The Stories We Tell in the Dark
NEW format! NEW show! NEW start! If you're here for strange and unusual stories about film and television, welcome! If you're looking for our old conspiracy and paranormal episodes, please see the archives at MAGICAL MYSTERY RADIO: INANE RAMBLINGS FROM THE FRINGE. THE STORIES WE TELL IN THE DARK is a discussion of cinema deep cuts, weird behind-the-scenes stories, and forgotten film lore. SHADOWPLAY is an upcoming series of story-driven episodes about cinema’s bizarre and hidden histories. FILM ON THE FRINGE was a limited series exploring modern cult classics and genre favorites and their connections to magic and mystery. Host Adam Charles has written for Walt Disney Television, Amblin Entertainment, and more. He has crossed paths with so many media personalities over the years, he's come to think of himself as the Forrest Gump of film.
Episodes
Take a haunted walking tour of Hollywood with Adam. Along the way, meet spectral projectionists, Marilyn Monroe’s haunted mirror, the ghosts of the Roosevelt Hotel, and Peg Entwistle, the tragic actress who walks forever beneath the famous "H."
Tour Stops:
El Capitan Theatre
TCL Chinese Theatre
Hollywood Walk of Fame
Roosevelt Hotel
The Magic Castle
Hollywood Sign
A 1978 thriller accidentally supercharges a conspiracy - and a Hollywood icon’s life spirals into a true-crime saga. We explore Peter Hyams’ Capricorn One - why Buzz Aldrin disapproved, how it was saved by Superman, and how moon-hoax theories grew from fringe chatter to mainstream mania. Then we trace the 2001 murder of Bonny Lee Bakley - and actor Robert Blake’s criminal trial.
Movies mentioned:
...
Adam explores several strange and chilling tales at the crossroads of movies, music, and true crime. Folk-rock singer Jim Sullivan vanished in the New Mexico desert after appearing in Easy Rider and releasing his album UFO. Iron Butterfly bassist Philip "Taylor" Kramer, a tech pioneer in video compression, disappeared after a...
What do radioactive fallout, cannibal rats, and a flying turtle have in common?
In this episode, Adam explores the dark origins of Japan’s most iconic monsters. From the real-life 1954 Lucky Dragon incident - sometimes called the “third atomic bombing” - to the scrapped rat-horror film that accidentally gave birth to Gamera, it’s a wild ride through film, folklor...
What’s real, what’s not, and what the Warrens never told you.
Is The Conjuring: Last Rites a true story? What really happened to the Smurl family - and how involved were Ed and Lorraine Warren? What's the real story of Annabelle the Doll? And what happened to Annabelle's handler in July?
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Content warning: The first segment covers real-life on-air suicides and may be distressing to some listeners.
This week, Adam shares a strange and tragic mix of stories: disturbing on-air deaths (one which anticipated Paddy Chayefsky's Network by two years); the real-life pain behind Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's creation of Superman; and a buried
Adam explores some of film’s most infamous curses - from Poltergeist and its real skeletons to the eerie disappearance of the man who may have invented cinema before Edison. Also: a FLESH EATERS resurrection, some Hollywood lore, and the show’s evolving format.
Movies mentioned:
FLESH EATERS, POLTERGEIST, THE FIRST FILM (Round...
In this week’s episode of Magical Mystery Media, Adam takes you on a strange journey through pop culture, folklore, and forgotten history – starting with the new film Weapons and ending with the real-life boy who inspired The Exorcist.
Visit magicalmystery.media for show notes (or to send a...
Adam shares memories of working with Troma Films in 1980s NYC, reflects on THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, and solves two internet mysteries: the real origin of the famous time-travel ad that inspired SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED and the photo that inspired SEVERANCE by way of the eerie Backrooms phenomenon.
Visit magicalmystery.media for show notes (or to send a message).
For archived episodes of Magical Mystery Radio going back to 2016, s...
Adam reveals two chilling true stories he chose not to cover in his upcoming Shadow Play series: the disturbing case of Ed Gein, and the mysterious death of Elisa Lam.
First, the strange case of Elisa Lam, a Canadian student whose bizarre behavior on hotel security footage went viral before she was tragically found dead in a ...
What if a dream could kill you?
We revisit Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and the real-life sleep phenomena that inspired it. We explore how Freddy Krueger emerged from Craven’s own childhood fears and reports of mysterious deaths among Hmong refugees.
Blade Runner is more than a sci-fi classic — it’s a meditation on memory, identity, and empathy. We explore Philip K. Dick’s 2-3-74 mystical VALIS experience, the meaning of the Voight-Kampff test, and why the film still resonates today as a cinematic awakening.
Dr. Atom takes you behind the scenes of JURASSIC PARK—literally. After a personal story of working alongside the filmmakers, we explore the science of cloning dinosaurs, the truth behind amber-trapped DNA, and modern de-extinction efforts using CRISPR and AI. Then we dig into the 19th-century Bone Wars, Victorian dinosaur mania, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s THE LOST WORLD. Along the way, we follow a strange fossil trail into the world ...
Gremlins on the wing, goblins in the woods, and strange little beings at your window. From WWII aviation lore to Spielberg’s unmade alien siege story, this episode traces the evolution of mischievous trickster creatures through folklore, pop culture, and real-life encounters—including the night something came calling in Kentucky.
Venture into the murky space between psychological manipulation and the supernatural. Today, we’re talking about The Quiet Ones (2014), a Hammer Films horror throwback inspired by one of the strangest real-world experiments ever attempted: the Philip Experiment. We’ll unpack how a group of researchers in 1970s Canada set out to create a ghost, explore Derren ...
Let's explore The War of the Worlds — the iconic novel by H.G. Wells and the countless interpretations, adaptations, and conspiracy theories it inspired.
We discuss:
- The 2005 Spielberg movie and the 1953 George Pal version
- The long-forgotten SEQUEL published only a year after the original <...
Let's dissect The Conjuring 2 and the real-life case that inspired it—the infamous Enfield Poltergeist. Was it a genuine supernatural event or an elaborate hoax that spiraled out of control? Join me as I explore how this case became one of the most documented hauntings in history.
Ed and ...
Enter the eerie world of artificial intelligence—from the sleek and unsettling Ex Machina to real-life AI developments that feel ripped straight from science fiction. We’ll explore the rapid evolution of AI, the ethical dilemmas that come with it, and some unsettling cases of chatbots behaving… strangely.
Are we on the verge of...
Explore the wild world of werewolves, from the cult classic Ginger Snaps to real-life sightings of “dog men.” We’ll discover the folklore behind our moon-dappled friends, look at how pop culture molded them into the creatures we recognize today, and figure out what exactly makes a man-wolf tick.
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