Tales From Beyond The Pale: Season Six

LARRY FESSENDEN & GLENN McQUAID (2025-26 12 Episode Aprox 30 minutes each)

Tales from Beyond the Pale returns in time for Halloween on October 30 2025. New Tales drop second Thursday of each month.


Rue Morgue

Michael Gingold, October 30, 2025

By MICHAEL GINGOLD

Glass Eye Pix celebrates its 40th anniversary with a new collection of audio horror.

RUE MORGUE got the first word about the sixth season of TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE, the homage to classic radio terrors overseen by Larry Fessenden (BLACKOUT, DEPRAVED, WENDIGO) and Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD, THE RESTORATION OF GRAYSON MANOR). A teaser for the new lineup titled THE HOST, directed by Fessenden, written and scored by McQuaid and featuring young performers Jaxon Bartok and Leon Barrett can be heard below; the poster was created by TALES regular Brian Level, and the series’ returning theme was composed by Jeff Grace.

A new entry in TALES’ season six will be released every second Thursday of the month, beginning on November 13 and available wherever you get your podcasts. The talent involved includes both TALES regulars and exciting newcomers:

  • THE SLAUGHTERED, by Joe Maggio (BITTER FEAST, BLISS)
  • ORPHEUS, by Jenn Wexler (THE RANGER, THE SACRIFICE GAME)
  • THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR WILL BE YOUR OWN, by Emily Bennett (BLOOD SHINE, ALONE WITH YOU)
  • SUPER, by Rigo Garay (SIZE UP, actor in CRUMB CATCHER, BLACKOUT)
  • THREE RAPS ON THE BUOY, by McQuaid
  • MADGE, THE WORLD SPIDER, AND ONE LAST DRINK, by Richard Newby (author, WE MAKE MONSTERS HERE)
  • FOX HUNT, by Craig Ian Mann (author, PHASES OF THE MOON)
  • EVERYTHING MUST GO, by Ted Geoghegan (WE ARE STILL HERE, MOHAWK, BROOKLYN 45)

Also coming up are new tales from Graham Reznick (I CAN SEE YOU, DEADWAX), Clay McCleod Chapman (author, WHISPER DOWN THE LANE, GHOST EATERS, ACQUIRED TASTE), Roxanne Benjamin (SOUTHBOUND, BODY AT BRIGHTON ROCK, V/H/S) April Snellings (author, FOOD CHAIN), Joe Lynch (SUITABLE FLESH, MAYHEM) and Fessenden himself. The casts are also rife with familiar names and newcomers, such as James Le Gros, Barbara Crampton, Alex Hurt, Bennett, John Speredakos, Jeremy Holm, Garay, Lorraine Farris, Bill Sage, Kareem Savinon, Chloë Levine, Asta Paredes, Clay von Carlowitz, Xero Gravity, David Cardoza, Dante Fiallo, Romanichel and Benjamin Frankenberg.

“Here we are,” McQuaid says, “a little older, none the wiser, and once again trudging beyond the pale with a brand-new collection of TALES. This season gathers some of the sharpest, strangest, and most brilliant writers we’ve ever had the pleasure to work with. The mics are hot, the celery’s snapping, and the tape is rolling.” Adds Fessenden, “It’s delightful to be back making mischief with artisans old and new. In a time when mounting a movie is so arduous, it’s fun and essential to be able to tell stories in a more spontaneous format.”

Also part of the TALES team is producer Jordan Gass-Pooré, with primary recording and mixing by Matt Rocker of Underground Audio. Musical collaborators Reznick, McQuaid and Dave Eggar also make multiple contributions. You can check out the first five seasons of TALES on iTunes, Audible, Spotify, Amazon and at the official website.


TALES FROM BEYOND THE PALE Season 6 Teaser: “The Host”
Writer and Score, Glenn McQuaid; Director, Larry Fessenden

(Released 30 October 2025)
Tommy and Gene uncover more than they bargain for when strolling through a graveyard at midnight.

Cast: Jaxon Bartok and Leon Barrett, Tales Theme by Jeff Grace, Poster by Brian Level

THE SLAUGHTERED
Written and directed by Joe Maggio.
(December 11, 2025: 36 mins)
A wealthy, “do-gooder” investor is caught unawares by the savage reverberations of a single act of moral duplicity.

Cast: James Le Gros, Alex Hurt, Emily Bennett, Eleanor Hutchins, Imani-Jade-Powers, Monica Wyche, Jordan Gass-Pooré and Matt Rocker.
Score by Dave Eggar. 
Poster by Tevor Denham.

ORPHEUS
Writer, Director Jenn Wexler
(December 11, 2025: 36 mins)
A recently widowed woman uses a new AI technology to talk to her dead husband.

Cast: Emily Bennett, Jeremy Holm, Abi Lieff, Estelle Olivia, Gaby Leyner, Glenn McQuaid, Matt Rocker, Rigo Garay, Larry Fessenden, John Speredakos
Sound Recording, Design and Mix by Matt Rocker at Underground Audio, NYC
Associate Producer: Sean Redlitz; Score by Antoni Maiovvi
“Waiting” written and performed by Shayfer James
Poster by Brian Level

THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR WILL BE YOUR OWN
Written and directed by Emily Bennett
(January 08, 2026;
 46 mins)

After a week-long bender in Las Vegas, a group of road-tripping friends stumble upon a pay phone in the middle of the desert that allows them to talk to their future selves.
Cast: Madeleine Morrell, Nick Fondulis, Samuel Dunning, Rigo Garay, Larry Fessenden and Emily Bennett.
Sound design and mix by Shawn Duffy
Original score by Graham Reznick.
Additional music by Epidemic Sound.
Poster by Trevor Denham

SUPER!
Written and directed by Rigo Garay
(February 12, 2026; 37 mins)
A New York City building Superintendent encounters a Super Gator on the night of the Super Bowl.

Cast: Bill Sage, Rigo Garay, Lorraine Farris, Kareem Savinon, Dante Fiallo, David Cardoza, Romanichel, Jessalyn Abbott.
Original score by Jack Fessenden.
Sound design and additional music by Matt Rocker
Poster by Brian Level.

EVERYTHING MUST GO
Written and Directed by Ted Geoghegan
(March 12, 2026; 30 mins)

A group of teens get more than they bargained for when hired to break into a shopping mall that’s swallowing a small town’s economy.
Cast: Chloë Levine, Clay Von Carlowitz, Benjamin Frankenberg, Xero Gravity, Asta Paredes, and Joe Bob Briggs
Original score composed by Luke Fuller
Sound recording, design, and mix by Matt Rocker
Poster artwork by Jason Beam

THE DEVIL’S SHARE
Written, directed and edited by Roxanne Benjamin
(April 09, 2026; 41 mins)

An investigation into the strange goings-on in a rust-belt factory town quickly goes south.
Cast: Zach Gilford, Liana Liberato, Jonah Ray Rodriguez, Larry Fessenden, Jon Daly, Matt Peters, Susan Burke, Kate Freund, Rigo Garay, Evan L. Katz, and Owen Granich-Young.
Sound Design and Mix, Owen Granich-Young
Score by The Gifted
Poster Art: Brian Level


Writer Richard Newby beaming in from Ohio;
Fessenden, Jordan Gass-Pooré, Rigo Garay and Sean Redlitz in NYC; Clint Jordan in LA.

 

Fessenden, Motell Gyn Foster, Owen Campbell

I sent the collection to a few friends in the horror space who I thought would dig it. Co-producer of this tale, Sean Redlitz, a screenwriter who I met through his work at Shudder, was one of the first I sent it to. He and Jenn Wexler’s positive response emboldened me to think about the potential of the stories beyond the page. At the time, I had no idea he knew Larry Fessenden. But I had connected with Larry on a piece I wrote for Fangoria called “Reckoning with the Wendigo,” in which he was my main interview subject. Larry sent me some Wendigo related books and comics he’d worked on over his career for further research. As thanks, I sent him a copy of We Make Monsters Here. I had no expectation he would read it or that anything would come of it. He’s an understandably busy guy, and I just wanted to express my gratitude.

 

 

Ella Rae Peck & Fessenden

Casting the actors for the episode was also an exciting new prospect. While I was writing the script this episode, a PR friend sent me a link to a film for review consideration. That film was Chris Skotchdopole’s Crumb Catcher. I loved the film and eventually wrote a booklet essay for the Arrow release of the film. Crumb Catcher was my introduction to Ella Rae Peck, and Rigo Garay as leading actors. Both were on my list for roles in the tale, and funny enough, I did not know that Rigo was also a producer on the then upcoming season of Tales (as well as writer and director of his own episode this season, “SUPER!”). The casting process was an easy-going, collaborative experience and the end result, as you can hear, is a true feat, bound together by Motell Foster’s three incredible, distinct, performances. What sticks with me the most about this entire process is how these seemingly disparate threads, stretching out over a decade, came together. Friends I grew up with, friends I met through my work in journalism, artists I admire, each with their own threads and connections, made this possible. That’s a creator’s dream, and a pretty wicked cool web at that!

 

 

Roxanne Benjamin on “The Devil’s Share”

Apr 13, 2026

With Susan Burke in the booth.

Liana telling Zach what’s what.

I come from a very rural rustbelt town, where tales told about the town itself down through the generations is a common occurrence – a shared communal history.  The sound of where I grew up – that Appalachia feel – is also something I really wanted to bring out in the story – growing up in that area it has a very distinct audio element in my mind – creaking trees, work boots on wooden floorboards, cicadas and a suffocating humidity – and that small town been-here-for-generations-everybody-knows-everybody closeness that can also be suffocating in its own right. That got me thinking – what if that small town ‘putting down roots’ charm wasn’t about not wanting to leave – but not being able to?  Being stuck in generational patterns and shared history.  Hence were the seeds of ‘The Devil’s Share’ born.

Zach me and Liana with our best school picture day smiles.

Apparently this is what directing looks like.

 

Ted Geoghegan on “Everything Must Go”

Mar 13, 2026

Benjamin Frankenberg, Clay Von Carlowitz, Joe Bob Briggs, Fessenden, Geoghegan, Asta Paredes.

Chloë Levine, Benjamin Frankenberg, Xero Gravity, Ted Geoghegan, Clay Von Carlowitz, Asta Paredes

 

Rigo Garay on “SUPER!”

Feb 13, 2026

Bill Sage and Garay

Dante Fiallo, David Cardoza and Rigo Garay

Jack Fessenden shredding the killer tune in SUPER!

 

Emily Bennett on
THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR WILL BE YOUR OWN

Jan 9, 2026

Jenn Wexler on “ORPHEUS”

Dec 12, 2025

Jordan Gass-Pooré, Rigo Garay, John Speredakos, Emily Bennett, Jenn Wexler, Jeremy Holm, Larry Fessenden, Gaby Leyner, Matt Rocker BELOW:Abi Lieff

And probably obvious to say, but this episode was 100% made by HUMANS. There was no AI in the making of this Tale. Sorry, Orpheus!

– Jenn Wexler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe Maggio on “THE SLAUGHTERED”

Nov 13, 2025

“The Slaughtered” came about, as so many of my creations seem to come about, as a result of long conversations with Larry Fessenden about politics, philosophy and the state of humanity. In this case, we were discussing John Rawls’ “veil of ignorance,” a thought experiment where individuals must build a society and its attending laws without knowing where they stand in the social hierarchy, and so out of sheer self-interest and self-preservation they will be motivated to create laws which are fair to everyone. I started thinking about this idea and how it applies to our current American society, where so often those at the top, the wealthy, the politically aligned of all colors and stripes, operate with a breezy, carefree nonchalance, buffered from any consequences stemming from their actions and ideas by the wide, soft cushion of their exalted status. I started to imagine a scenario where the chickens come home to roost, where a smug, wealthy, “do-gooder” investor is caught unawares by the savage reverberations of a single act of moral duplicity. Thus “The Slaughtered” was born.

 

For the cast, I knew I wanted to work again with James Le Gros, with whom I’d made one film (“Bitter Feast” 2010) and one previous tale (“Cannibals, Season 3.) As I wrote the script I imagined James’ voice in my head – refined, intelligent, a little mischievous – in the role of William Baxter, the morally upstanding ethical investor with a dark secret. For the role of Henry Munger, the town wild man, I was unsure, but then I met Alex Hurt on the set of Larry’s film, “Blackout” (2023). Watching Alex as Charley Barrett, the tortured artist/werewolf at the center of the film, it occurred to me that he would be the perfect Henry Munger, a tortured individual who, like Charlie, is highly civilized and utterly savage at the same time, these opposing impulses ceaselessly pulling at the jagged edges of his existence.

 

The dialogue was recorded in bits and pieces over the course of several weeks due to scheduling conflicts, including one marathon session with James Le Gros in a studio in LA and Alex Hurt in NYC. Underground Audio’s Matt Rocker somehow managed to weave it all together. In what was easily one of the most thrilling recording sessions I’ve ever been a part of, Dave Eggar, cellist extraordinaire, composed the score on the fly, listening to the radio play and then riffing, layering and just generally blowing our minds with the virtuosity of his playing and the acuity of his creative reflexes.

 

I’m so thrilled to have been given the opportunity to create this Tale. There’s something so pure about audio storytelling, and as a filmmaker it’s always good to be shaken up a bit and reminded of the power of sound as a storytelling engine. So much of what William and Henry say and do and the way they say and do it is ripped straight from my being. I hope listeners enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

—Joe Maggio, Nov 12 2025

TOP: Sketches by Trevor Denham for the poster. BELOW: Dave Eggar and Maggio discuss the score.