Elias The Caretaker

Loved it. The production is excellent - storyline solid. The pace of the storytelling keeps it moving well. And it’s got the perfect amount of creepiness and suspense. I’ve listened to a lot of audio fiction and one is up there for me.

Superbly done, quickly becomes quite chilling and gets straight to the heart of the story instead of dragging the listener on unnecessarily.

Super fun from start to finish! The storytelling is immersive, the characters are deeply engaging, and the pacing keeps you hooked the entire time. Every episode left me eager for the next.

Overall a very entertaining series, but two major things fell short for me. 1. Voice Acting- I felt the voice acting throughout the series was kind of patchy. At certain times it would be great, but often side characters and (sometimes) key characters sounded very very fake. Like a voice memo from a friend, not people living in fear. 2. Religious Plot- I started this podcast without knowing of the strong religious themes throughout it. Honestly I was going to give the series a 4 up until the “Book of Revelations” episode. I’m going to avoid as many spoilers as possible while saying this, it felt like it was attempting to convince me myself to believe in God by saying “nothing is stronger than a new believer”. Overall not at all a bad podcast, just wish they stayed the religious undertones somewhere in the summary.

I like a spooky story a la The Conjuring now and again, even if it’s a little schlocky. This is… amateurish at best, offensive at worst. The MC is played by a good voice actor, and the mystery at the core of the story kept me engaged enough for a casual listen-through. However, the writing is uneven, poorly paced, and sometimes nonsensical. The podcast conceit is dropped and picked up at random whenever it suits the plot, as is the MC’s substance use issue. The subplot with his ex-wife and child is cliche and two-dimensional, and it only serves to make MC look like a deadbeat dad. This could serve as a good character growth arc, but we’re given none of that and a half-hearted attempt at a resolution. My biggest complaint is that this veers from the Christian mythos and themes that are standard in the demon-hunting/haunted house subgenre of horror right into full-on “convert the non-believer” territory— finished off with an overtly offensive twist based on a narrow and outdated understanding of mental health and Christian ideology. Don’t worry, though. MC is a believer in Jesus now, so everything is okay because he has the plot armor of the Lord. (****SPOILER: CW unalive If you don’t want to waste your time just to be hurt by the perpetuation of the harmful notion that to unalive oneself is to sin, skip this one.

I guess I did listen to the whole thing, although I’m not entirely sure why…..long ride in the car, I guess. The story was remarkably predictable and not at all scary. Maybe I would have felt differently if I cared at all about the characters. The main character was unsympathetic from the very beginning. The voice acting of the two main characters was ok, but the supporting cast was amateurish at best. Sound design was poor, and unnecessarily busy, especially at the climax of the last episode.