Scared To Death

Dan's first of two tales is a really in-depth and unsettling modern encounter claim revolving around a doll. As a little girl, Caroline quickly realized something was wrong with the doll in the blue dress. And the longer she had it, the more wrong it became. Then we head back almost a century to unearth an old, documented paranormal legend.  During one terrifying winter in 1939, something with a scream "like a banshee" sent an entire corner of West Virginia into a frenzy, drawing hunters from across the country into the Appalachian wilderness. Was the mysterious Blue Devil simply the l...

In this sixty-first installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we return once again to St. Jerome, where Maggie Sambor gets enough evidence to accept that something terrible is truly happening inside of Peterson's Grocery. We also begin to understand why what is happening inside Peterson's is happening, while at the same time,  the mystery around it all deepens.   For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com   Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a who...

Dan has one really big story this week!  We’re going to head to Austria’s Moosham Castle, a place with an exceptionally dark legacy, even for a castle.  The darkest part of this legacy was forged during one of Europe's most horrifying witch hunts, when 139 innocent people, many of them orphaned and sometimes also disabled children, were tortured and executed in the shadow of a legend known as Wizard Jackl. We start with the history , then we’ll look into paranormal claims including a modern encounter. Lynze brings four short stories this week, a nice counterbalance! A story about a...

We explore Argentina this week with Dan! First, a police officer investigating strange lights on a lonely dirt road who suddenly vanishes without a trace. Eighteen hours later he was found miles away, injured, confused, and claiming that something with glowing red eyes had taken control of his mind. Then, for years before his death, legendary Argentinian musician Luca Prodan nsisted his old San Telmo home was haunted by the sounds of dragging chains, distant screams, and unseen presences lurking in the darkness. Everyone assumed the troubled rock star was imagining things—until years after his death, something was di...

In this sixtieth installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we return to Peterson's Grocery in St. Jerome, where the mystery of what is happening to the local homeless population is deepening. A mystery Maggie Sambor is now finding impossible to ignore.  For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.<b...

For the first of two tales from Dan, we head south. In the middle of Mexico City sits a massive abandoned hotel that was supposed to become the most luxurious destination in Latin America. Instead, it became the site of an infamous suicide, decades of dark rumors, and a mysterious shrine built for the spirit of a little girl. Then, we’ll head to Chesapeake and Virginia Beach where locals have whispered about a stretch of road known for deadly accidents, unsolved murders, ghostly apparitions, and screams heard in the darkness near Stumpy Lake. Is the road haunted by th...

After spending some time in Germany, Dan is inspired to tell us two creepy tales from there! We begin in the Black Forest and find out what happens when we don't listen to the rules of our wiser elders. Then we arrive at Schlosshotel, a very creepy and very haunted abandoned hotel. Then Lulu Marie brings us haunted house sandwich with a ouija board tale for the meat! It's a fun combo of things and very classic scares!  LAST EVER Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp 2026: Have you heard?! We have some amazing friends joining us at c...

In this fifty-ninth installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we head to a new town, St. Jerome, that has a very, very strange grocery store, Peterson's, where something very, very awful is happening to some of the customers.  For Merch and everything else Bad Magic related, head to: https://www.badmagicproductions.com Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted b...

Dan gives us seven stories this week! Six of them come from Fate Magazine and one comes from Reader's Digest. It's a really fun new mix of tales! On the back half of the show, Lynze gives us three back to back to back spoopy tales! Her first has a full circle moment when a child hood entity shows itself again to a grown adult. Then, a ghostly visitor searches for his friend from the great beyond. Lastly, in an abandon house with no power, no phones lines, no signs of life, someone is calling. Literally.  Wet H...

For over six hundred years, scholars, codebreakers, and cryptographers have tried to decipher the mysterious Voynich Manuscript — a real medieval book written in a language no one on Earth has been able to translate. According to one allegedly true account, the real danger may not come from trying to translate the manuscript… but from giving it enough attention for it to try and teach your mind how to read it. Then, the Dyatlov Pass Incident - which remains one of the most unsettling mysteries of the modern era: nine hikers dead under bizarre circumstances, strange lights in the sky, cata...

In this fifty-eighth installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we return to Bluewater Falls as Kate Boyko continues to be haunted by what is looking more and more like the ghost of a woman her great-grandfather murdered, who has been exacting revenge on  pregnant women in her family for nearly a century.      Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Ho...

We begin in Japan, a place full of some of the best horror lore ever! Yotsuya Kaidan is the fictional, two centuries old story of a struggling samurai so desperate to escape the trappings of poverty that he horrifically betrays the one person who truly loves him. A person who refuses to stay gone when he gets rid of her. Then we have Kisaragi Station, a story that many have long believed isn’t just a story, but a true account from 2004, when users on a Japanese message board watched in real time as a woman named Hasumi posted fr...

A man living alone who woke up to what sounded like someone trying to break into his home is in for a paranormal encounter. Then,  we head to Vermont, where a quiet morning walk around a fog-covered pond turns into something unsettling.  Then, two tales from the same person, separated by twenty five years makes you wonder if this is a paranormal fire warning. Lastly, one of the very best, most undeniable encounter claims we have ever had.  Wet Hot Bad Magic Summer Camp 2026: Have you heard?! We have some amazing friends joining us at camp! Astonishing Leg...

Dan has some truly incredible tales this week. We  begin in Pennsylvania.  After a tense argument, a man reluctantly agrees to take an evening walk with his lifelong best friend through the woods outside their small town. But the deeper they wander into the darkness, the more uncomfortable things get. Next up, a young couple renting an isolated farmhouse in rural Oregon begin experiencing vivid nightmares after moving into their new home. It becomes apparent to them both that these are far from normal dreams. Then Lynze gives us three tales. Her first is a new thing to be af...

In this fifty-seventh installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we head to Bluewater Falls. A wonderfully scenic mountain resort town with a dark secret involving the charming lake it surrounds. We meet Kate Boyko as she is pulled into a haunted mystery and tries to determine what has happened to numerous members of her family there for generations.  Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.</p...

Dan begins in 1967, Miami. A souvenir warehouse began witnessing impossible events. Police officers, reporters, and paranormal investigators all saw things they couldn’t explain. Many became convinced the disturbances somehow centered around a quiet nineteen-year-old Cuban refugee named Julio Vasquez. After that, we jump ahead nearly a decade and ratchet up the terror. After fleeing Cuba and settling into a cramped Little Havana apartment in the mid-1970s, one Miami family began experiencing strange disturbances that quickly escalated into terror that would soon leave neighbors - and even a local priest - completely horrified. Lynze's stories this week are bo...

We begin with a widowed mother in a quiet English spa town wakes up in the middle of the night to find herself no longer alone. She desperately wants to dismiss what happened as nothing more than a nightmare  but that will quickly prove to be impossible to do. Then, a practical, no-nonsense governess is visited by something. Something that will change and appear to be very, very alive. Or at least, be very sentient despite being dead or unrecognizable as far as life as we know it. Then, a tale about a family all experiencing things in a C...

In this fifty-sixth installment of fictional horror written and narrated by Dan Cummins, we meet young Sophie Bennet, who has been hired by a couple  to baby sit their two children, Callum and Eilidh, for a few hours on a Wednesday night. They live outside of a small Scottish town in a home called the Blackthorn House. Behind their home is the Hollow Hill. And inside their home, things quickly spiral out of control.    Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Scared to Death ad-free and a whole week early. Start a f...

We spend all of our time with Dan in Hawaii this week! We head to the Big Island today for five stories.  Dan's first story is about something creepy that happened in Hilo in 1902 and 1903 primarily. It revolves around the ghost of a murdered man. Then his second is really a collection of four tales known to many who have taken ghost tours in Hilo. Lynze's tales amp up as she goes. She begins with a milder story about Stowe Bridge in Vermont. Then, a very very unsettling tale about a small piece of cloth that holds some kind p...

Five new tales of horror this week!! The first four are definitely creepy while the last one is a great confirmation tale. We begin with a story that revolves around a young boy getting the biggest basement bedroom in his family’s new house. He's excited about it until he's not. Then comes the story of a child seeing something under her bed that terrifies her. Was it just in her imagination? If so, then why decades later, did something else happens that makes her question what she saw as a kid? Next up, some a young man receives a...