3 Spooky Podcasts That Will Keep You Up All Night This Halloween

Halloween is the one time of year when it’s perfectly acceptable to invite the darkness in – to turn off the lights, put on your headphones, and let something eerie whisper in your ear. Whether you crave cinematic tales of the supernatural, true accounts of the unexplainable, or slow-burn gothic horror that seeps into your bones, these three podcasts deliver nightmares in surround sound. Here are the shows that will keep you up long after the last jack-o’-lantern goes out.

Sightings

Sightings doesn’t just tell you about supernatural legends – it drops you right inside them. With cinematic production that combines gripping narration and pulse-pounding sound design, this podcast transforms infamous paranormal tales into full-bodied experiences that will leave you scrambling for the light switch. Think you know the truth about the Amityville Haunting or the Legend of Sleepy Hollow? Think again.

Favorite episode: “Bumps In The Night” chronicles one man’s escalating battle with sleep paralysis and the pitch-black shadow that creeps closer to his bed each time he opens his eyes. The narration is intimate, the atmosphere suffocating, and by the end, you’ll swear you can feel something watching from the corner of your own room. It stayed under our skin long after the credits rolled.

Otherworld

If Sightings feels like being dropped into a cinematic ghost story, Otherworld feels like eavesdropping on the people who actually lived it. The podcast collects real firsthand accounts of unexplainable encounters, from UFO sightings to near-death experiences, told by the people who swear they’re true. Each story is raw, human, and deeply unsettling, blurring the line between documentary and nightmare.

Favorite episode: “The Devil’s Errand” feels like an urban legend but turns out to be unsettlingly true. When three high school friends skip class, they meet a man on a train who insists no one else can see him – and disturbingly, he’s right. The episode is Otherworld at its best: eerie, grounded, and impossible to shake once it’s in your head.

My Victorian Nightmare

For those who like their scares with a touch of candlelight and decay, My Victorian Nightmare is gothic horror at its finest. Each episode resurrects the ghostly anxieties of the 19th century and wraps it in atmospheric narration from host Genevieve Manion. From grisly train murders to haunted asylums to the twisted beauty rituals that literally killed people, My Victorian Nightmare proves that the past was far darker and stranger than any modern horror story.

Favorite episode: “Ghosts of The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum” takes you inside one of America’s most haunted locations, exploring both its brutal history and the spirits that allegedly still roam its halls. Genevieve’s atmospheric narration will have you convinced you’re walking those corridors yourself.