Ethan Hawke, Scott Derrickson, and C. Robert Cargill have been scaring audiences for over a decade, from the found-footage dread of Sinister to the icy terror of The Black Phone and its sequel. Now, the trio is trading the big screen for your earbuds with Midnight Radio, a new horror podcast that premiered its first episode today via iHeartPodcasts.
The series stars Hawke as the host of a late-night AM radio talk show that welcomes calls from conspiracy theorists and those claiming supernatural encounters. But on one fateful evening, a caller claims to be a survivor of a secret U.S. space mission, unraveling a web of government cover-ups, interdimensional breaches, and psychological warfare. As the episodes unfold in real time, the host—and the listener—begin to question who—or what—is truly on the other end of the line.
Derrickson and Cargill co-created the show, with Hawke and his Under The Influence Productions banner producing alongside Crooked Highway and iHeartPodcasts. In an exclusive interview with Collider, Hawke revealed that the project grew out of their shared love for classic horror and radio drama. "We're all giant Twilight Zone fans," he said. "We're Twilight Zone nerds, and we're kind of talking a lot about how come there's not a show like that anymore."
The inspiration also came from the legendary Art Bell, whose real-life AM radio program Coast to Coast AM explored the paranormal and conspiracy theories. Hawke recalled the urban legend about Orson Welles's War of the Worlds broadcast, which convinced listeners that Martians were invading. "Wouldn't it be amazing to do a podcast that was like a fictional AM radio talk show?" he said. "So you would hear it and it could seduce you into feeling like you were really just listening to the radio."
For Hawke, Midnight Radio is a return to the radio plays he loved as a kid, when British actors like Ian Holm, Judi Dench, and Sean Connery would lend their voices to lavish productions of Shakespeare and Tolkien. "It's a style of performance where it's really just all about the voice and the writing," he explained. The podcast also features a starry cast, including Noah Centineo, Vincent D'Onofrio, Willa Fitzgerald, Levon Hawke, and Austin Pendleton, all contributing to what Hawke calls a "sonic landscape."
The project marks a new chapter for the trio, who first teamed up on Sinister after Derrickson and Cargill convinced Hawke to do his first scary movie. "They kind of convinced me to do my first scary movie, Midnight Madness, and we just had a great time," he said. "Those guys are really smart and really wildly creative, really fun, talented men."
With Midnight Radio, they're hoping to recapture the immersive magic of old-time radio, where the power of audio can create a uniquely intimate horror experience. As Hawke put it, "The power of audio is immense."
For more on the team's past collaborations, check out our coverage of the icy sequel and the original Sinister. And if you're in the mood for more streaming scares, see what's leaving Netflix soon, including Black Adam's exit.
