Tom's Terror Trove

Two unsuspecting ambulance attendants get far, FAR more than they bargained for, in this disgusting story from 1938.

Running from 1934 to 1947, Lights Out was an old-time radio program devoted to stories of horror and the supernatural. Created by Wyllis Cooper, later in the run it was helmed by the brilliant (and eccentric) Arch Oboler.

I was spoilt for choice in picking an episode to recreate (it came down to this one and Chicken Heart).

Unlike usual episodes of Tom's Terror Trove, this Hallowe'en special makes use of a full palette of foley sound effects.<...

We are once again adrift on dark and inhospitable waters this week, as, arriving hot on the heels of ferocious storms in New Zealand, Tom's Terror Trove is proud to present this newly-recorded version of The Brain-Eaters, from 1932.

The title gives perhaps a scintilla of a clue as to the contents of the story.

Good gross-out pulpweirdfiction stuff.

Eat up!

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in a couple of dollars to help with hosting and production costs, I'd be enormously grateful.
https://ko-fi.com...

Tonight, Tom's Terror Trove returns to one of the most original minds in Weird Fiction, the pioneering William Hope Hodgson. The Voice in the Night concerns a lonely ship in the middle of the Pacific, and a grotesque interlocutor with a horrifying story to tell.

B  O  D  Y  H  O  R  R  O  R

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in a couple of dollars to help with hosting and production costs, I'd be enormously grateful.
https://ko-fi.com/ttt

Queries, comments? Write to me at...

A tale of debauchery, depravity, and pestiferous perukes!

E F Benson (whose "The Thing in the Hall" I recorded in May 2024) said of Le Fanu, that his “best work is of the first rank, while as a 'flesh-creeper' he is unrivalled. No one else has so sure a touch in mixing the mysterious atmosphere in which horror darkly breeds".
I think that is certainly true of tonight’s story. There are some grotesquely comical elements to it, fitting for a narrative that takes place in the 18th century. I can see almost all of these characters comi...

Antithetical in life, in death I can make these authors share equal billing, muhahahaha!

Ahem. Tonight, Tom's Terror Trove is proud to present a story of a sadistic contest that grips a quiet southern town, PLUS a quickie about the mysterious (and potentially sinister, if wronged) ways of felines.

Listen, if you care - I mean, dare!

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in a couple of dollars to help with hosting and music licensing, I'd be enormously grateful.
https://ko-fi.com/ttt

Queries, comments...

Renowned author of mystery and gothic horror Shirley Jackson weaves a dreamlike tale of doublings, echoes, and (in the words of ST Joshi) "exemplifies the 'quiet weird tale' at its pinnacle".

Published in 1950, the story follows Margaret who visits her friend Carla's country estate for the holidays. Will she ever leave? Has she always been there?

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in a couple of dollars to help with hosting and music licensing, I'd be enormously grateful.
https://ko-fi.com/ttt

Queries, comments? Write to me...

We return to the Land of the Rising Sun this week, for a tale in which no overt harm is ever done, nor threatened. Yet this might (by certain metrics) be one of the grossest stories I've had the distinct pleasure to record.

An eminent writer receives an unsolicited manuscript, in which is contained a perverse narrative confession written by a disturbed chairmaker.

Transgressions ahoy.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in a couple of dollars to help with hosting and music licensing, I'd be enormously grateful.
...

As secrets and lies threaten to break apart the pilgrimage during their trek through the treacherous mire of The Grey Grease, a danger they thought they had escaped emerges from the clouds. Can Huw deploy what little magic he possesses to protect the group?

Part 9 of a multi-part series.

What if the otherworldly entities of the Cthulhu Mythos aren’t truly evil or malevolent, what if they are simply alien in the most profound sense of the word?

This story from 1949 about a dreamy young woman named Avis Long, maintains an almost romantic, sensuous quality (at least - I think so!), right up until its horrifying conclusion.

Listen out for the breaking into reality of creatures from Yuggoth and elsewhere.

Pleasant dreams.

Er - screams.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to chip in...

Deep space. Two jumpy chancers. And the aching, endless hunger of the void.

The Vanderlark was published in 1952, and written by prolific speculative fiction author Margaret St. Clair. It's the first 'pure' sci fi story for TTT. Rejoice!

The name may stem from the Vrykolakas, a vampire of sorts from Greek folklore. You'll see why.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to buy me a ko-fi, I have a page for that!
ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch...

Published in 1906, this lush, vivid and grim story paints a picture of the post-resurrection life of Lazarus not as a miracle to be celebrated, but an abomination to be abhorred.

The author, Leonid Andreyev, lived from 1871 to 1919, and the rich vein of Expressionism that runs through his novels, plays and short stories proved highly influential. Authors such as H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, who read Andreyev in translation in the 1920's, spoke favourably of his work.

Hold on to your hats, dear listeners, 'cause this one is B  L  E  A  K.

Na...

Hello, and welcome to Tom's Terror Trove, a podcast currently disgorging The Crawling World, an original dark fantasy/sci fi, full cast audiodrama. I also narrate classics and little-known gems of horror fiction: Mid 19th - early 20th century a speciality.

New episodes every Friday, 9am NZ Time.

I’m Thomas, a voice-actor (+ an occasional writer and musician), and I’m delighted to have you join me for tonight's episode.

If you'd like to buy me a ko-fi, I have a page for that!

ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Quer...

The madness and monstrosity lay in the figures in the foreground—for Pickman’s morbid art was preëminently one of daemoniac portraiture.

In this classic short story by H. P. Lovecraft, the narrator, Thurber, describes his encounter with the reclusive painter of the story's title, and comes to a dreadful conclusion about the inspiration behind his creations.

"Pickman's Model" was written in September 1926 and first published in the October 1927 issue of Weird Tales.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

If you'd like to buy me a ko-fi, I have a page for that...

Walter John de la Mare (25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was a prolific writer of fiction, and a crafter of finely tuned psychological horror. Lumping this particular story in with the 'gothic' subgenre is a little crude, but it shares a fair some features with The Turn of the Screw, so if you enjoyed my reading of that legendary novella, you'll likely appreciate this. Then again, I don't think Henry James had much of a sense of humour. De la Mare on the other hand...

Out of the deep features an unwanted inheritance, frequently interrupted sleep, childhood trauma, and something un...

Wes, Lithee and Garm contend with a monstrous interloper, as the pilgrims near the end of their journey through the mountain.

Their troubles are far from over, as they now face the vast, fetid swampland of The Grey Grease.

Part 8 of a multi-part series.

In this story: RATS!

Seeking solitude in which to study mathematics for his upcoming tripos (it's a Cambridge university thing), a fresh-faced undergraduate takes lodgings at an ill-omened country house. Could this possibly end well?

No. No it could not.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

Have you ever been out in the cold, yearning for the warmth of a crackling fire, and the company of kind humans?

Well, tonight's double-feature will satisfy that unnatural yearning, as both tales concern the subject of companionship, although each with wildly different, and terrifying results...

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

The descent continues. Through fire, into ice. The deep, dark hell of frozen shades recount their heinous acts to our narrator and his spectral guide.

The kaleidoscopic imagery and boundless, morbid imagination of Dante Alighieri is fully on display in this new translation, with each soul given their own distinct voice and characterisation by the narrator.

Abandon all hope, but enjoy the ride!

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17...

ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

Another temporary shift. Away from the pilgrims and their murky problems, to a lighter sphere, at least at first glance. A place of grand palaces and ancient lineages. The roots of nobility are buried deep in this plane, but long rotted, and fit only for kindling. How, and when, will all these stories converge? The echoes are increasing.

Part 7 of a multi-part series.

Cast

The group makes its way through the tunnels underneath the mountain, towards the marshes of the Grey Grease. Wes and Lithee are isolated from the main group, and encounter strange phenomena. Garm goes to investigate. Huw, Ra and Asher share a story.

Part 6 of a multi-part series.

Cast

Produced and written...

The pilgrims regroup to assess their situation, given the catastrophe that has befallen them.
Asher begins to assert himself, and faultlines are revealed, but there are moments of bonding too. Will they make for the city and an uncertain future? 

Part 5 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

Produced and written b...

We rejoin the pilgrims in the aftermath of an attack by the Child of Iachtanabas. Trapped within the cave they fled to for safety, they set to in order to dig themselves out of trouble, literally. Huw enlists Wes and Lithee to search for the lost sleepers, and Garm entertains (in the loosest possible sense of the word) Ra with an old song.

Part 4 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

Our narrative swerves, temporarily, and we find ourselves under a merciless sun, atop shifting sands, in an unknown time and place. Connections to our main story, the sunken realm and its imperilled pilgrims, will become apparent in due course.

Part 3 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

Produced and written by Thomas Barker

...

With no time to further understand the strange world he has been thrust into, the erstwhile sleeper and the small group that accompanies him flee for their lives. In the brief moments of respite during their flight, introductions are made.

Part 2 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast

Produced and written by...

Behold, The Crawling World. A thickly huddled mass. Dark-hued, folded in on itself a thousand, nay ten thousand times over. From your vantage point beyond the veil, you can dimly make out vast oceans, a tumult of mountains honeycomb-riddled with caves, extending you suppose, down into the fused depths.

Into this world is born Athamas. A sleeper, now awakened into a very dangerous reality indeed.

Part 1 of a multi-part, weekly series.

Cast
Andrew Winson as Fork-in-the-Road
https://andrewwinson.com/
Thomas Barker as Athamas

Produced and written by Thomas...

The initial outline and story bible are coalescing, and we're in the process of recording the first arc of 10 episodes.

I've assembled a wonderful cast for this epic tale:

Hears-Whispers: Vestigial Virtue https://www.twitch.tv/vestigialvirtue
Fork-in-the-Road: Andrew Winson http://http//andrewwinson.com
Split-Heel: Melissa C https://melissacarrington.carrd.co/#resume
Wide-Eyes: TheRealGChu https://www.castingcall.club/therealgchu

Plus a few other characters, music, writing etc - Thomas Barker (that's me!)

There will also a talented troupe of other performers who will recur as one-shot characters and...

A weekly serial audio drama, set in a chaotic abyssal plane, presided over by a mad demiurge. Yet, there is room for small sparks of light amidst the darkness.
Initial outline and story bible are coalescing, and I've written the first 5 episodes. They will be short initially, but may grow.

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

Sword and Sorcery clashes with the Cthulhu Mythos in this thrilling tale of the Pictish king Bran Mak Morn, by Robert E. Howard (a contemporary and correspondant of HP Lovecraft and creator of Conan the Barbarian). In order to bring justice to one of his people, the warrior-king enlists an ancient foe.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

The first in a sequence of three stories (The Shambler from the Stars, The Haunter of the Dark and The Shadow from the Steeple), this gruesome narrative involves a burgeoning writer who, in the desire for occult knowledge, purchases a forbidding book: De Vermis Mysteriis.
This tome has had quite the afterlife in subsequent fiction, appearing in many other stories by Bloch and Lovecraft, as well as (among many others) the opening title card of the 2004 movie Hellboy.
This is my first reading of a Bloch tale, and I can promise you now, there will be many...

This famous story (regarded by Kurt Vonnegut as the best short story in American literature) describes (in a style that today might be described as Lynchian) a moment in time. A man, condemned, and a dreamlike escape.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

https://ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

Narrated by a (somewhat) impartial court observer, this reworking of a much older tale, concerns the obsessive artistry, and terrible downfall of the painter Yoshihide. First published in 1918 in serial form, the author is considered the father of the Japanese short story, and himself met a tragic end.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

https://ko-fi.com/tuomasva

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

It was a seemingly ordinary mezzotint*, unremarkable except for the unusually high price, and the half-missing attribution on the back. Until the changes began. For the curator of a university art museum, a most unexpected, and shocking series of events is about to unfold.

This tale first appeared in James's first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, in 1904.


*a type of monochrome print

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0...

Robert Blake is a hunted man, only he does not know it yet.

A young writer with an interest in the occult, Mr Blake becomes fascinated by a distant church, the spire of which he can see from his garrett window. A furtive exploration uncovers an ancient artifact, and seals his fate.

The last written of H. P Lovecraft's stories (apart from a few collaborations), and is part of a sequence of three stories, the first and last of which are written by Robert Bloch (upon whom Blake is loosely based). It was first published...

The Bad Idea grows legs! Or perhaps wings...
In which I talk a bit about Inversion, Repetition and Paradox (with examples). Secondly, I read some of my crap attempts at writing short horror stories. Can you do better? I bet you can!
My apologies to Gilbert Gottfried, Groucho Marx, Fox's Animation Domination lineup.

The Philosophy of Horror: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/293103.The_Philosophy_of_Horror

The Great Silence:
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1983QJRAS..24..283B/abstract

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

...

Warning! Tonal whiplash incoming. This delightful (and delightfully creepy) short story by master of the genre Montague Rhodes James is a sort-of Billy Bunter meets the contents of a Breugel the Elder painting. Hopefully that doesn't give too much away.
First published in 1928, this was a joy to record; you can't beat the old English public-school grotesques.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

An ancient evil festers in the heart of a small community, and though the original perpetrators may be gone, traces of their misdeeds linger on. Also, it's never a good idea to stay the night in a seemingly abandoned mansion, even if you are on holiday.

Written in 1934, "Pigeons from Hell" is one of several regional horror stories by Howard set in the Piney Woods of the ArkLaTex region of the Deep South.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube...

What scares you, and why? What scares me?
For this episode, I wanted to do something different to my weekly serialisation, and open up the forum, to have a bit of a wee chat about why we love weird fiction. Who knows, maybe this'll become a 'thing'... Or maybe this was a Very Bad Idea.

Supernatural Horror in Literature https://hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/essays/shil.aspx

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

In our final instalment of this perplexing and perturbing story, (see episode 34 for part two). Things reach a fever pitch at Bly manor with multiple manifestations, disappearances, and a possible breakdown. Of reality, or of sanity? You be the judge.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi

In part two (see episode 33 for part one), tension mounts, apparition encounters increase, and the governess at Bly begins to lose the plot.

Narrated by Thomas Barker

Queries, comments? Write to me at: tuomasva@outlook.com

Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLU9gAlZeexHnFHASayT0nGM17V4hCSzSi