things that weren’t on anyone’s lips back in the old days.”

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Nightmare on Film Street

10/10/2019

LARRY FESSENDEN & GLENN MCQUAID BRINGING HORROR TO PODCASTS ON TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE

Fans of podcasts: I have some interesting news to share with you. If you are into audiobooks or radio dramas, Larry Fassenden and Glenn McQuaid have a new weekly show based off something they’ve been doing for years. I actually work a desk job during the day, so I have long hours for podcasts and this idea really intrigues me. It is called Tales from Beyond the Pale and is debuting on October 10th, 2019

A little history about this, Fessenden introduced radio dramas to his child. Think of the ones that were made popular back in the 1930s. When McQuaid learned of this, he recommended they should do their own. It shouldn’t come as shocking news that these two could pull it off with Fessenden being a cult favorite with his New York based horror films like Habit or this year’s Depraved. He also helps out with other filmmakers behind the scenes and with cameos in their films. McQuaid is no slouch either. He was a writer and director for the anthology film V/H/S and I Sell the Dead among other hats he wears behind the scenes.

This idea actually started back in October of 2010 when the first season was released. It has been followed up with three more seasons over the years before they decided to roll with a new vehicle for their stories. Tales from Beyond the Pale will now be a free weekly podcast for horror fans to enjoy. From what I’ve seen, the first episode with be Reappraisal, that was written and directed by McQuaid. It will also feature Fessenden as the lead in it. The following week we will get In the Wind. From there, Tales from Beyond the Pale will offer up new content from different genre names like Graham Reznick (The House of the Devil, Stake Land), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond) and Eric Red (The Hitcher, Bad Moon) to just name a few.

There is also a litany of voice talent that is featured as well. It has featured names like Barbara Crampton (From Beyond, You’re Next), Doug Jones (The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth), Tony Todd (Candyman, Final Destination) and A.J. Bowen (Southbound, The Signal). There was quite a bit more names on this list, but I just wanted to give you a taste of people you can expect. I was actually shocked to see how deep the talent goes that are involved here. I’m also surprised I didn’t know about this sooner!

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Nightmarish Conjurings

10/10/2019

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE to Launch as Free Weekly Podcast

After eight years of covertly producing the best standalone half-hour episodes in audio drama, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is set to haunt new ears as a free weekly podcast.

McQuaid (V/H/S, I Sell The Dead) and Fessenden (Depraved, The Last Winter, Habit) will launch the podcast on October 10, 2019 with a brand new audio drama entitled Reappraisal, written and directed by McQuaid and featuring Fessenden as a mysterious stranger determined to buy a property from an unstable seller played by TALES regular Clay MacLeod Chapman (author of the acclaimed new novel “The Remaking”). The following week, October 17, brings In The Wind, a creature feature set on a chilling mountaintop besieged by flying monsters. Both audio dramas were performed live in Oregon’s Timberline Lodge as part of the 2016 Overlook Film Festival.

Following these two new world premieres, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, THE PODCAST will offer up a different episode each week, mixing premieres and new content with tales plucked from archives comprised of 40+ half hour recordings by a diverse swath of genre writers and directors including Graham Reznick (Dead Wax, I Can See You, Until Dawn), Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Eric Red (The Hitcher, 100 Feet) , Paul Solet (Grace, Bullet Head), Jeff Buhler (Pet Sematary, Jacob’s Ladder), Ashley Thorpe (The Hairy Hands, Borley Rectory), Sarah Langan (author “Audrey’s Door), and April Snellings (author “Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin”), as well as McQuaid and Fessenden themselves.

Produced by Fessenden’s maverick production shingle Glass Eye Pix (Depraved, The Ranger, Most Beautiful Island, The House of the Devil, Stake Land, I Sell The Dead) and originally released as 4 multi-episode seasons in lavish box sets illustrated by genre talent from Gary Pullin to Graham Humphries and Brahm Revel, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE features voice performances by Vincent D’onofrio, Barbara Crampton, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Amy Seimitz, Kate Flannery, Leon Vitale, Lance Reddick, Tony Todd, Dominic Monaghan, A.J. Bowen, Pat Healey, Joshua Leonard, Martin Starr, Ana Asensio, Cooper Roth, Samuel Zimmerman, Jeremy Gardner, Kevin Corrigan, James Le Gros, Roxanne Benjamin, Misha Collins, Larry Fessenden and many other adventurous thespians.

While Inspired by old radio dramas featuring Boris Karloff and Orson Welles, TALES is decidedly modern in its approach, pushing the boundaries of immersive audio entertainment, offering up diverse styles and tones in its embrace of the vast potential offered by the genre of the macabre. Tales has earned awards and accolades in its near decade-long history (“Remains the genre’s best contemporary offering”—Rue Morgue Magazine) – and new listeners will now be able to enjoy this beloved series on their favorite podcast platform.

Fessenden says, “It has been a great pleasure producing TALES over the years and we look forward to getting these immersive pieces out to a new audience.”

McQuaid adds, “From the writing and direction to the performances, sound-design, music, and foley, I am beyond proud of our anthology of audio drama and can’t wait to get it out to new ears. We’re here to put fear in your ear.”

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Daily Dead

10/9/2019

TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE Launches Free Weekly Podcast

One of my all-time favorite horror events was experiencing a live performance of Tales from Beyond the Pale at the Overlook Film Festival in 2016. Such an incredible amount of work is put into these horror audio dramas from the cast, sound engineer, and especially series creators Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid. If they announce any new live performances, it’s absolutely worth your time to make a trip to see it, but they’re giving horror fans the ability to listen to new horror audio dramas from the comfort of their home every week.

Today, we have details on the launch of a a weekly Tales from Beyond the Pale podcast that will see a mix of new stories with content from their archives, featuring an impressive cast of horror talent. Starring Clay McLeod Chapman and Larry Fessenden, the first release is a brand new audio drama called Reappraisal that will be available on multiple podcast providers, including their official podcast hub at:

OCT 9, NYC — After eight years of covertly producing the best standalone half-hour episodes in audio drama, Larry Fessenden and Glenn McQuaid’s TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE is set to haunt new ears as a free weekly podcast.

McQuaid (V/H/S, I Sell The Dead) and Fessenden (Depraved, The Last Winter, Habit) will launch the podcast on October 10, 2019 with a brand new audio drama entitled REAPPRAISAL, written and directed by McQuaid and featuring Fessenden as a mysterious stranger determined to buy a property from an unstable seller played by TALES regular Clay McLeod Chapman (author of the acclaimed new novel “The Remaking”). The following week, October 17, brings IN THE WIND, a creature feature set on a chilling mountaintop besieged by flying monsters. Both audio dramas were performed live in Oregon’s Timberline Lodge as part of the 2016 Overlook Film Festival.

Following these two new world premieres, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, THE PODCAST will offer up a different episode each week, mixing premieres and new content with tales plucked from archives comprised of 40+ half hour recordings by a diverse swath of genre writers and directors including Graham Reznick (Dead Wax, I Can See You, Until Dawn), Stuart Gordon (Re-Aniamtor, From Beyond), Eric Red (The Hitcher, 100 Feet) , Paul Solet (Grace, Bullet Head), Jeff Buhler (Pet Sematary, Jacob’s Ladder), Ashley Thorpe (The Hairy Hands, Borley Rectory), Sarah Langan (author “Audrey’s Door), and April Snellings (author “Ghoulish: The Art of Gary Pullin”), as well as McQuaid and Fessenden themselves.

Produced by Fessenden’s maverick production shingle Glass Eye Pix (Depraved, The Ranger, Most Beautiful Island, The House of the Devil, Stake Land, I Sell The Dead) and originally released as 4 multi-episode seasons in lavish box sets illustrated by genre talent from Gary Pullin to Graham Humphries and Brahm Revel, TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE features voice performances by Vincent D’onofrio, Barbara Crampton, Ron Perlman, Doug Jones, Amy Seimitz, Kate Flannery, Leon Vitale, Lance Reddick, Tony Todd, Dominic Monaghan, A.J. Bowen, Pat Healey, Joshua Leonard, Martin Starr, Ana Asensio, Cooper Roth, Samuel Zimmerman, Jeremy Gardner, Kevin Corrigan, James Le Gros, Roxanne Benjamin, Misha Collins, Larry Fessenden and many other adventurous thespians.

While Inspired by old radio dramas featuring Boris Karloff and Orson Welles, TALES is decidedly modern in its approach, pushing the boundaries of immersive audio entertainment, offering up diverse styles and tones in its embrace of the vast potential offered by the genre of the macabre. Tales has earned awards and accolades in its near decade-long history (“Remains the genre’s best contemporary offering”—Rue Morgue Magazine) – and new listeners will now be able to enjoy this beloved series on their favorite podcast platform.

Fessenden says, “It has been a great pleasure producing TALES over the years and we look forward to getting these immersive pieces out to a new audience.”

McQuaid adds, “From the writing and direction to the performances, sound-design, music, and foley, I am beyond proud of our anthology of audio drama and can’t wait to get it out to new ears. We’re here to put fear in your ear.”

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HORROR GEEK LIFE

10/9/2019

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TALES Dispatch

6/4/2020

As TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE the podcast presents Glenn McQuaid’s “CONVICTION,” The Pale Men sat down for a chat about the audio play’s origins, the casting, and Jesus on a dinosaur.

Larry Fessenden: Glenn, this story has political overtones not usually found in your stories. In fact many thought this one was penned by myself. What inspired this story?

 Glenn McQuaid: In the past I have shied away from politics in horror because the work I like to tap into aims to be an escape from the troubling realities of current affairs. Growing up, Hammer Horror and Universal Horror offered a reprieve from all the real life terror I was seeing happening locally and globally, and so that’s a place I like to go, to offer that same break from troubles.

Of course the great thing about Tales  is that it allows us to try new things and this story came out of me quite quickly. I was religious as a kid, I was also a very frigtened gay kid and I found great comfort in prayer, that I might pray away my homosexuality seemed possible to me back then, and that I might pray for the Cold War to end or pray that I might gain super powers or to befriend ET all seemed reasonable and it offered me a magical escape from my worries. The praying itself was an OCD type ritual that involved blessing myself countless times and repeating prayers ad nauseum, sometimes backwards, until I felt an overwhelming sense of hope and joy and optimism. So I think the story came from reflecting on what was going on with me back then, and the idea that one can create one’s own belief system regardless of reality and it can offer short-term comfort. After these sessions I was no longer going to turn out to be a homosexual, the world was a safer place, I would learn to fly and I’d get to make friends with ET, all these wonderful things were possible so long as I didn’t question anything past that belief system.

The idea that dead soldiers might return home to haunt those that sent them to their deaths was also on my mind, to that end Bob Clark’s DEATHDREAM and WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME (Hellblazer #5) by John Ridgway and Jamie Delano were inspirations. The working title of Conviction was Spirits Never Forgive.

LF: Talk about the casting. The main character seems like a Dick Cheney type but you cast Lance Reddick which gives a more interesting texture to the piece.

GMcQ: As we prepped the show Daniel Noah and Specrtrevision were helping us with casting and I think that’s where the connection to Lance came from. What can I say, I’m a huge fan of Lance and his voice is absolutely incredible so I jumped at the chance to work with him. Colin Powell was an inspiration for the character too. Walker will do whatever it takes to protect conservative America regardless of the amount of corpses he has to walk over to do it. After we performed Conviction we went straight into The Vampire Party and I was so impressed at how easily Lance discarded the staunch republican character of Walker and dived head first into playing a really fabulous gay vampire, it was a wild transtomation to the other side. Lance is very talented and a really lovely man too.

LF: The boy was also very good, not an easy feat.

GMcQ: I had seen Cooper Roth in Cooties and was delighted when Daniel mentioned we might get him for the role of Holland. As you know, we don’t get to rehearse a lot with actors before curtain call but when he came in he rolled up his sleeves and joined our motley crew. Lance and Cooper had great chemistry on the night.

LF: There’s a bit of surreal whimsey portraying Christ on a dinosaur.

GMcQ: Yeah, the creationist aspect of the story was very important to me as it tapped into how powerful and dangerous certain belief systems can be. Walker is basically an atheist who has used religion for political strategy and leverage, and here we see all of that come home to bite him in the ass. His daughter and now grandchild have drunk the kool aid he was shilling and that’s the tragedy of the piece and the justice of it too.

I didn’t want to portray Jesus for laughs and putting him up on the dinosaur really was to honor Cooper’s beliefs but when he showed up riding that thing the audience had a good chuckle as I don’t think anyone had seen or heard something like that in a while. It was wonderful to perform live and see the reaction.

LF: Did you have alternative endings to this story?

GMcQ: I think there was a slightly more convoluted ending where Holland tries to kill his grandfather but instead gets shot and, as he dies, sees Jesus arriving on a pterodactyl for them to fly off on.

LF: How was the live performance of this one?

GMcQ: This was a tough show to pull off (three half hour audio-dramas live!) and we had a few technical hiccups but my memory of it is warm and I’m really proud that we got to LA and showed them what Tales from Beyond the Pale is about.

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TALES DISPATCH

4/9/2020

Douglas Buck reminisces with the Pale Men about the one-time-only performance of HIDDEN RECORDS, now available on TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast

Q: Hello Douglas, can you talk a bit about where you got the idea for Hidden Records?

Doug Buck: Hello there, being a long-time acquaintance of both master Pale Talesmen Larry Fessenden and, through Larry, Glenn McQuaid, and the fact that I have a love for those old radio horror shows (I have a nostalgic remembrance of sitting along in the dark, as a teenager, in my suburban family basement, listening with great anticipation, as the sound of the the door creaking slowly and ominously open would be followed by the deep intonations of EG Marshall, providing his usual introduction into that week’s creepy “CBS Radio’s Mystery Theater”), it had always floated about that perhaps I might do one with them.

Then one night, at one of Larry’s annual entirely disreputable New York Xmas Parties I happened to be in town for, I suddenly found myself in the middle of hatching a plan with him that included all of us — Larry, myself and Glenn — doing a live Tales show during the upcoming summer Montreal Fantasia Film festival. Cool, right? Until it dawned on me that I had zero idea in mind for an actual tale to tell.

It wasn’t until at least three months later, with me musing over ideas, growing slightly more unsettled with the passing time and the lack of inspiration (while also feeling increasingly awed, and envious, that Larry and Glenn seem to pop out Tales ideas as easy as pulling change out of a pocket), that I found myself sitting in a Montreal jazz club on the invite of my friend Esther finding myself listening to this impressively experimental band… when my tales idea hit, almost entirely — the idea of a son longing for the return of his mysterious, long disappeared father, a celebrated musician, to find that dad has left secrets in the music he’s left behind, set in a fun old traditional milieu of haunted guitars and pacts with the Devil (including playing records backwards listening for evil messages, something I remember eagerly doing in college — including Beatles and Prince records — during the heyday of that whole thing).

One side not, originally, as per the jazz band that night, I had intended to go with much more experimental, ‘intellectual’ and discordant music, but as the script fleshed out, the music evolved into more traditional (and earthier) blues, which I realized was going to be easier to work out with the musicians, as well as being more guaranteed accessible to an audience.

Q: Your Tale was particularly ambitious because you wanted live music to be a featured element. How did the musical aspect of the tale come together?

Doug Buck: I spent a few months, working with the three musicians (guitar, piano, trumpet), none of whom had worked together before (but thankfully merged quite smoothly, even with their entirely disparate personalities) working a few times a week, finding the right music, the themes and… most importantly… the proper cues in the tale. And that was the easy part, as we all had a lot of fun working together. It was a really nice environment in which, I’d like to believe, I gave them mere guidelines with which they could have fun creating within. I’m not a musician so it was their floor.

The more difficult coordination was what needed to be done with Glenn back in New York, in which he had to take certain sections the musicians recorded, find effects to lay over them (ie, sounding like they come off a record player, or are coming from another room, etc) to play on the night, rather than live, and work it so they would seamlessly combine on the performance night. All of it took a lot of planning, and careful communication, with the musicians and with Glenn, who likely had no idea the amount of effort I was gonna be asking of him.

Q: You have a great cast and it’s exciting for fans to hear Tony Todd in your tale. How did that inspired idea come about?

Doug Buck: Man, what a memory to have that beautiful growling voice, that powerful presence, inhabiting the blind old school piano-playing blues man Judge Fayweather in my piece. Truth be told, it wasn’t my idea. It was my girlfriend at the time Esinam, who gave me all sorts of good ideas and suggestions along the way. As soon as she suggested Todd, I realized I had to get him… he would add that little extra oomph I wanted… took more than bit of cajoling of confused and hemming-and-hawing agents over three months and all that… but, to my undying satisfaction, he ultimately agreed (at just about the last minute), showed up on-time at the airport, and was as down to earth and ready-to-go an actor as you can imagine.

As far as my lead Kevin Cline (now I believe known as Nevi Cline), props must go again to Esinam. She had seen the gritty and wildly funny indie “Meathead goes Hog Wild”, with Cline going completely bonkers in it and suggested him for the naive, angry Cliff Jr and, what do you know, she was right again.

Most of the rest of the cast were locals. It was funny (now it’s funny, that is… then, it was terrifying)… all the musicians were set, as was the lead Cline, the pre-recorded music was ready to go, Tony Todd was coming… and yet we had no other actors cast a mere days before the show, as local unions in Montreal are strong and it looked a little problematic to get it cast on such short notice. I was in a bit of a panic (as Larry and Glenn can attest). However, I will be forever thankful to the incredible talent of Jenn Wexler, who was with Glass Eye at the time, now directing and making her own films, who came into town, and, in the most even-keeled and professional manner, got the thing cast (with performers I was across the board pleased with) in a knick of time, all while busily attending the Fantasia market at the same time.

Q: Glenn McQuaid produced and labored on your sound design. Tell us about the process of building the sound.

Doug Buck: Oh, yeah, did Glenn labor! Not only was he working with me on this, which required quite some dedicated focus and time, he was also deep into his own projects (as was Larry at the time). To be honest, since they were both so busy at their own things, and being vets at this point of Pale Tales, both studio and live, they were quite okay with letting things go to right to the end, confident they’d be able to rally the troops and muster up the creative energy required to make it all happen (hell, I believe Larry was still deep into re-writing his the night before). I, on the other hand, with the most complex of Tales, production-wise, and being a newbie, was a little more… panicked, shall we say? I’ll never forget yelling at Glenn once over the phone, which I have to say he quietly took like a real producing mensch. All in all, though, Glenn seriously came through in a huge way, both in the lead-up effort and during the show, and I’ll always be indebted to him for that (and will always feel kinda bad about the momentary screaming thing).

Q: Tell us about the experience putting on your piece live.

Doug Buck: Once it was happening, it was a blast. The place was sold out (with everyone having trundled through one of the longest and biggest day-long deluges of rain I’d seen since living in Montreal) and it was a really exciting vibe in the air. It was a perfect venue, Yuk Yuk’s, a now-closed comedy club just down the street from the main hub of the Fantasia Film Festival (speaking of that, gotta mention the unstoppable Kaila Hier, who, thanks to her perseverance and relentless searching, found us the just the right place).

During the performance, I had to guide a few moments back on track between the actors and the musicians (no surprise considering the level of coordination of my piece), but that was part of the fun, and didn’t detract at all from the experience (in fact, it granted the audience a glimpse at some behind-the-scenes directing going on,one of the fun things of these live shows).

Q. You are a visual filmmaker. What was fun and challenging about creating an audio play?

Doug Buck: I found it quite easy to move into the audio storytelling realm (once I found the story that is!). As I said, I’ve been a fan of radio plays practically as long as I’ve been conscious (one of my happy goals for this crazy time of quarantine, for instance, is to re-listen to all those raucous early 80’s “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” BBC audio plays).

I’m also an engineer, so I think quite practically. Give me the limitations and I’m good to go.

Q. Listening again some time after the piece has been performed and mastered, you have any thoughts?

Doug Buck: T’was a pleasure to hear again! It’s a reminder of an enjoyable and satisfying evening, a culmination of a combined creative effort. And I’m always grateful to everyone who took part, as well as Glass Eye for including me in the first place!

Q: Glenn, you were producing and doing Sound design for Doug’s piece, which was the first live tale we had performed where the music was integrated into the story. What challenges do you remember from the night? You and Lee had a lot to handle. And Graham was there too and Jenn. It was a big production!

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TALES DISPATCH

4/2/2020

The Pale Men pose some questions to writer/director Joe Maggio about his powerful fable RAM KING, now available at TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast.

PALE MEN: How did the idea for Ram King come about? 

JOE MAGGIO: I had just re-read Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” and was thinking about the little novella within that novel – “The Grand Inquisitor.” It’s a story told by Ivan to his brother Alyosha, a young monk. In Ivan’s story Jesus returns at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, but instead of the glory and pomp we’d expect around Christ’s second coming the Grand Inquisitor has Jesus arrested and orders him to be burned at the stake the next day. The Inquisitor explains to Jesus that he is no longer needed because what Jesus wanted to give to mankind was freedom, but humans don’t want to be free, they just want someone to take care of them. I liked this idea, and I started to think about a character, a young boy who is driven from his village because he doesn’t fit in with the herd, who has ideas that the frightened villagers deem peculiar, but who is able to exist as this free spirit on the edge of society, using science and his active imagination and intellect. And for this he is punished and killed.

PM: Wasn’t your original idea to have it all in an indiscernible language?

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TALES DISPATCH

12/27/2020

JT Petty on “Johnny Boy” his Tale From Beyond The Pale now available on the podcast

“Parenthood is about as scary as shit gets. And I’m saying that as the dad in the equation. I know I got off easy. I didn’t have to submit to a transformation that would make Cronenberg queasy. I didn’t have to somehow push a watermelon through a wallet.

“But even as the dad, just witnessing something so obviously supernatural unmoored a lot of my comforts and cynicisms about the world. Watching my wife give birth made me think a less dramatic transformation like, I dunno, lycanthropy wouldn’t be so far fetched a proposition. And the day-to-day transformations of our daughter from dumpling to human are equally amazing. Watching the fontanelles come together and fuse, the sporadic inch-a-night growth spurts; I wouldn’t be all that surprised if she woke up one morning with webbed toes and leathery wings.

“Even outside the Rob Bottin material, there are the obvious fears of parenthood: a.) no matter how good you are, you will eventually fail your children, and b.) eventually you will die and they’ll have to figure out all this shit on their own. So I thought, man, that sounds like fun listening.

“And working in pure audio is such a good opportunity to actually scare people. It’s clichéd advice by now to cover your ears if you don’t want to be frightened watching a horror movie. You don’t have that safety net for a radio play. If you don’t want to be scared, don’t listen at all. So I hope you enjoy “Johnny Boy.” It may not be as disturbing as the Ron Howard/Steve Martin meditation on parenthood, but it’s definitely scarier.”

Statement from Nov 2010. Top: JT Petty, Bottom Left: Shea Wigham and Amy Seimetz; Bottom Right Troma vet Bill Weeden

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TALES DISPATCH

2/21/20

Pale Men Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden chat about Fessenden’s audio drama Who Killed Johnny Bernard? Now available at TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast. Sketches by Brian Level.

GLENN McQUAID: WKJB is a very personal piece for you, how was the experience of putting your grief into this story? 

LARRY FESSENDEN: The script came to me very organically. I had been to my friend’s funeral and many stories were told and so the set pieces wrote themselves: The accident, the sailing ship, swimming with a whale shark, working in a bank. Of course I added the bargain with the demon, because that’s what we do in story-telling, we envelope the truth in a cloak of the imagined to quench our thirst for meaning in a random world.

I liked the idea of writing a literary piece, with plenty of voice over. Sometimes with our Tales we dive into the drama through dialogue and sound effects and let the audience figure out where they are, but here I wanted to celebrate the written word with a prose style and that approach worked for this piece.

Another structural device I employed was to repeat the same dialogue twice, providing a jump-scare with the accident the first time, and then the second time, a deepening of the emotion and sense of dread as you start to recognize the dialogue and this time you know what’s coming. I like to think of it as a demonstration of Hitchcock’s famous description of shock vs. suspense: if there’s a bomb under the table and it goes off, that creates shock. If you know it’s under there, but the characters don’t, that creates suspense. This is maybe a slight variation, where you feel sad because you know the fun they are having is going to end horribly.

Anyway, these are all things we can do in our radio plays: experiment with ideas in writing and structure and point of view and see what we can get away with in this format. As for dealing with grief, I cried many times writing the piece. At least the process was cathartic for me, I can’t judge its effect on the listener.

GM: Who Killed Johnny Bernard uses quite a few different locations and drifts between several time-lines, how did you find producing and directing such an ambitious live event?

LF: Glenn, you and I worked very hard to have the transitions make sense. Ambiences and sound effects are even more crucial in a piece like this because they are actually establishing cut points and dissolves between time and locations as if it were a film. It was quite ambitious to pull it off. It is after shows like this that we always say, why not run the same tale for a week so we can actually do it right. Alas, we have never allowed ourselves that opportunity. I don’t mind the punk aesthetic but it takes its toll.

GM: As somber as the piece gets, I had a lot of fun working on it with everybody, there was a fun, family oriented vibe about the production that echoed some of the lighter moments of the story. Was that intentional?

LF: The story deals with the relationship between father and son and it was quite magical to have my pal James Le Gros and his son Noah on stage and then myself and my own son playing music for the piece. Glass Eye Pix projects always aspire to family and camaraderie not because we’re a bunch of saps, but because that is the best way I know to ward off the darkness all around. This radio play is about the horror, but it is also a celebration of a life well lived and the other intangible things we must defend, even as our ideals unravel in the public sphere.

GM: It’s alway a pleasure to work with James LeGros and he is terrific here, was he on your mind while writing?

LF: James is family, I always know he will serve the material well. I liked the idea of pairing him with his own son for this so it might have been on my mind.

GM: Matthew Stephen Huffman, one of the nicest guys I know, is absolutely terrifying here, what have we done to poor Matt?

LF: Matt is a treasure we’ve been mining since the first season of Tales. He has a great voice and the perfect attitude for the Tales ensemble. I think life has pulled him away from acting regularly but it is nice to know we can drag him back to the mic now and again and get these delicious performances. 

GM: Music is a big passion of both of ours, how cool was it to have your son, Jack Fessenden jam along side you and James LeGros’ son, Noah? 

LF: That was fun, all part of putting something real and unexpected on stage. We’re the producers: If we want to end the play with a little sax solo, that’s just what we’ll do!

In conclusion I want to post this photo of me and the real Johnny (last name not Bernard), showing the sorts of things we got up to. At my insistence we would perform scenes from “Cabaret” for friends and family, with him playing Liza Minelli and me as Joel Grey. John was game for anything. We were doing drag acts in the 70s before it was cool.

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TALES DISPATCH

2/13/2020

Tales Dispatch: McQuaid and Fessenden Talk “Die Sleeping My Sweet”

On the occasion of the World Premier of Glenn McQuaid’s new Tale From Beyond The Pale, “Die Sleeping My Sweet” The Pale Men have a chat about the project’s origins. Accompanying art are alternative poster designs by Tales regular Brian Level.

LARRY FESSENDEN: Glenn, This is such a remarkable story you’ve written. Can you tell us about how the idea came to you?

GLENN McQUAID: The initial idea came to me when I read an article about a doctor who was able to communicate with a comatose patient in basically the same way as I demonstrate in the piece, right down to the use of the imagination of playing tennis as a means to trigger a yes response. It all seemed like such an interesting set-up and something that would work well within the audio drama format, I especially wanted to perform Die Sleeping my Sweet live as the foley is particularly physical and I think the audience really enjoy seeing our foley artists at work.

LF: Isn’t it true that even as we do audio plays, there is a mischievous awareness that we are putting on a live show that we want to be unique for the audience witnessing this one-time-only event. (we restrained ourselves for reasons of safety I think: “It’s always fun till someone loses an eye” as mother used to say.)

GMcQ: I remember wanting Chris Skotchdopole to whack the tennis balls into the audience with all his might, and basically everyone on stage, including my tennis-playing husband, Lee Nussbaum, who handles our sound recording, advising me that that was not one of my brighter ideas. I still think it’d have been hilarious for the audience to be getting hit by the tennis balls that were integral to the story telling.

LF: You have managed to hit a really great tone with this Tale. Can you speak about your influences.

GMcQ: Thanks, I love the tone too. There’s an aspect of the piece that’s inspired by classic late-night soap operas like Dynasty, Dallas and Falcon Crest, I wanted to have fun with the melodrama and lean into the exposition in the way those shows did. Exposition gets a bad wrap but I think it can be fun and ridiculous and ultimately its own art form. There’s also an element of noir to the piece, in that sense I think Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train is an influence. It’s always fun to tap into other art that speaks to you but I’m also keen to transcend those influences and let my work become its own odd thing, that’s where the magic’s at. I am a big fan of Anna Biller’s The Love Witch which clearly taps into a certain style of vintage Hollywood flair and ham but Biller uses those tropes and subverts them in really subtle and powerful ways, she produced a piece of film that moved past homage and became something new and exciting, its own wild thing.

LF: You have often said this Tale and two others form a loose trilogy  (The Crush and Cedar Lake). Talk a bit about what you mean. How do you see them connected…?

GMcQ: I suppose the real connection is the ongoing punishment of John Speredakos! John is a terrific actor that I love to put through the ringer. In all three stories he plays the good natured, well meaning husband to a wife that’s ready to wring his neck for various reasons. All three pieces are inspired by EC Comics CrimeSuspense Stories, many of which start off as relationship dramas that turn ugly fast once greed, jealousy or even sheer irrational-meanness enter the picture. I like that within Tales we now have bodies of work that pool together, for instance, I think Reappraisal is of the same universe as Speaking in Tongues, similarly I sense a kinship with Who Killed Johnny Bernard and The Hole Digger.

LF: We put these shows on with almost no rehearsal, usually one read through on the day of the performance. Can you tell us about your cast: those who are familiar players and working with new members of the ensemble.

GMcQ: Well, as mentioned, I love working with John Speredakos, our relationship goes all the way back to I Sell the Dead and it’s always interesting to have him around for projects, he’s very passionate and there’s sort of a short hand between us now where I’m not having to over-explain anything. Matthew Stephen Huffman is another actor I love, he plays Antonio’s closeted lover Frank and he brings so much charm and depth to his work that it’s alway a pleasure to have him on board, Matt is also in The Crush and The Ripple at Cedar Lake, so I guess he’s another tie that binds. This was my first time working with Caprice Benedetti who plays Claudia, she was an absolute pleasure to have on stage and was really down for having fun with our short rehearsal period. I had seen Caprice in my friend Ana Asensio’s movie, Most Beautiful Island, so I was excited to collaborate with her. Juan Carlos Hernandez brought a lot of kindness and fun to the character of Antonio, similarly Teresa Kelsey who plays Dr. Peterson added a pathos and almost maternal warmth to her character that was a nice surprise to watch happen, I think she’s a wonderful actor.

LF: Even though these shows are performed live, it is fair to admit we do some editing and shaping in post-production before presenting them to our home listeners. Care to talk about the journey this tale took from performance to final mix.

GMcQ: We individually mic all actors and musicians on stage and a lot of the time the foley table has about four or five close-range mics on it, and so, often we end up with fourteen or fifteen separate channels to clean up in the post process. It can be quite daunting when one firsts opens the sessions, memories of the live performance need to take a back seat as we’re presented with the reality of the cold hard recordings, and so the work must almost start over. Each channel must be cleaned up to avoid spill from other sources, I will edit out any of the recording that is not “hot”– the silence between dialogue, non-perforamce breaths and so on. Once everything is cleaned up we can then go in and tweak the content if needed, edit the timeline and add additional sounds if we feel that kind of embellishment is favorable. We’re lucky that we have people like John Moros on our side, who adds a lot of professionalism and artistry to our post process. We’re nothing without the incredible team we’ve dragged with us Beyond the Pale! It has become such a rich, wild tapestry of craft, this mad project of ours.

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TALES DISPATCH

1/30/2020

McQuaid and Thorpe discuss “The Demon Huntsman” 
now available on The Tales Podcast

Now playing on TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast: The Demon Huntsman by Ashley Thorpe, Directed by Glenn McQuaid. First presented on January 11 2010 as the final episode of Season One, Huntsman stars Michael Cerveris and Owen Campbell, Aidan Redmond  and Joel Garland, and is dripping with atmosphere. A true TALES classic. McQuaid and Thorpe discussed the tale in a recent sit-down.

Glenn McQuaid
On re-listening to THE DEMON HUNTSMAN, I was really impressed by the sense of location that comes through in your writing, not just the natural ambiance but the geography, geology, and folklore too, it’s clear you have a great fascination for your home turf of Dartmoor, when did you become aware of the horror genre’s obsession with it too?

Ashley Thorpe
Dartmoor and its myths have long been an obsession of mine. I’ve been surrounded by those tales and their tellers for as long as I can remember. The ghosts, myths and legends of Devon seeped into my personal mythology from an early age and their blend of horror, folk and fairy-lore have influenced much of my work. I remember hearing many of these stories when I was a kid, sat listening wide eyed in terror as an elderly couple my parents used to take out to the pub sat and recounted these things. I especially remember being terrified by the tale of ‘The Hairy Hands’ and spent most of the journey home across pitch black moorland staring at the wheel from the back seat waiting for these horrible things to seize my Dad’s hands and wrestle us off the road.

Being so in love with Dartmoor and all its devilish tales I was especially excited as a child when I saw ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ and realsing it was set ‘in my backyard’. My favourite part of ‘Hound of the Baskervilles’ was always the telling of the cruel master who first fell foul of the spectral hound. Subsequently hearing that that squire was based upon Lord Cabel of Buckfastleigh made it twice as thrilling. That was – and indeed still is – a big part of the magic for me. That you can visit an old churchyard, a stately home, an ancient cross and there is a tale intrinsically linked to the place. The prehistoric stones and soils of Dartmoor are alive with these stories. Endless inspiration.

Glenn McQuaid
I love that your Dad is partly responsible for your interest in horror, my own Dad used to make up a bunch of horror stories that really sparked my imagination as a kid. He once told me that a monster lived in an old abandoned boat on a river we’d drive past daily. Do you think these early introductions to the fantastic and the macabre are what set us off down this path? Because I’ve tried and I can’t quite bring myself to write a nice romantic comedy.

Ashley Thorpe
You know I genuinely think that ALL my adult obsessions were sown in childhood. I suppose I was actually quite lucky in a way because the 1970’s, especially in England, was a very strange off-kilter era. You literally couldn’t escape the ‘weird’. It was everywhere. Electronics were just being embraced so although there was a strange throw back to folk-roots in horror we seemed on the cusp of a new digital ‘synthy’ age. Child friendly Sci-Fi on TV was Tom Baker era Dr Who, very gothic, unashamedly scary for young kids. You had Donald Pleasance voicing the ‘Spirit of dark and lonely water’ between afternoon cartoons, a reaper watching children drowning in flooded quarries. The Yorkshire Ripper on tea time news. Sapphire and Steel and Hammer Horror double bills on TV at night. Public safety films hosted by celebrities who have since been outed as sexual predators. It was a time of great cultural darkness yet a of a pioneering artistic bravery actually. It was certainly a time that moulded me. Well, I say lucky, but I suffered from night terrors from infancy up until I was about 15 and it really wouldn’t take much to trigger these things off. I may have a lovely night out watching fireworks on Nov 5th but I can remember coming home and glimpsing the beginning of Hmmer House of Horror’s ‘The House that bled to death’ on TV while eating a bag of chips and that was me fucked for that night.

And you know people have asked me whether I’ve ever considered writing anything other than horror too. I remember telling someone once an idea I had for a children’s book about a tribe of mis-shapen creatures that chase children home across the rooftops of their street if they venture out after dark, and they just looked at me in horror.

Glenn McQuaid
We had very similar childhoods in terms of the deeply weird popular culture we were soaking up. Looking back on it, it still seems completely off kilter and experimental, it’s all aged very well. Did I ever tell you the first video recorder we owned came free with a copy of The Wicker Man? I didn’t stand a chance!

Getting back to The Demon Huntsman! You’re a filmmaker known for your unique imagery, how did you find the experience of letting go of visuals and concentrating solely on sound to tell a story?

Ashley Thorpe
‘The Demon Huntsman’ is still one of the things I’ve done that I’m most proud of. I must admit, when you first asked me if I’d like to do it I said yes blindly without any genuine idea of whether or not I could actually do it! I said yes because I thought it was a wonderful project and I’d be a fool not to be part of it. However, although quite challenging, strangely it was quite a freeing exercise. The story itself came together very organically and it was brilliant fun knitting together the various myths into this overall tale, but the best part was definitely being able to almost paint with words and the soundscape. There’s something so primal about the experience of being told a tale and having it augmented with sound to further stimulate the imagination makes it a very exciting experience not just for the listener but also for the artist. I do tend to imagine sound when I animate and will often add textural sounds once a shot is complete to see if it’s creating the vib I want. I’m very obsessive when it comes to my images, almost like a mad minaturist, so it was a strange experience to be able to paint something really quite epic in scale through sound and let the listener work into the details in their imagination. It’s such an immersive experience. It’s like they say ‘ the pictures are always better on the radio’.

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TALES DISPATCH

1/16/2020

McQuaid and Snellings talk TALES: “COLD READING”

Writers Glenn McQuaid and April Snellings reminisce about TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE’s “Cold Reading”, performed live at the Stanley Film Festival on May 1st, 2015 and featuring Featuring Barbara Crampton, Martha Harmon Pardee, Leon Vitali, and Larry Fessenden

Glenn McQuaid
Looking back on the beginnings of Cold Reading, I remember mentioning to you that I wanted to collaborate on a Tale set during a seance and that I wanted to add a ventriloquist’s dummy, sort of MAGIC meets SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, but I worried that those two elements were too incongruous, but then you had all this great seance knowledge which included the use of ventriloquism in spiritualism!

April Snellings
It was serendipity! I’d been doing a lot of reading on spiritualism for another project, and I came across some great stuff about the origins of ventriloquism–it’s tied in with demonology, necromancy, and other lovely pastimes. The Greeks called it gastromancy, and thought it was the result of the dead shacking up in the bellies of the living. Of course seances and evil dummies are two horror tropes that we both love, so when you wanted to combine them, I was all in. I also liked that it would be a challenge–though we think of ventriloquism as an auditory trick, it’s really more of a visual thing, and a lot of the creep factor has little to do with sound…

Glenn McQuaid
Speaking of visual things, it was so much fun watching Larry switch back and forth between Edwards and Stanley, I think it’s one of the great performances! Can you believe we got the cast we did?

April Snellings
Ha, I was afraid we were going to break poor Larry. (We didn’t, did we?) I was both elated and terrified when Barbara Crampton signed on. Writing for a horror legend–talk about pressure! I’ll never forget the audience’s reaction during her monologue toward the end. I’ve never heard a packed theater be so utterly quiet and still–I didn’t even hear anyone breathing. And Leon and Martha, who played Ernest and Doris–they were so much fun! Hey, didn’t we maim a foley artist that night?

Glenn McQuaid
We did! I think Chris Skotchdopole lost a limb but it was all in the name of art. In all seriousness the foley team really do give it everything they have during our live shows, Tessa Price and Chris really took things very seriously up there and I think Chris sliced his hand while stabbing a cabbage! Getting back to Barbara’s monologue, it was such a wonderful shift of tone, we went from the naughty fun of Ernest and Doris into something much more serious, she was pitch perfect as she took us down that path, it changed everything, and introduced Larry’s third character, and you’re right, you could hear a pin drop.

April Snellings
I remember Barbara saying that she had to lie down for a bit after she did her first read-through of the script. My god, Glenn, this one took its toll! It’s like our own personal Fitzcarraldo, only we just caused people a bit of mild distress instead of making them carry a steamship up a mountain or whatever. Speaking of the tonal shift, that’s one of my favorite things about this one. Those shifts can be tough to pull off, but the cast really sold it (along with Graham Reznick’s music and Lee Nussbaum working that sound board like a mad genius). I felt it during the writing process, too–we were having so much fun bouncing the seance back and forth and being silly, and then the story took a turn for the dark and we began to have some very serious conversations about the story’s themes. That was a delight for me–that process of tossing things back and forth and discovering, together, what we were really getting at. That’s what I enjoy so much about collaboration. What is it that you enjoy about working with other creators?

Glenn McQuaid
I think, for most of us, writing is usually a solo endeavor, so opening up the process of discovery with a partner, stepping outside of our own creative instincts and putting trust in someone else can be a wonderful, sometimes vulnerable and valuable experience. I really enjoyed working with you on Cold Reading, when I go back and listen to it I hear both our voices in the mix. I read a review of it recently where we were called monsters for a certain scene and in fairness, I do remember the fun we had in pushing ourselves and pondering how we might off a certain character, I like to blame that whole bit on you.

April Snellings
I still get side-eye from my in-laws over that. Of course I tell them it was all your idea and I protested vigorously. Hey, I think we’ve arrived at the real benefit of having a co-writer: plausible deniability!

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TALES DISPATCH

1/2/2020

Glenn McQuaid and Larry Fessenden had a few questions for Horror vet ERIC RED on the eve of the launch of his TALE FROM BEYOND THE PALE “Little Nasties” on the TALES Podcast.

pictured: Eric Red presides over cast during the recording of his TALE. Ella June Conroy, Jill Zarin, Fessenden, Jack Ketchum

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TALES DISPATCH

12/19/19

A Glass Eye Pix Exclusive:

Episode 11 of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE The Podcast is written and directed by Larry Fessenden and stars Dominc Monaghan and Billy Boyd, know the world over as Merry and Pippin from Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy. Monaghan went on to icon status as Charlie in JJ Abram’s LOST and is featured this week’s STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER, also by Abrams. Monaghan also happens to be Fessenden’s co-star in Glenn McQuaid’s Glass Eye Pix production, I SELL THE DEAD. McQuaid and Fessenden decided to have a chat about Fessenden’s audio drama “Natural Selection” in which a naturalist and his cameraman get into a heap of trouble while exploring a remote Galapagos Island. Glenn gave Larry a ring from across the pond and here is their conversation:

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