Horror is always difficult to do well, but when it is, the genre has the power to be one of the greatest vehicles for storytelling. Most people remember a well-told horror tale and its ability to sit lurking in the recesses of our minds for years to come, ready to resurface when next confronted with a dark flight of stairs, creaky floorboard or unnaturally silent woods.
I have a personal preference for a subtle style of horror, a hint of something not quite right, a subtle twisting of reality that drips a growing feeling of disquiet and unease as you sense rather than are shown that something is just not quite right. The Magnus Archives ticks most of these boxes, easily lingering in the best possible way in my ailing memory.
Magnus also manages a feat so rarely accomplished in modern storytelling that it shines even brighter for doing so. It knows where it’s going and more importantly, it knows when to stop. How often has promising long-form storytelling collapsed under the weight of the need to continue feeding the corporate greed that somewhere along the line it managed to attach itself? The X Files, Lost, and most recently Game of Thrones (to name but a few) have all given diminishing returns (although having not personally watched GoT I’m just going to base my opinion on the books – still unfinished)
To review in detail would be to horrendously spoil for anyone who has yet to listen to this little-known gem, therefore I will set out the bare bones and allow those whose curiosity is piqued to discover for themselves the real flesh of this podcast.
It initially presents as a routine “monster of the week” story. Pleasingly concise 20-25 minute-long episodes focusing on the newly installed head archivist at the Magnus institute. Based in central London this is a centre for research into the paranormal and the new archivist is presented with the daunting task of collating decades of seemingly random collected statements into something more orderly. Strangely the only format that seems to work effectively is recording them with an old-fashioned tape recorder.
The first few episodes, or statements, gently introduce us to the key protagonists. The head archivist, Jonathon Sims and his all-seeing boss Elias, along with a small team of researchers follow up each statement with supplemental info. Initially sceptical Jon dismisses most of the statements as the rambling of drunks, drug addicts or the mentally unstable. However, as time goes by, we discover alongside the archivist common themes and names, links that hint at a much bigger and darker picture.
This is where the Magnus archives become something special. Never dumbing down it allows plenty of room for the story to breath as the audience is allowed to make the connections at the same pace as Sims. You soon find yourself desperately wondering if you have heard a name before or realising, you’re hearing the same incident from a different point of view.
Pleasingly it’s also primarily set in the UK which grounds the stories in familiar areas, streets and cities you have probably walked through. As well as using real historical events and people to give it an air of believability that will get you frequently double-checking Wikipedia. There is also the reassuringly British cadence to it, aided by the dour but gentle narrator’s voice. There’s something strangely pleasing when the key characters’ response to the horrors assailing them is to suggest a nice cup of tea.
With five seasons of 40 episodes each, the overall story arcs of each season and the narrative thread that ties them all together are a joy to listen to and throughout its 200 episodes, there are some absolute gems with very few duds. Well written and produced by Rusty Quill, directed by Alexander Newall and written, confusingly, by Jonathon Sims (who has also published a debut novel – well worth checking out) the Magnus archives is a rare treat in this world, a story that sweeps you along with it and delivers a payoff seeded from the very first episodes.
Found pretty much everywhere you can download podcasts this can’t be recommended enough, if you enjoy horror and a well-told tale, then make sure to add this to your download list, just make sure not to read too much about it beforehand. It would be all too easy to horrendously spoil this story with a misplaced Google search which would be a crying shame. This is a story you need to come into blind and enjoy as it unfolds.
And don’t blame me if some of the more unnatural statements become your new nightmares…
