Persistence pays off?
Campfire Radio Theater review
Rating – 
I hate olives. Like, really hate them. In fact, I would probably have to be in a starvation situation to eat those evil black or green berries. Apparently, from what I’ve been told, you have to keep trying them. Nobody likes olives at first, you have to grow to like them. I, however, have better things to do with my time. This may seem like a somewhat random way to start the review of a podcast, but in my usual roundabout, waffling way I’ll get to the point. I promise.
So what’s it about?
CRT (because I can’t be bothered to type the whole thing out every time), is an anthology horror podcast, very much in the style of classic radio shows like Lights Out.
For the most part, these are short, single stories. Bite-size nuggets of Twilight Zone/Creepshow horror that are perfect for a binge session. A lot of the stories are originals, written by John Ballentine. There are also a few classics thrown in, and a sprinkling of re imagined or adapted tales such as War Of The Worlds or Jack The Ripper.
Unless it’s just my podcatcher, there are surprisingly few episodes for a podcast that has been running for a decade, however, it’s quite nice to not have to wade through over 500 episodes like some other podcasts I could mention.
Is it any good?
I have a soft spot for this style of storytelling. I adored all the classic radio shows of the 40s and 50s, and CRT wears its influences with pride. In fact, all that’s missing is an advert for “ironized yeast” and the transformation would be complete.
As such, the stories themselves are campy, creepy and trope-y, exactly the kind of thing Arch Oboler would have loved. Some of the stories could have been lifted wholesale from that era, and indeed their retelling of classic story The Haunted Cell fits so perfectly with the other tales that you can’t see the joins.
While the stories themselves are entertaining, there isn’t really anything groundbreaking here. You can pass the time between shocks playing “guess the plot twist”, but I don’t think the point of this show is to break new ground. It’s ultimately a homage to a classic era of radio, and if you keep that in mind then you’ll really enjoy it a lot.
Just like Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Bela Lugosi would lend their skills to the cast of regulars, here we have legendary voice actors such as David Ault and Graham Rowat. Also, as I write this, there are a few episodes featuring Matthew McClean and Jim Balfour from A Scottish Podcast. A treat indeed!
Final thoughts
While (as I have mentioned) this show has grown on me somewhat, there is just something about this that misses the mark. Online, this show has attained quite the status, and whenever anyone asks for recommendations of new shows, CRT is always high up in the list.
I can’t get behind the hype though. Yes, it’s a good show, but it isn’t amazing. I have listened to quite a few episodes now, and it’s quite hard to judge. I’ll listen to an episode and really question why I’m bothering, but then the next episode will be great. My opinion also changes when (as I said previously) I remember to compare it to classic radio shows. As you can tell, this hasn’t been an easy post to write, but that’s exactly the reason why this is a 3 brain review.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to put this unopened jar of olives back in the cupboard.
You can get Campfire Radio Theater here:
For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods