Scary stories come in all shapes and sizes. Whether they’re gory or full of paranormal scares, many different aspects can make stories scary for their audience. This got me thinking, “how do different stories create different spooky atmospheres?”. So, I decided it would be fun to take a look at a different eerie podcast and compare it to NoSleep from the past two weeks. The podcast we’ll be looking at goes by the name of The Edge of Sleep (EOS) and follows the story of a man named Dave as he faces one of the most terrifying tragedies to hit the world: everyone who was asleep at four in the morning dies in their sleep from an unknown cause. Throughout the story, we watch idly by as Dave finds other survivors and the fight against doing what the body needs the most: sleep.
To begin, this story was told in a distinctly different medium than NoSleep is told. The Edge of Sleep is told through the first-person narrative, unlike NoSleep which changes its narrative style in every story included in the episode. The consistent storyline that EOS has creates more of a connection between the characters and the reader, making the stakes higher as the characters fight for their lives. In this way, the story is scary since the reader is both worried about the outside force at play with the character’s lives as well as if they are going to live or not. This is distinctly different from NoSleep because it capitalizes on smaller amounts of suspense and fear from the individual stories hold and doesn’t let the audience get attached to the characters as EOS does. Both are effective in the way that they portray their stories, but it is interesting to see a similar effect occurring through different styles of the same media.
The next most significant thing that I found differing between the two stories was the way that they use different elements to create the ambiance and fear that they do. In EOS, the author uses the overarching storyline to its advantage. The fact that there is more time to flesh out the story allows the author to create the looming dread of death and an unstoppable force that hangs over the characters like fog, which, for the reader, puts them on edge and even can get them to wonder if such a thing can happen in the real world, especially since the cause of the widespread death is unknown at the beginning. On top of this, the author’s use of fleshing out Dave’s backstory creates a connection that causes the audience to fear for Dave more than what could be done in NoSleep. Learning about Dave’s struggle with insomnia and bad dreams makes the situation direr but also gives the audience a bit of sense of hope for the character’s future. However, this is all quite different from the approach that NoSleep takes in its storytelling. NoSleep, for those who haven’t listened to it or read my other blog posts, is a podcast in which tells a few short scary stories from the website Reddit. In NoSleep, the creators of the podcast have a short time to make you scared. So, with the help of strong voice acting, offsetting music, and the most unsettling stories they can find, they create their podcasts. This style of podcasting was something that I had never seen before, and upon listening for the first time, I was intrigued very quickly by the way that the podcast is set up. The style is optimal for people who don’t have the time to listen to a whole podcast and may just want a short story, or for those who don’t want to get invested in a whole narrative piece and would rather get right to the point of the story. Both stories are effective in the way that they portray their scares and create a great listening experience.
In conclusion, I would say that if you’re looking for a good podcast, both EOS and NoSleep will do the job. When it comes to which one is more scary, in my opinion, it has to be NoSleep. The way that the stories are all so different and can feel so real create more of an uneasy feeling in my chest than EOS. However, this isn’t to discredit EOS as a podcast at all. It has become one of my favorite stories over the time I’ve been listening and every week that a new episode was released I was on the edge of my seat listening to see what was going to happen next. Now, it’s my turn to log off for the week. Until next time, give these podcasts a listen and I’d love to know what you think of them!
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