1 mins
HIGHLIGHTING LGBTQ+ CREATIVES
For any horror buffs, podcast fans, or general creeps out there, the team behind Petrified have just launched the longawaited second series of their show.
Photo by Steven Peice.
The first series of the acclaimed Irish podcast won a New York Festivals Radio Award for Drama Podcast in 2020 and garnered rave reviews and legions of horror fans worldwide in the process, and now -it’s back.
Petrified stands apart from other horror podcasts as it’s a distinctively Irish shocker. Each episode is a terrifying stand-alone story where ordinary folk encounter the supernatural, but as it’s grounded in Irish history, things like the panto, the recession and the dreaded 12 pubs of Christmas make an appearance.
Petrified came about when Peter, the series writer and director, actually tricked Liam, the producer, into working with him. Having never made audio drama before and wanting to get involved, Peter knew of Liam’s talents, so got in contact pretending to seek his advice about a project, then over lunch, ‘subtly’ pitched the idea of a horror show which ‘came to him on the spot’. Thankfully, Liam took the bait.
The duo would go on to create hoax audio ghost tours of Dublin which would lead to attendees unwittingly cursing themselves by taking part or being lured into becoming a blood feast for the vampiric mutation of Bram Stoker. They even made a horror radio show for kids, Spooky FM on RTÉjr, with the intention of warping a whole new generation of fans.
As queer people, it was important for the pair to have LGBTQ+ representation in their work, so many of the episodes of Petrified feature queer characters who get just as nasty fates as their straight counterparts. In the launch episode, ‘Ghost Estate’, a gay couple trapped in a yet-to-be completed estate by the recession begin to fear there’s something lurking in the empty houses around them. Listeners can find out for themselves whether the pair live happily ever after (Hint: they don’t).
With Irish creatives taking the world by storm in the field of scary cinema, these two homegrown horrors are flying the rainbow flag (with a skull and crossbones on it) for Irish audio terror on the international stage.
Check out Petrified wherever you get your podcasts.