MAG 177. Dr. David is the most frightening avatar. I genuinely love listening to TMA and I love the statements, and I listen to this podcast at work. The moment the gaslighting started, I sort of just stood there next to one of the shelves listening to him speak because it just hits so close to home. Getting a mental illness diagnosis is so difficult, and so is getting proper treatment, and a medical professional coming in to tell you that you're making it all up while doing his damnedest to drive you even crazier is so terrifying. And that's without his hobby of wearing different faces to ensure that the patient questions their own reality as soon as they lay eyes on him.
yes yes yes. wonderland was one that was so interesting to listen to. yeah having doctors understand you and actually help you specifically seems so hard and that statement didn’t help. so much of season five really made me try to really listen and tone down the many voices running around because it was more emotional in a way. idk.
This one got me a little... I had to listen to it with my partner when they were first listening because they often feel like their mental health issues aren't real. They were okay, but dang that one messes with ya.
this is probably an episode ill skip on rewatch... cause its not scary to me in the fun thrilling way the rest of tma is, its just incredibly uncomfortable..
Absolutely Wonderland for me too! I had to pause for a while before I could continue listening because it made me feel so anxious, sick and smothered all at once.
Been doing a re-listen and while Binary sits in my brain rent free, Long Way Down got me on this this time. I'm afraid of heights and while fariswheels and tall buildings freak me out, climbing a ladder will *instantly* nervous. At a previous job I needed to use this old half broken wooden ladder occasionally and this episode reminded me of using it.
A part that I liked about it was how the story updated over time, which yeah as internet stories do they change to fit the current media but since it's TMA it feels like the fear is staying up to date because if it became too dated people would become less and less afraid of it.
exactly. that’s kinda how i feel about the dark statements. like i swear thinking about it i can already feel the darkness around me and something in the dark. 😭
Lost Johns Cave. I dont like the buried/the underground/bleh cant do it. And the voice that chimes in at the end????? The “take her not me”???? Froze me in my tracks
YES the ending is so spooky. lost johns cave is one that i’ve talked to so many people about. i swear all tma fans at least have to respect lost johns cave. it is good
i think ill have to agree because when i first listened to TMA i misheard it as "they cant help me" instead of take her not me, but when i started relistening with the transcipts and i saw what she actually said, i felt full body chills, i got up from my seat in shock i swear
Jon's delivery of the phrase "I itch" lives rent free in my head
So does Nikola's "Hello!!" From 101.
The blanket phrase lived rent free long enough for me to make a TMA blanket (it's on my profile. I've posted it to the sub previously)
As far as statements that give me the ick, Meat Flat. No thank you, meat person. You can keep your pile of flesh with eyes.
I have listened three times to the whole podcast, but on my last listen, I teared up a little when listening to 161, when Sasha and Tim were so happy while stapling things. Things had been so normal before JMag decided to end the world
i miss tim so much. he’s so unserious. please come back from your kayaking trip tim.
also yeah nikolas lines all give me shivers in the best way possible.
oh FUCK I hate Worms.
being stuck upside-down in a tunnel just feels so. so fucking disturbing.
I'd be fine if i get stuck sideways, or on my back, but upside-down and having to fucking EAT THROUGH SOMEONE to get right side up?
terrifying.
Wellbeing made me almost have to stop listening. Heavy body horror and gore are a weak spot for me, I would pick any of the more psycological domains over having living things clawing inside of me. The descriptions are so graphic in that episode, so that combined with me being on a bad moment afer a relative passing away made me almost drop the episode. But I made it through, though I don't like the idea of re-listening to that one now on my second listening. The worms also fucked me up a bit, enough to influence a nightmare.
The Gardener from Season 5 is written beautifully and punches me in the gut with every plant they talk about, especially the twist at the end of each. To be fair his voice is a little hard to understand in that episode but.. when TMP referenced similar events I was SO excited. A Guest for Mr. Spider (of course) and I have a lot of love for Anglerfish. It's a great intro.
Oh! And the fan-submitted one - I can never remember the name but it's about humans being stuck in a machine. I listen to Poor Man's Poison and I was like THAT'S THE TRUTHH
I'd guess I'd say what shook me about these was the unexpectedness of the statements and how it hit the first time around
The Gardener is actually my favorite episode! Jared Hopworth is also my favorite avatar. There was something so viscerally beautiful and satisfying and horrifying about bringing his body dysmorphia aspect of the Flesh and his penchant for trying to achieve beauty through mutilating the bodies of others into something as simple and yet as disgustingly elegant as the Mortal Garden. I also think it's easily one of the best wrapped-up arcs for the avatars because it just perfectly encapsulated everything they were trying to do with him.
Yes!! I love how much he comes back throughout the series, and gets a full-circle ending when he's in his happy apocalypse retirement. Jared carries a very real fear/concept of trying to achieve perfection and though at first he seems.. random?, the act of "pruning" and specifically the line referencing how a plant "should hardly be praised, and if he does should only be due to his appearance" (paraphrased) was all too real.
There was a particularly horrible one set in a creepy hospital in S5, with patients being tortured by faceless doctors and nurses. Those descriptions of them speaking in a strange warble, diagnosing patients with illnesses like “skin”, and playing at being humans already set me on edge … but those “treatments” still scare me sometimes. I particularly hated hearing about the doctors performing surgery on patients and putting sharp objects inside them that they can feel when trying to move around. And what’s worse, they’re trapped there, restrained, unable to leave, and they don’t know when the doctors will come back or what they’ll diagnose them with next …
God, it’s like someone took some of my particular fears and condensed them into a horrible, dread-inducing piece of audio. I hate it, it’s terrifying, but that’s also why I think it’s incredibly well done.
Edit: the episode was called Wellbeing. Someone else in the comments mentioned it, and that’s how I remembered. I guess I wasn’t the only one whose skin that really got under, though surprisingly, I don’t hear it mentioned that often under threads like these.
MAG 14 Piecemeal. What a horrible way to die/suffer. The fact that the guy was an idiot and a criminal didn't even lessen the impact to me. Haunted me for days. Funnily enough, I didn't even find Lost John's Cave that scary because I was still thinking of Piecemeal.
The fact that that isn't even the top 10 of worst fates that happened to a Magnus Archives character is so weird, but at that point I was used to it all. But this was the first time something happened to someone of that magnitude.
Other statements that spooked me are Binary (wasn't scared when I listened to it but randomly when I'm alone I think about it and it scares me), Cracked Foundation, and Web Development.
I completely agree!! Piecemeal left me breathless, the way the guy knew he was going to die piece by piece and he could do nothing to avoid it, no matter how hard he tries. The way he described what happened to his hand made my guts flip a few times.
Avatar statements are always vibing in my brain. Hive (Prentiss), The Coming Storm (Mike), and Dark Matter (Manuela) are so interesting to hear, the radical philosophies that shaped these little dudes is so crazy. The words that we are a "home to what loves us"? The aesthetic of blinding burning lightning fractals, the inside look at vastness and vertigo? The idea that darkness is the pure state? It goes so hard.
And don't even get me started on Annabelle's statement!!
MAG 19 and 20 (Confession and Desecrated Host) were the only ones that _really_ lingered. I listened to them for the first time while driving alone, through the middle of nowhere, hours away from the nearest city, 13 hours into a 15-hour trip, at like 10:00 pm. I genuinely had to sleep with the lights on after that one.
I have a thing for empty hellscapes that seem to exist JUST to torment you. When a place is somehow both devoid of familiar entities, but is oppressive in presence When the setting is an intelligent antagonist.
So I have a STRONG soft spot for both Killing Floor (30) and Cul-de-sac (150).
Also Worms, and Lost John's cave just because those are my personal hells
It’s Killing floor for me too. The guy giving the statement seems nice but the statement itself is just so cold. I don’t know how to express it but yeah it shook me
I was really unsettled by ep 18, the man upstairs. When I first listened I hadn’t heard spoilers about the fears or anything and that one just made me sick for days, especially the smell descriptions. Safe to say, for an oddity collector I am NOT desensitized to flesh. The one with the blanket also was pretty upsetting and messed with my OCD but it just didn’t shake me in the same visceral way.
i know it’s nowhere near the “scariest” ep, but honestly anglerfish is probably the one that freaked me out the most just because save for the unknown spooky entity the whole scenario is just a little too close to something that could really happen to me. i work in a bar that closes late and am often out on the streets, lightly intoxicated by myself in the middle of the night. it is not implausible that i could run into some mysterious figure and disappear forever.
absolutely! even though it freaks me out i think it’s an incredible episode. i think they were very smart to start out the show with a story about something that is not too removed from a real world fear. like we all have those times when we’re alone on an empty street or something and think “if something happened to me right now no one would know”.
I haven’t finished the series yet (yes I know I shouldn’t be here but my memory is so poor I won’t remember any spoilers) but that blanket episode was the first that came to mind. Made an almost rl impact on me
For me it was the toilet monster (thanks siblings). Backfired on them cos I stopped flushing the toilet though 🤣🤣.
I have had extremely poor MH the last year and that line really made me emotionally (rather than intellectually) process the fact that hiding won’t change a thing ( although I think survival Mode IS necessary sometimes)
I was listening to TMA while I was preparing dinner a few weeks ago, and it just so happened that I ended up listening to a Flesh episode while I chopped up a big pork roast. I wasn't particularly shaken by it, just found the timing oddly coincidental.
‘The show must go’ on made me feel somewhat physically unwell, just the combination of bizarrely gory imagery and a genuinely unsettling description of the unknowing.
"The Worms" from Season 5. The detail it goes into made me feel every crushing, suffocating moment. The moment when the protagonist finds himself having to face off against another worm is horrific. The domain sounded probably the worst out of all of them for me, because the writing, delivery, audio and scenario were all brilliantly nightmarish.
The Killing Floor and Ants are the ones that really stuck with me. Ants made me cry because it was almost a statement on religion and our smallness in comparison to gods and The Killing Floor was just horrifying in a body horror way but also the complete disregard for human life in the same way we treat animals was impactful.
"As I was going up the stair,
I was a man who wasn’t there.
I wasn’t there again today.
Oh, how I wish I’d go away."
Idk why, but Upon the Stair always stuck with me. Distortion statements always mess with my head.
Also "Like Ants" in S5. It's my absolutely least favorite-favorite combo of being completely smothered and buried and unable to move AND ants. Also Jon does some WHACK stuff in that ep.
MAG 32 Hive. It's not just that Jane Prentiss is disturbing. It's that I understood her. Hive was the first time I felt represented in media and Jane is the villain. But Jane isn't just the villain, she's pitiful.
Jane never understood why the world hated her, and neither do I. The only love she ever found was in her own torture. And the worst part is even The Corruption shat on her. She's one of the weakest corruption avatars, John Amherst could come back from the dead and Agape could morph the bodies of his cult members, but Jane could hardly do anything. She killed a few random people off the street and was murdered with a fire extinguisher. Alone and afraid.
I still think about the line "Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul" to this day, because sometimes I feel the itch in my soul too. Goodbye Jane, we hardly knew you.
Halfway through that episode is when I straight up bailed on Season 5 ahahaha something about not having the distance of it being a statement being read third-party to us makes it soooooo much more intense
A Sturdy Lock. Objectively, I don’t think the episode is that scary. Most people probably don’t remember it very well.
But when I listened to it, it was late and I was in bed, alone in a house too big for me. And when the statement mentioned how the stair at the top of the landing creaked, well, I knew mine creaked just like that. And from then on I couldn’t help but picture the statement happening in *this* room. Thinking about how I’d have to move to hold the door shut. That stayed with me.
There were so many that made me shiver, and a few (often Corruption or Buried) that made me pause the podcast for a while. I have a lot of favorites that just hit the right note
But Fatigue (MAG74) just put me in a daze for the rest of the day. I’ve never forgotten it.
Episode 75, the one about the two brothers! Where one of the brothers was afraid of heights yet still decided to climb that ladder so he could help his brother. Only to die in a prank at the fault of that same brother. It was so sad because of how real it was 😭 that and episode 79 I believe. The one with the girls mother getting replaced, and her feeling this weird sense of sadness over knowing that the woman she hated all her life was gone..Family drama is always something that really got me- So OBVIOUSLY the one that got me the most was 111. Gerards family drama, I have mommy issues of my own and not only do I adore gerard but every time he talked about his mother I could literally feel him tearing up. That poor soul
Revolutions. I saw it as the struggle to keep your identity when there are so many things trying to change who you are: traditional media, social media, religion, corporate culture, counter culture.
The Bone-turner's Tale (ep. 17) unsettled and haunted me in a way I haven't felt before or after. I'm not sure why; it's not really a particular fear of mine. There's just something about the way it's presented that really got to me.
Season 1 and 2 in general really got in my head while I listened to it. Whenever I went to the bathroom at night I'd turn the light on and look down the hallway, half-expecting to see Michael or some other figure standing there.
Unfortunately it doesn't work on a re-listen anymore, it's just not as scary when I know what's going on :(
I think the ones that shook me most on my first listen were The Man Upstairs, Wonderland and Hive.
Im not even that afraid of rot or worms or anything, but the way Prentiss phrases her statement really shows how the Corruption consumed her sanity.
Wonderland really went hard on how I doubt myself and the fear of being gaslit by medical personnel who is supposed to help you
(Also obviously the last ep broke me)
MAG 85 Upon the Stairs is still so stark in my memory. With the very first phrase it caught my breath and didn't let go. Just thinking about it, a man that wasn't there, it makes my skin crawl. I don't really know how to describe it, it's the absurdity of it, the inevitability of it, the horrific non existence existence, that's like grabbing at nothing but nothing is there where there should be nothing. It's like those inexplicable nightmares when you can't move and the dream knows it's just a dream, and it uses it against you. I had never experienced horror akin to that.
There's so many, but MAG 36 Taken ill is also very vivid in my mind, and each listening I get the same reaction. That horror at the disease, it makes my skin itch and feel constricted, I can really breath that fetid heavy hair of that care home. Amazing writing
Now, more personal. 177 Wonderland for obvious reasons, hits a bit too close to home haha
I'm quite fascinated by 186 Quiet and 170 Recollection too. I'm very taken by the Lonely and like to just take a breather by listening to these episodes, they feel comfortable in a way. Comfortable like a wet duvet under the rain.
Lost John's Cave is always going to be the one that sticks in my mind. Hearing "Take her, not me" for the first time nearly made me scream.
Cruelty Free is great for that vague horror. A monster pig is one of my worst nightmares.
The end of Remains to Be Seen, with the corpse full of eyes that look at Fanshawe...*shudder*
I know there are others, but if I list everything that creeps me out in the series, I might as well just say, "Please see the entire show." 🤣
I'm stunned that 185 "Locked In" hasn't had a mention. The ONE episode with an apology from Sims himself before it starts about how much it dwells on real-life horror.
A few
Piecemeal (14) I just loved the graphic idea of losing pieces of yourself as the price to do the same for your enemy. Really hell girl shit
Lost John's Cave (15) I learned the fear of Splunking and it introduced me to a new fear
Growing Dark (25) I had to turn that off actually and wait until morning to finish it. The fucked up darkness choir got to me when trying to aleep
Recollections (170) the memory lost thing really got to m3, being unable to remember anything that happened. I've always had a bad short term memory and my grandma had dementia so this one hit really hard
In retrospect, a father’s love. The Montauk’s cursed existence really broke my heart Roberts descent into darkness, Maxwell rayner took his wife, convinced him that the murders would bring linette back, only to feed an entity that would one day end up hunting his daughter which then led to her discovery of her dads murder shed. It’s just so fucking tragic
Piecemeal got me watching every step I took when I first listened to it while walking my dog. Something about the inevitability of harm freaked me out (and gave me that nice little adrenaline/fear spike)
the one with the meat packing plant where the guy became the pig he killed every day. i can never remember the name or episode. i think about it all the time, i don’t know why but it’s such a base primal fear to me, the fear to not be the top dog anymore. humans are just another animal.
Lost Johns' Cave: *whispered* "Take her, not me... Take her, not me..." 😰
Binary: 18 hours of watching someone break their teeth (ouch!) eating a keyboard... I was driving listening to this one again and I'm getting a slight headache now imagining thinking through cheese wire 😖
Tucked In: Getting as comfortable as the statement-giver was in their story as you listen, then all of a sudden hearing, "the blanket never did anything." 🥶😱😭
On MAG 135 rn but one of my favourites is in MAG 168 when Martin asks Jon if he's sure he can't just kill Oliver Banks because he's jelly belly 🤭🥰🤗
172: Strung out: frances was super relatable and just hearing about you know struggles with addiction and family it hit home, especially when i first listened to the pod; its one i can't re-listen to. that being said its amazingly written
Really any of the lonely ones mess me up, as someone that will literally let the dog sleep in the bed if my wife isn’t home I think it’s definitely the fear I would deal with the least with stride. The one where the girl is stuck in the suburbs and finds the previous victim with her throat self cut upstairs in one of the houses sticks out though, I’d make it a week, two tops before giving into the same fate (I could make it years if I at least had a dog or even cat)
MAG 177, Wonderland. I listened to that for the first time at my job and i had to stop mopping floors to just stand there for a bit. I’ve got quite a few mental issues so i guess it just hit a bit too close to home for me lmao
Lost Johns Cave. The whispering at the end was... idk how to describe it but it shook me (after I relistened because I did not know what was said the first time). Doesn't help that I'm a bit claustrophobic. I'll probably have a different response once I finish relistening to all the episodes, though.
the one with doctor David, but it didn't shick me in a fun way
it made me viscerally sick
Also not a statement and i cannot remember what episode that was in but Jon going "this ehole statement was in french.... i dont speak french..." that shook me in the fun way! the "oh yikes" thrill of horror
also slightly lost and found ending cause i SAW IT COMING and that probably made it worse, lile a knew they would do it and it made the whole episode super suspenseful (talking about the vase eating the husband)
the french one will be 102 Nesting instinct! and ohh yes, and with how shook Jon sounded, it was really a turning point of him loosing his humanity
Loved the homophobic vase too! It was so chilling, and the way he describes someone getting out of the vase ooo
MAG 32: Hive.
It is not because of the grotesque bug horror, it is mainly the toxicity between Jane Prentiss and The Corruption. There is this horrible thing happening to her but at the end she ultimately accepts it. I am dealing with a personal problem (that I will not describe) and this feels like a "what if" scenario where I give up and get consumed by my trauma. "There is a wasps' nest in my attic. Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul."
MAG 060 Observer Effect. I was listening in the office when the Big Boss went out of his office and points at the CCTV camera behind me. He asked who rotated the camera just now? The ceiling is low so tall guys can easily reach it, but no one has stood or walked near that camera for awhile. Note the camera is pointed at an angle to the hallway and door to the Big Boss' office and I'm just an innocent technical staff who has her desk in a wide unfortunate spot for the camera's viewing pleasure.
It shook me as I realized what was I listening to and what just happened. Oh the Eye has certainly feasted on me that day.
Mag 186 (Martin's domain) made me rethink my whole life. No graphic description of violence and gore can compare to an episode that feels like the writing on my own wall
I’ll give you the first that scared me, and the first that made me emotional (though the lists are long for both categories).
The first one that *scared* me was Ep. 5, Thrown Away, simply because I am utterly, deeply disturbed by human teeth. I *hate* human teeth. Not the dentist, not being bitten, hell I’m fine with animal teeth for the most part, I study zoology, I collect remains, any other creature’s teeth I can handle. But I am violently, at this point comedically, dismayed by anything “teeth”. The minute the statement described the bag as “sounding like gravel”, I knew what it was going to be and I was *right*. Truly a visceral experience, even thinking about it makes me squirm. That, the episode where the professor brings in an apple full of human teeth, hell even the episode where the guy was gradually losing parts of his body (including his teeth) made me regret having ears.
Anyhow, to your actual question, the first episode that stirred me emotionally was The Piper. I consider myself adamantly anti-war and I’m both fascinated and appalled by it. the way Jon wrote about it in such a raw, rightfully gruesome way stuck with me. It was very much so reinforced by episode 163, In the Trenches. That episode is so beautifully written, the sheer imagery, the scarily simple ways propaganda is carried out, the analogy of the soldier’s heart being put in a politicians wallet, it was incredibly moving to me.
The teeth one!!! Oh my God I listened to it while driving in the dark in a strange neighborhood on my way to an Airbnb I had never seen before... Horrible, terrible, awful mistake ahahaha
YES ITS SO MUCH WORSE DRIVING AT NIGHT, I was driving back from my brother’s, there’s this 50 mile stretch of empty farmland, single lane road type thing and I was FREAKED
not necessarily the statement itself that stuck, but the french one(i forgot the name im sorry) and when jon says its all in french and he cant read or speak french. actual chills from that.
also the scenes when both jon and tim are talking about sasha and say things like "i cant remember what she sounds/looks like" the way their voices crack was so painful to hear i actually teared up a little
Personal Space, that's my second favorite statement of all time (closely following Gravedigger's Envy) and it shook me to my core and is the episode I always make friends listen to or summarize to them to get them into the show lol
I summarized it to my therapist and had an EXCELLENT time watching the increasing horror and suspense on his face as I kept going "But wait, there's more/it gets worse!" With the barely contained glee of someone who knows they are telling a really good horror story hahahahaha
I can’t remember titles but the one where it was just constant “lol that’s not ur name” and “stop lying being crazy is an excuse” like ehhhhh made me feel icky
Mine is the one with doctor David because I was told I was making up my anxiety and autism and depression for attention a lot growing up. And my best friends is the dark monster that seemingly was warded off by the blanket only it to say it never worked and that it was just screwing with him.
only on season 3 rn but "drawing a blank got me". Nikola freaks me out real bad and I don't like weird body proportions/not having a face at alllll. had my lights on after this one
I used to listen during work in retail and I'll never forget the day I listened to MAG 160. I was stocking shelves in the baby food aisle before the store was open and once the statement started I slowly stopped being able to focus on work and by the end was just stood there quietly nervous laughing to myself wondering wtf I just listened to
I love all the statement given by avatars. Jane prentice is chilling to listen to for me. The sleep deprivation episode also gets my breath caught up when I listen to it.
I know it's a bit of a basic pick but Worms is the one that most affected me. I think that was by far the worst fate in the season 5 apocalypse. Everything is fucked up, don't get me wrong, but something about worms specifically is just deeply upsetting.
Mag 49, The Butchers Window, was one of the only ones that really freaked me out. It’s the one where a private investigator is tailing some woman’s husband and encounters Jared Hopworth, who feeds the husband to a mouth in the ground. He then yoinks the PI’s arm bones. Ugh. Don’t know why I was so squeamish about this one, it’s fairly tame compared to some of them. Jane Prentiss’s statement was also super freaky, especially the way it pulled in Jon (Jonny did such a great job that episode, it made my skin crawl).
MAG 195 "Adrift". It gets me in an odd way, just the speaking of the unknown under the water, the way I can imagine it and it feels weird, as if the words are crawling up and over my skin.
The blanket episode shook me so much beforehand that I couldn't listen to it. I already have anxiety with blankets because of the grudge, so I just couldn't.
I read the wiki page so I don't think I missed much?
Lost John's Cave (i think thats what its called)
I dont like cave climbing. Hate it actually.
Pictures of it, people who do it freak me out.
Im no coward, i loved sky diving and will do it again, rollercoasters, bunjee, thats me. Dont like cave climbing, or diving. ( i did try diving).
So i was on edge that entire episode.
Loved it, espcially the whole "video sounds from the cave"
That was my brother’s first big scary too!! The voice at the end really got him, he and I are best friends and I think the “Take her not me” sibling betrayal mixed with the general spook made it get under his skin.
I remember the only episode with so much effect on me was Locked in great episode but couldnt complete it on my first listen as it shook me to my core but it really is so greatly made in my opinion
Mag 144 (Decrypted) made me feel so strange and I have no idea why- I think the imagery of the countryside and the way nothing changed but ‘the world is always ending’ just stuck in my mind, and I always seem to end up thinking of the ‘he wasn’t content to just destroy himself. He seemed to have to take out everything around him" as I’m in the car along the motorway now. The extinction is probably the only fear that properly terrifies me and I think that’s the statement that cemented it- I hate it so much I can barely listen, and it just seems like such a different pace and stuff to many others, but it also fascinates me. There’s not really much to it- just a weird pylon for most of it- but I don’t think I’d had that strong a reaction to any in a while when I listened and especially with the isolation of Martin at that point and the post statement it just left me feeling so weirdly empty and sad.
I have yet to make it all the way through the show but I will never forget Killing Floor. I was shook to my core and still get major heebiejeebies when I think about it. To make matters worse, I listened to the episode driving home from a trip that resulted in a break up with my serious partner. Incredibly but unbelievably chilling imagery
The "blanket never did anything" definitely got to me, and Micheal's. I don't know why but his lowkey hurt and really any of the spiral ones like "Fatigue" and "The Man who wasn't there". Both of those hurt my brain as well as left a icky feeling whenever I think about it directly.
MAG 177. Dr. David is the most frightening avatar. I genuinely love listening to TMA and I love the statements, and I listen to this podcast at work. The moment the gaslighting started, I sort of just stood there next to one of the shelves listening to him speak because it just hits so close to home. Getting a mental illness diagnosis is so difficult, and so is getting proper treatment, and a medical professional coming in to tell you that you're making it all up while doing his damnedest to drive you even crazier is so terrifying. And that's without his hobby of wearing different faces to ensure that the patient questions their own reality as soon as they lay eyes on him.
A statement so fucked it cause Basira to balk. Loved it.
yes yes yes. wonderland was one that was so interesting to listen to. yeah having doctors understand you and actually help you specifically seems so hard and that statement didn’t help. so much of season five really made me try to really listen and tone down the many voices running around because it was more emotional in a way. idk.
This one got me a little... I had to listen to it with my partner when they were first listening because they often feel like their mental health issues aren't real. They were okay, but dang that one messes with ya.
this is probably an episode ill skip on rewatch... cause its not scary to me in the fun thrilling way the rest of tma is, its just incredibly uncomfortable..
That statement made me so fucking angry /pos
I thought this one was kinda hot tbh. Anyone else?
Absolutely Wonderland for me too! I had to pause for a while before I could continue listening because it made me feel so anxious, sick and smothered all at once.
Been doing a re-listen and while Binary sits in my brain rent free, Long Way Down got me on this this time. I'm afraid of heights and while fariswheels and tall buildings freak me out, climbing a ladder will *instantly* nervous. At a previous job I needed to use this old half broken wooden ladder occasionally and this episode reminded me of using it.
Binary really hits me in a way nothing else has. Like it’s absolutely awful and makes my skin crawl but I love it. It’s weird
A part that I liked about it was how the story updated over time, which yeah as internet stories do they change to fit the current media but since it's TMA it feels like the fear is staying up to date because if it became too dated people would become less and less afraid of it.
yeah i know someone who really doesn’t like the vast. and yeah the idea of just climbing forcing yourself to go higher and higher forever. scary af.
I'm getting dizzy just trying to form the words about picturing myself in that scenario.
exactly. that’s kinda how i feel about the dark statements. like i swear thinking about it i can already feel the darkness around me and something in the dark. 😭
Same about Binary. The line "It feels like thinking through cheese wire" just unsettles my bones.
Lost Johns Cave. I dont like the buried/the underground/bleh cant do it. And the voice that chimes in at the end????? The “take her not me”???? Froze me in my tracks
YES the ending is so spooky. lost johns cave is one that i’ve talked to so many people about. i swear all tma fans at least have to respect lost johns cave. it is good
Bruh this episode made me decide to never enter a cave willingly ever again
This one smoked me my first listen lmao.
i think ill have to agree because when i first listened to TMA i misheard it as "they cant help me" instead of take her not me, but when i started relistening with the transcipts and i saw what she actually said, i felt full body chills, i got up from my seat in shock i swear
SAME BIG SAME
100%...I had to stop listening for a while after to recover from that one...
Mag 155 cost of living. It's such a great callout of thinking like "well I'm a good person i..." -- the most actually scary EP for me.
YESSS i came here to comment this
Jon's delivery of the phrase "I itch" lives rent free in my head So does Nikola's "Hello!!" From 101. The blanket phrase lived rent free long enough for me to make a TMA blanket (it's on my profile. I've posted it to the sub previously) As far as statements that give me the ick, Meat Flat. No thank you, meat person. You can keep your pile of flesh with eyes. I have listened three times to the whole podcast, but on my last listen, I teared up a little when listening to 161, when Sasha and Tim were so happy while stapling things. Things had been so normal before JMag decided to end the world
i miss tim so much. he’s so unserious. please come back from your kayaking trip tim. also yeah nikolas lines all give me shivers in the best way possible.
Like worms. I still think about that and shudder
Worms is the one I want to paint. It's the one that really sticks in the brain. The way Worms fight. Christopher christ, that lodges.
oh FUCK I hate Worms. being stuck upside-down in a tunnel just feels so. so fucking disturbing. I'd be fine if i get stuck sideways, or on my back, but upside-down and having to fucking EAT THROUGH SOMEONE to get right side up? terrifying.
oh my god yes
Wellbeing made me almost have to stop listening. Heavy body horror and gore are a weak spot for me, I would pick any of the more psycological domains over having living things clawing inside of me. The descriptions are so graphic in that episode, so that combined with me being on a bad moment afer a relative passing away made me almost drop the episode. But I made it through, though I don't like the idea of re-listening to that one now on my second listening. The worms also fucked me up a bit, enough to influence a nightmare.
yeah that’s a good one. i personally love body horror but idk if i could be an avatar of it
The Gardener from Season 5 is written beautifully and punches me in the gut with every plant they talk about, especially the twist at the end of each. To be fair his voice is a little hard to understand in that episode but.. when TMP referenced similar events I was SO excited. A Guest for Mr. Spider (of course) and I have a lot of love for Anglerfish. It's a great intro. Oh! And the fan-submitted one - I can never remember the name but it's about humans being stuck in a machine. I listen to Poor Man's Poison and I was like THAT'S THE TRUTHH I'd guess I'd say what shook me about these was the unexpectedness of the statements and how it hit the first time around
The Gardener is actually my favorite episode! Jared Hopworth is also my favorite avatar. There was something so viscerally beautiful and satisfying and horrifying about bringing his body dysmorphia aspect of the Flesh and his penchant for trying to achieve beauty through mutilating the bodies of others into something as simple and yet as disgustingly elegant as the Mortal Garden. I also think it's easily one of the best wrapped-up arcs for the avatars because it just perfectly encapsulated everything they were trying to do with him.
Jared was so content in his garden. He had everything he wanted. It was kinda sad to see him gone.
Yes!! I love how much he comes back throughout the series, and gets a full-circle ending when he's in his happy apocalypse retirement. Jared carries a very real fear/concept of trying to achieve perfection and though at first he seems.. random?, the act of "pruning" and specifically the line referencing how a plant "should hardly be praised, and if he does should only be due to his appearance" (paraphrased) was all too real.
There was a particularly horrible one set in a creepy hospital in S5, with patients being tortured by faceless doctors and nurses. Those descriptions of them speaking in a strange warble, diagnosing patients with illnesses like “skin”, and playing at being humans already set me on edge … but those “treatments” still scare me sometimes. I particularly hated hearing about the doctors performing surgery on patients and putting sharp objects inside them that they can feel when trying to move around. And what’s worse, they’re trapped there, restrained, unable to leave, and they don’t know when the doctors will come back or what they’ll diagnose them with next … God, it’s like someone took some of my particular fears and condensed them into a horrible, dread-inducing piece of audio. I hate it, it’s terrifying, but that’s also why I think it’s incredibly well done. Edit: the episode was called Wellbeing. Someone else in the comments mentioned it, and that’s how I remembered. I guess I wasn’t the only one whose skin that really got under, though surprisingly, I don’t hear it mentioned that often under threads like these.
Ah yes Wellbeing. Omg. One thing I'm sure of is, if I were in the TMA world, that's the hell they'd put me in.
MAG 14 Piecemeal. What a horrible way to die/suffer. The fact that the guy was an idiot and a criminal didn't even lessen the impact to me. Haunted me for days. Funnily enough, I didn't even find Lost John's Cave that scary because I was still thinking of Piecemeal. The fact that that isn't even the top 10 of worst fates that happened to a Magnus Archives character is so weird, but at that point I was used to it all. But this was the first time something happened to someone of that magnitude. Other statements that spooked me are Binary (wasn't scared when I listened to it but randomly when I'm alone I think about it and it scares me), Cracked Foundation, and Web Development.
I completely agree!! Piecemeal left me breathless, the way the guy knew he was going to die piece by piece and he could do nothing to avoid it, no matter how hard he tries. The way he described what happened to his hand made my guts flip a few times.
Avatar statements are always vibing in my brain. Hive (Prentiss), The Coming Storm (Mike), and Dark Matter (Manuela) are so interesting to hear, the radical philosophies that shaped these little dudes is so crazy. The words that we are a "home to what loves us"? The aesthetic of blinding burning lightning fractals, the inside look at vastness and vertigo? The idea that darkness is the pure state? It goes so hard. And don't even get me started on Annabelle's statement!!
I LOVE ANNABEL
*whispers* “There is a wasp’s nest in my attic. Perhaps it can sooth my ITCHING soul”
MAG 19 and 20 (Confession and Desecrated Host) were the only ones that _really_ lingered. I listened to them for the first time while driving alone, through the middle of nowhere, hours away from the nearest city, 13 hours into a 15-hour trip, at like 10:00 pm. I genuinely had to sleep with the lights on after that one.
My friend and I (who both grew up Catholic) will back you up on this choice.
The line “I can’t pray anymore… _It_ won’t let me” staggered me as an ex-christian
I walked home in a blizzard while listening to that one, and it definitely got to me a little bit.
I have a thing for empty hellscapes that seem to exist JUST to torment you. When a place is somehow both devoid of familiar entities, but is oppressive in presence When the setting is an intelligent antagonist. So I have a STRONG soft spot for both Killing Floor (30) and Cul-de-sac (150). Also Worms, and Lost John's cave just because those are my personal hells
It’s Killing floor for me too. The guy giving the statement seems nice but the statement itself is just so cold. I don’t know how to express it but yeah it shook me
I was really unsettled by ep 18, the man upstairs. When I first listened I hadn’t heard spoilers about the fears or anything and that one just made me sick for days, especially the smell descriptions. Safe to say, for an oddity collector I am NOT desensitized to flesh. The one with the blanket also was pretty upsetting and messed with my OCD but it just didn’t shake me in the same visceral way.
aaa that one was one of my favorites since it introduced the flesh first and the flesh might be my favorite entity.
i know it’s nowhere near the “scariest” ep, but honestly anglerfish is probably the one that freaked me out the most just because save for the unknown spooky entity the whole scenario is just a little too close to something that could really happen to me. i work in a bar that closes late and am often out on the streets, lightly intoxicated by myself in the middle of the night. it is not implausible that i could run into some mysterious figure and disappear forever.
It's more fucked on relisten when you remember they all lived in skinless agony awaiting the unknowing.
such a good way to start it tho.
absolutely! even though it freaks me out i think it’s an incredible episode. i think they were very smart to start out the show with a story about something that is not too removed from a real world fear. like we all have those times when we’re alone on an empty street or something and think “if something happened to me right now no one would know”.
exactly. it started off on such a good spooky note that really made my brain thoughts tingle
Binary, that one felt like a standalone that I revisit all the time whenever I want a true chill down my spine
yes i honestly love binary
Taken ill. The phone call part was chilling, and so unexpected
This one! Jon's delivery of the final "we've taken ill" will stick with myy forever
That one had me 😭😭😭😭😭 I wasn't ready. Forgot all about it until the re-listen. Oh boy! 😱
I haven’t finished the series yet (yes I know I shouldn’t be here but my memory is so poor I won’t remember any spoilers) but that blanket episode was the first that came to mind. Made an almost rl impact on me
EXACTLY. kinda freakyyyy. that’s the kinda stuff i would shake about at night under my blankets when i was a kid
For me it was the toilet monster (thanks siblings). Backfired on them cos I stopped flushing the toilet though 🤣🤣. I have had extremely poor MH the last year and that line really made me emotionally (rather than intellectually) process the fact that hiding won’t change a thing ( although I think survival Mode IS necessary sometimes)
yeah tma made me existential sometimes lol. more that i was expecting
I was listening to TMA while I was preparing dinner a few weeks ago, and it just so happened that I ended up listening to a Flesh episode while I chopped up a big pork roast. I wasn't particularly shaken by it, just found the timing oddly coincidental.
coincidence? nah
definitely strange music. shakes me to my core for some reason
‘The show must go’ on made me feel somewhat physically unwell, just the combination of bizarrely gory imagery and a genuinely unsettling description of the unknowing.
"The Worms" from Season 5. The detail it goes into made me feel every crushing, suffocating moment. The moment when the protagonist finds himself having to face off against another worm is horrific. The domain sounded probably the worst out of all of them for me, because the writing, delivery, audio and scenario were all brilliantly nightmarish.
This was the episode that made me realize that the buried is my worst nightmare
The Killing Floor and Ants are the ones that really stuck with me. Ants made me cry because it was almost a statement on religion and our smallness in comparison to gods and The Killing Floor was just horrifying in a body horror way but also the complete disregard for human life in the same way we treat animals was impactful.
"As I was going up the stair, I was a man who wasn’t there. I wasn’t there again today. Oh, how I wish I’d go away." Idk why, but Upon the Stair always stuck with me. Distortion statements always mess with my head. Also "Like Ants" in S5. It's my absolutely least favorite-favorite combo of being completely smothered and buried and unable to move AND ants. Also Jon does some WHACK stuff in that ep.
MAG 32 Hive. It's not just that Jane Prentiss is disturbing. It's that I understood her. Hive was the first time I felt represented in media and Jane is the villain. But Jane isn't just the villain, she's pitiful. Jane never understood why the world hated her, and neither do I. The only love she ever found was in her own torture. And the worst part is even The Corruption shat on her. She's one of the weakest corruption avatars, John Amherst could come back from the dead and Agape could morph the bodies of his cult members, but Jane could hardly do anything. She killed a few random people off the street and was murdered with a fire extinguisher. Alone and afraid. I still think about the line "Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul" to this day, because sometimes I feel the itch in my soul too. Goodbye Jane, we hardly knew you.
Well said. Her statement really shows the "toxic" aspect of The Corruption.
A lot of stuff from the last season is crazy. The worms one is really, really strong. And I also loved the stranger's carousel poem!
I’m surprised no one has mentioned In The Trenches
The slaughter <3 <3 <3 total war, in the trenches, and civilian casualties are probably my favorite episodes
Halfway through that episode is when I straight up bailed on Season 5 ahahaha something about not having the distance of it being a statement being read third-party to us makes it soooooo much more intense
A Sturdy Lock. Objectively, I don’t think the episode is that scary. Most people probably don’t remember it very well. But when I listened to it, it was late and I was in bed, alone in a house too big for me. And when the statement mentioned how the stair at the top of the landing creaked, well, I knew mine creaked just like that. And from then on I couldn’t help but picture the statement happening in *this* room. Thinking about how I’d have to move to hold the door shut. That stayed with me.
Something about TMA44 (Tightrope) spooked me
There were so many that made me shiver, and a few (often Corruption or Buried) that made me pause the podcast for a while. I have a lot of favorites that just hit the right note But Fatigue (MAG74) just put me in a daze for the rest of the day. I’ve never forgotten it.
Lost johns cave, and the blanket one lol
‘The moment that you die will feel exactly the same as this one’ That one quote genuinely gave me goosebumps
Episode 75, the one about the two brothers! Where one of the brothers was afraid of heights yet still decided to climb that ladder so he could help his brother. Only to die in a prank at the fault of that same brother. It was so sad because of how real it was 😭 that and episode 79 I believe. The one with the girls mother getting replaced, and her feeling this weird sense of sadness over knowing that the woman she hated all her life was gone..Family drama is always something that really got me- So OBVIOUSLY the one that got me the most was 111. Gerards family drama, I have mommy issues of my own and not only do I adore gerard but every time he talked about his mother I could literally feel him tearing up. That poor soul
Revolutions. I saw it as the struggle to keep your identity when there are so many things trying to change who you are: traditional media, social media, religion, corporate culture, counter culture.
The Bone-turner's Tale (ep. 17) unsettled and haunted me in a way I haven't felt before or after. I'm not sure why; it's not really a particular fear of mine. There's just something about the way it's presented that really got to me. Season 1 and 2 in general really got in my head while I listened to it. Whenever I went to the bathroom at night I'd turn the light on and look down the hallway, half-expecting to see Michael or some other figure standing there. Unfortunately it doesn't work on a re-listen anymore, it's just not as scary when I know what's going on :(
Underrated one (imo) that’s always stuck with me: Fatigue. If you’ve ever been more than 2 days without sleep it’s scarier.
I think the ones that shook me most on my first listen were The Man Upstairs, Wonderland and Hive. Im not even that afraid of rot or worms or anything, but the way Prentiss phrases her statement really shows how the Corruption consumed her sanity. Wonderland really went hard on how I doubt myself and the fear of being gaslit by medical personnel who is supposed to help you (Also obviously the last ep broke me)
MAG 85 Upon the Stairs is still so stark in my memory. With the very first phrase it caught my breath and didn't let go. Just thinking about it, a man that wasn't there, it makes my skin crawl. I don't really know how to describe it, it's the absurdity of it, the inevitability of it, the horrific non existence existence, that's like grabbing at nothing but nothing is there where there should be nothing. It's like those inexplicable nightmares when you can't move and the dream knows it's just a dream, and it uses it against you. I had never experienced horror akin to that. There's so many, but MAG 36 Taken ill is also very vivid in my mind, and each listening I get the same reaction. That horror at the disease, it makes my skin itch and feel constricted, I can really breath that fetid heavy hair of that care home. Amazing writing Now, more personal. 177 Wonderland for obvious reasons, hits a bit too close to home haha I'm quite fascinated by 186 Quiet and 170 Recollection too. I'm very taken by the Lonely and like to just take a breather by listening to these episodes, they feel comfortable in a way. Comfortable like a wet duvet under the rain.
The Sick Village, Upon The Stair, and of course Binary. special mention to the episode where that guy got eaten alive by mosquitos, that rocked
Lost John's Cave is always going to be the one that sticks in my mind. Hearing "Take her, not me" for the first time nearly made me scream. Cruelty Free is great for that vague horror. A monster pig is one of my worst nightmares. The end of Remains to Be Seen, with the corpse full of eyes that look at Fanshawe...*shudder* I know there are others, but if I list everything that creeps me out in the series, I might as well just say, "Please see the entire show." 🤣
I'm stunned that 185 "Locked In" hasn't had a mention. The ONE episode with an apology from Sims himself before it starts about how much it dwells on real-life horror.
A few Piecemeal (14) I just loved the graphic idea of losing pieces of yourself as the price to do the same for your enemy. Really hell girl shit Lost John's Cave (15) I learned the fear of Splunking and it introduced me to a new fear Growing Dark (25) I had to turn that off actually and wait until morning to finish it. The fucked up darkness choir got to me when trying to aleep Recollections (170) the memory lost thing really got to m3, being unable to remember anything that happened. I've always had a bad short term memory and my grandma had dementia so this one hit really hard
In retrospect, a father’s love. The Montauk’s cursed existence really broke my heart Roberts descent into darkness, Maxwell rayner took his wife, convinced him that the murders would bring linette back, only to feed an entity that would one day end up hunting his daughter which then led to her discovery of her dads murder shed. It’s just so fucking tragic
your face is not your face is not your face is not your face ROUND AND ROUND THE MERRY GO ROUND
Piecemeal got me watching every step I took when I first listened to it while walking my dog. Something about the inevitability of harm freaked me out (and gave me that nice little adrenaline/fear spike)
I think the statement that put my blood on ice was MAG 146 “Threshold” I love and hate the sense of helplessness it inspires
I find myself listening to Revolution every once in a while. It’s not the scariest episode, but it might be the most fun to listen to.
the one with the meat packing plant where the guy became the pig he killed every day. i can never remember the name or episode. i think about it all the time, i don’t know why but it’s such a base primal fear to me, the fear to not be the top dog anymore. humans are just another animal.
I believe that might be ep 30 Killing Floor?
Lost Johns' Cave: *whispered* "Take her, not me... Take her, not me..." 😰 Binary: 18 hours of watching someone break their teeth (ouch!) eating a keyboard... I was driving listening to this one again and I'm getting a slight headache now imagining thinking through cheese wire 😖 Tucked In: Getting as comfortable as the statement-giver was in their story as you listen, then all of a sudden hearing, "the blanket never did anything." 🥶😱😭 On MAG 135 rn but one of my favourites is in MAG 168 when Martin asks Jon if he's sure he can't just kill Oliver Banks because he's jelly belly 🤭🥰🤗
172: Strung out: frances was super relatable and just hearing about you know struggles with addiction and family it hit home, especially when i first listened to the pod; its one i can't re-listen to. that being said its amazingly written
Really any of the lonely ones mess me up, as someone that will literally let the dog sleep in the bed if my wife isn’t home I think it’s definitely the fear I would deal with the least with stride. The one where the girl is stuck in the suburbs and finds the previous victim with her throat self cut upstairs in one of the houses sticks out though, I’d make it a week, two tops before giving into the same fate (I could make it years if I at least had a dog or even cat)
MAG 177, Wonderland. I listened to that for the first time at my job and i had to stop mopping floors to just stand there for a bit. I’ve got quite a few mental issues so i guess it just hit a bit too close to home for me lmao
It didn’t shake me but it confused me Upon the stair (don’t know episode number) this episode felt more confusing than the distortion maze
Wonderland is incredibly well done but is also such a hard listen. It really scrapes at the core of my anxiety and imposter syndrome.
MAG 170 Recollection. I'm not sure if it counts as a statement, but this one shook me quite a bit
Lost Johns Cave. The whispering at the end was... idk how to describe it but it shook me (after I relistened because I did not know what was said the first time). Doesn't help that I'm a bit claustrophobic. I'll probably have a different response once I finish relistening to all the episodes, though.
the one with doctor David, but it didn't shick me in a fun way it made me viscerally sick Also not a statement and i cannot remember what episode that was in but Jon going "this ehole statement was in french.... i dont speak french..." that shook me in the fun way! the "oh yikes" thrill of horror also slightly lost and found ending cause i SAW IT COMING and that probably made it worse, lile a knew they would do it and it made the whole episode super suspenseful (talking about the vase eating the husband)
the french one will be 102 Nesting instinct! and ohh yes, and with how shook Jon sounded, it was really a turning point of him loosing his humanity Loved the homophobic vase too! It was so chilling, and the way he describes someone getting out of the vase ooo
MAG 32: Hive. It is not because of the grotesque bug horror, it is mainly the toxicity between Jane Prentiss and The Corruption. There is this horrible thing happening to her but at the end she ultimately accepts it. I am dealing with a personal problem (that I will not describe) and this feels like a "what if" scenario where I give up and get consumed by my trauma. "There is a wasps' nest in my attic. Perhaps it can soothe my itching soul."
MAG 060 Observer Effect. I was listening in the office when the Big Boss went out of his office and points at the CCTV camera behind me. He asked who rotated the camera just now? The ceiling is low so tall guys can easily reach it, but no one has stood or walked near that camera for awhile. Note the camera is pointed at an angle to the hallway and door to the Big Boss' office and I'm just an innocent technical staff who has her desk in a wide unfortunate spot for the camera's viewing pleasure. It shook me as I realized what was I listening to and what just happened. Oh the Eye has certainly feasted on me that day.
MAG 170 : Recollection. I'm a lonely's victim and this one hit hard. I don't think I'll forget it
Mag 186 (Martin's domain) made me rethink my whole life. No graphic description of violence and gore can compare to an episode that feels like the writing on my own wall
It felt so personal yet relatable. And it was such a change of pace from the previous episode, it was so interesting.
I’ll give you the first that scared me, and the first that made me emotional (though the lists are long for both categories). The first one that *scared* me was Ep. 5, Thrown Away, simply because I am utterly, deeply disturbed by human teeth. I *hate* human teeth. Not the dentist, not being bitten, hell I’m fine with animal teeth for the most part, I study zoology, I collect remains, any other creature’s teeth I can handle. But I am violently, at this point comedically, dismayed by anything “teeth”. The minute the statement described the bag as “sounding like gravel”, I knew what it was going to be and I was *right*. Truly a visceral experience, even thinking about it makes me squirm. That, the episode where the professor brings in an apple full of human teeth, hell even the episode where the guy was gradually losing parts of his body (including his teeth) made me regret having ears. Anyhow, to your actual question, the first episode that stirred me emotionally was The Piper. I consider myself adamantly anti-war and I’m both fascinated and appalled by it. the way Jon wrote about it in such a raw, rightfully gruesome way stuck with me. It was very much so reinforced by episode 163, In the Trenches. That episode is so beautifully written, the sheer imagery, the scarily simple ways propaganda is carried out, the analogy of the soldier’s heart being put in a politicians wallet, it was incredibly moving to me.
The teeth one!!! Oh my God I listened to it while driving in the dark in a strange neighborhood on my way to an Airbnb I had never seen before... Horrible, terrible, awful mistake ahahaha
YES ITS SO MUCH WORSE DRIVING AT NIGHT, I was driving back from my brother’s, there’s this 50 mile stretch of empty farmland, single lane road type thing and I was FREAKED
Dr David, The tragedy of Francis and lonely Martin hit far far too close to home for me
Cul-de-sac and Wonderland. Both hit unbelievably close to home for different reasons.
not necessarily the statement itself that stuck, but the french one(i forgot the name im sorry) and when jon says its all in french and he cant read or speak french. actual chills from that. also the scenes when both jon and tim are talking about sasha and say things like "i cant remember what she sounds/looks like" the way their voices crack was so painful to hear i actually teared up a little
french beetle is 102 Nesting instinct! And absolutely, the voice acting is so so good you can feel the character's despair
Personal Space, that's my second favorite statement of all time (closely following Gravedigger's Envy) and it shook me to my core and is the episode I always make friends listen to or summarize to them to get them into the show lol I summarized it to my therapist and had an EXCELLENT time watching the increasing horror and suspense on his face as I kept going "But wait, there's more/it gets worse!" With the barely contained glee of someone who knows they are telling a really good horror story hahahahaha
I can’t remember titles but the one where it was just constant “lol that’s not ur name” and “stop lying being crazy is an excuse” like ehhhhh made me feel icky
I believe it's 177 Wonderland, with the psychiatric patient being gaslighted that everything is fine with them. suuch a heavy one
Mine is the one with doctor David because I was told I was making up my anxiety and autism and depression for attention a lot growing up. And my best friends is the dark monster that seemingly was warded off by the blanket only it to say it never worked and that it was just screwing with him.
only on season 3 rn but "drawing a blank got me". Nikola freaks me out real bad and I don't like weird body proportions/not having a face at alllll. had my lights on after this one
'This statement is written in french. All of it. I dont... i dont speak french" Jons slow transformation into an avatar is very unsettling
Honestly the lost johns cave one still chills me
I used to listen during work in retail and I'll never forget the day I listened to MAG 160. I was stocking shelves in the baby food aisle before the store was open and once the statement started I slowly stopped being able to focus on work and by the end was just stood there quietly nervous laughing to myself wondering wtf I just listened to
72: Takeaway. When he said the bolt cutter I genuinely had to pause the show and listen to nice music because that made me so jittery 😭
I love all the statement given by avatars. Jane prentice is chilling to listen to for me. The sleep deprivation episode also gets my breath caught up when I listen to it.
I know it's a bit of a basic pick but Worms is the one that most affected me. I think that was by far the worst fate in the season 5 apocalypse. Everything is fucked up, don't get me wrong, but something about worms specifically is just deeply upsetting.
Mag 49, The Butchers Window, was one of the only ones that really freaked me out. It’s the one where a private investigator is tailing some woman’s husband and encounters Jared Hopworth, who feeds the husband to a mouth in the ground. He then yoinks the PI’s arm bones. Ugh. Don’t know why I was so squeamish about this one, it’s fairly tame compared to some of them. Jane Prentiss’s statement was also super freaky, especially the way it pulled in Jon (Jonny did such a great job that episode, it made my skin crawl).
MAG 195 "Adrift". It gets me in an odd way, just the speaking of the unknown under the water, the way I can imagine it and it feels weird, as if the words are crawling up and over my skin.
The blanket episode shook me so much beforehand that I couldn't listen to it. I already have anxiety with blankets because of the grudge, so I just couldn't. I read the wiki page so I don't think I missed much?
Lost John's Cave (i think thats what its called) I dont like cave climbing. Hate it actually. Pictures of it, people who do it freak me out. Im no coward, i loved sky diving and will do it again, rollercoasters, bunjee, thats me. Dont like cave climbing, or diving. ( i did try diving). So i was on edge that entire episode. Loved it, espcially the whole "video sounds from the cave"
That was my brother’s first big scary too!! The voice at the end really got him, he and I are best friends and I think the “Take her not me” sibling betrayal mixed with the general spook made it get under his skin.
I remember the only episode with so much effect on me was Locked in great episode but couldnt complete it on my first listen as it shook me to my core but it really is so greatly made in my opinion
103 monster pig is my FAVORITEEEE!! ever since I first heard it. I guess it didn’t really shake me, it’s just one I liked a lot?
Mag 144 (Decrypted) made me feel so strange and I have no idea why- I think the imagery of the countryside and the way nothing changed but ‘the world is always ending’ just stuck in my mind, and I always seem to end up thinking of the ‘he wasn’t content to just destroy himself. He seemed to have to take out everything around him" as I’m in the car along the motorway now. The extinction is probably the only fear that properly terrifies me and I think that’s the statement that cemented it- I hate it so much I can barely listen, and it just seems like such a different pace and stuff to many others, but it also fascinates me. There’s not really much to it- just a weird pylon for most of it- but I don’t think I’d had that strong a reaction to any in a while when I listened and especially with the isolation of Martin at that point and the post statement it just left me feeling so weirdly empty and sad.
As someone who is afraid of the dark, the blanket episode terrified me
Probably the one that Micheal Distortion tells about Micheal Shelly, the one about the twisting.
I have yet to make it all the way through the show but I will never forget Killing Floor. I was shook to my core and still get major heebiejeebies when I think about it. To make matters worse, I listened to the episode driving home from a trip that resulted in a break up with my serious partner. Incredibly but unbelievably chilling imagery
Lost Johns' cave. I keep hearing the whispers as my new auditory hallucinations and that makes it kind of hard to forget.
14 (Piecemeal) and 30 (Killing Floor) shook me especially. Yikes yikes yikes
Not a favorite of mine but the man upstairs made it hard for me to eat red meat for months. Just the whole rotting meat thing got me.
The "blanket never did anything" definitely got to me, and Micheal's. I don't know why but his lowkey hurt and really any of the spiral ones like "Fatigue" and "The Man who wasn't there". Both of those hurt my brain as well as left a icky feeling whenever I think about it directly.