A Scary Home Companion

Nathaniel Hensley

Drinking whiskey in the kitchen and telling scary stories around the fire. Music and mayhem, fearful fiction and furious fact, tall tales and terrible truths. A Scary Home Companion is a sinister variety show, featuring original stories and original music read less

Our Editor's Take

A Scary Home Companion is not a film review podcast, nor does it involve celebrity interviews. This series shares original horror stories. Its creator and narrator is Nathaniel Hensley. The podcast combines aspects from mythology, true crime, history, and horror films. Some stories are ideal for kids at bedtime. Others, Nathaniel jokes, aren't friendly to anyone. The podcast's name is a play on the Garrison Keillor radio show A Prairie Home Companion.

Each story is original so that horror fans can discover new characters in intriguing situations. There are Halloween episodes and supernatural stories about ghosts and ghouls. There are also murder mysteries with all the gruesome details. Podcast listeners can enjoy classic settings from basements to cemeteries.

Teenagers may enjoy the podcast episode "Bedtime Stories for Abnormal Adolescents." It comprises three stories. Although rated PG, Nathaniel admits they are three of the most "unsettling" stories he has ever told. In the "Hide and Seek" story, the main character receives weekly therapy in a hospital. When she's not at the hospital, she doesn't leave her house, or as she calls it, her "voluntary prison." She wants to lock the world out with armed guards and bars on her windows. Nathaniel shares her story about how no matter where someone hides, they can never be safe.

Nathaniel has written "Murderclown Christmas Vacation" for the holiday season. Clowns have long been a classic trope in horror fiction. In this story, there's a whole family of them wreaking havoc. It begins with two private detectives sitting in a darkened car on a "stakeout" operation. While enjoying idle chit-chat, the front door of the house they are watching opens. A man steps out, half-naked, except for half a Santa suit and clown makeup on his face. One of the detectives calls their client to confirm that they have found the "murder clowns." Who are they, and why does this client want them found?

The A Scary Home Companion podcast shares stories of horror and the supernatural. Listeners can expect tales of cannibals, cults, and shape-shifting witches. New episodes premiere most weeks with another original tale.

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Episodes