Imagine waking up one morning to alerts from the Emergency Broadcast System:
Stay inside. Keep your blinds closed. And, whatever you do …
Don’t look at the sky.
That’s how the audio drama podcast The Phenomenon starts off.
An alien race of predators that can kill in all sorts of ways—the most chilling, perhaps, by simply looking at you—has descended onto Earth. (Yes, if this reminds you of the Netflix film Bird Box, you’re not alone, although this story is very different.)
Humans are reduced to living underground and in bunker-type buildings as they desperately try to figure out a way to somehow survive and fight the creatures.
It’s a very compelling podcast overall, but one criticism I have is there appears to be an awful lot of characters and “scene” changes, and with only audio cues and no visual, I found it a little confusing at times to follow. (I think this is one of the reasons why single-narration podcasts, or an audio podcast built around one main character voice, is so much easier. Orienting yourself around one or two main voices is much simpler than a lot of switching around.)
But the story itself, especially interspersed with sounds from the Emergency Broadcast System, is extremely eerie.
If you like alien monster stories, I would definitely check out The Phenomenon.
November 2020 Issue
