PopHorror Let's Get Scared
A few weeks ago, Bang Zoom! Studios released the season finale of their cinematic horror audio anthology, The Strange Thing About… titled, The Strange Thing About the Garden.
In the spirit of classic anthology horror, The Strange Thing About… drops listeners into self-contained nightmares built around cinematic sound design, original music, veteran voice performances, and twist-driven storytelling. Each episode uses sound as its central engine, creating an immersive horror experience designed for listeners to turn off the lights, put on headphones, and sink directly into the story.
Episode 10, “The Strange Thing About the Garden,” premiered October 23rd and continues the series’ run of unsettling, character-driven horror stories. In the season finale, the boundary between memory and reality begins to disappear in a haunting supernatural story about first love, growing old, and a place where time may have no meaning at all.
I’m not big on podcasts or audiobooks, but I have to say that The Strange Thing About the Garden, which stars James Cromwell (Babe), Keith David (The Thing), and Jackie Tohn (Nobody Wants This), and is directed by Bang Zoom! Studios founder and series creator, Eric P. Sherman, has a lot of heart and had me enraptured.
To celebrate the release of the season finale, I chatted with stars James and Keith about working together, the importance of sound effects, horror, and more!
PopHorror: I really enjoyed The Strange Thing About the Garden so I’m super excited to talk to you guys about it today. What made you both want to say yes to this project?
Keith David: It was a great story.
James Cromwell: Yeah, great story. Good story.
Keith David: And I got a chance to work with James Cromwell, so that was really the biggest invitation.
James Cromwell: Bless your heart. The writing.
Keith David: Yeah!
James Cromwell: The theme of it, the way the story is told in a narrative. Of course, it’s the narrative and not the plot that holds the meaning. That’s the part that touches us and I found that moment when he sees the light under his pantry door and tries to rationalize it, opens the door and walks into this – I happen to love Japanese art, buildings, and customs – and to see this is like finding a gem. Then working out he tries to reconstruct what happened, how he lost it. He said he thought it was completely gone and now in another realm that is mysterious to him, he rediscovers and has an opportunity to focus on and to express his love for this woman.
PopHorror: I love that. I don’t have a lot of experience with this type of audio, a narrative podcast, but it had a lot of heart, and I love how the conversation between you guys brought me in, and the sound effects… It was really impressive. I almost cried at the end. I don’t want to give anything away, but you really got me. I was invested in this story.
James Cromwell: Good!
Keith David: As you should be.
PopHorror: In film, the director shows the audience exactly what to look at, but in this project, you’re forcing the listener to kind of build the entire world in their own head. Does that change the way you deliver your lines?
Keith David: Not necessarily. If we were playing it live action, there’s not a whole lot I would do differently. Obviously, you’re seeing it. As I listened, I was experiencing it while we were playing it. We’re sitting there playing chess, it would be two guys sitting there and we were two guys sitting there. I don’t think it really changes the acting moment, what you’re doing, what you’re pursuing, what you want. There’s a difference in the genre so you have to adapt to that, but as far as what I’m playing, I don’t think I would do it differently.
James Cromwell: One of the things to my mind that we missed having, of course, was all the sound effects, because the sound effects are another character.
Keith David: Yeah.
James Cromwell: That character is New York City. That keeps drawing the audience back. You are surrounded by the sounds, which have a meaning of their own but also have a meaning that’s given to them by the way you perceive them. That character should be reacted to. When the skateboarders come past, the thing is it’s an assault. What makes it an assault is the sound. It’s palpable. What makes the stairs difficult and as heartwrenching as they are is because you hear the creak. Our house is a log house and the floors are pine so every time you move there’s this incredible sound and you have to wait to get your communication heard. You have to time your sentences almost. It’s not quite that bad but it’s palpable, and I felt that so much of this was made of the sounds that he enters into, which are new minted for him. He hasn’t done this; we haven’t done this, where sounds color. I can think of a lot of films where the color, the framing of the screen, how that is used. But very rarely sound where you are actually listening for it and it would be done in such a way that it has a character of its own, that we’ve never heard.
Keith David: Yeah.
James Cromwell: The sounds we take for granted, which define life, they need to be heard because that connection can never be cut off. You can plug your ears up but you can’t stop listening and that makes it very, very powerful.
Keith David: I always think rhythm is a character in every scene and those sounds create rhythms that we react to consciously and unconsciously.
PopHorror: I think the sounds were really important because they set up the scene to where you could picture it, like when you were at the park, it sounded like a park. James, when your character was with his daughter at the restaurant, you could hear the restaurant in the background. You mentioned the skateboarder, we wouldn’t have known without you saying, “I used to eat punks like you for breakfast!” that something happened without the sound and the line. The sound has to be its own character because it provides so much. Also, James, when you were going up the stairs and said, “When did I get so damn old?” I felt that in every bone in my body. Keith, is it true that you traveled to where James is so that you could record together?
Keith David: Yes!
PopHorror: I think that’s so cool that guys got to do this together.
James Cromwell: Bless your heart!
PopHorror: What was your first conversation like with each other after you both agreed to do the project?
Keith David: When I first got up to the property, just asking about how long he’d lived there and characteristics of the house. He has a wonderful home, just a beautiful, beautiful home full of lovely artwork. His garage and the workshop, that was just fascinating. The house has a character of itself like its own personality so that was wonderful.
James Cromwell: Thanks for noticing.
Keith David: I still have great… I look at my pictures that I took of some of the artwork. I couldn’t wait to show my wife and say, “Look at this!”
PopHorror: Is that where you guys recorded?
James Cromwell: Yeah, it was nice. It made it more comfortable than going into some anonymous space and standing there.
Keith David: Yes, absolutely.
James Cromwell: I’ve known Keith longer than he probably remembers, way back in Platoon. We all knew him. I knew him but didn’t meet him but along the way, our paths have crossed and it’s a treat and a privilege to be working with him.
PopHorror: I love that. If you both had to pitch this story to a friend in one sentence to get them to listen, what would you say?
Keith David: It all depends on what friend I was talking to. Many times, if I just say, “Listen man, you need to see this,” or “You need to hear this,” that’s enough. It’s a great love story to me, and a great story about love lost and recovered.
James Cromwell: Yes, exactly. I would say the underpinning of all the scenes is there’s a love and compassion or a dilemma that we find ourselves in, and it’s up to us to give it form, but the logic and the meaning and the necessity is there beforehand. It’s there in the work; it’s there in the idea. You get to a certain age, watching the leaves blow across the grass, things take on a weight and meaning that are otherwise missed when you are younger. It’s a celebration of that because it’s a lifetime, a chance to renew something that under other circumstances would never be considered.
PopHorror: This is being marketed as a horror story, but you’re right. It is very much a love story. I have just one last question for you both. What’s your favorite scary movie?
James Cromwell: I say Nosferatu, and I do like Nosferatu.
Keith David: The original Carrie. That scared the bejeezus out of me.
James Cromwell: Yeah, that was a good one.
Thank you so much to Jame and Keith for taking the time to chat with us! The Strange Thing About the Garden is available wherever you listen to your favorite podcast!
