Directors: Glen Neath and David Rosenberg
Darkfield Radio’s latest horror is not for the faint-hearted. Playing on our fears of things that go bump in the night, Eternal takes place in those seconds when we awake, not sure whether the noises we have heard belong to dream or reality. An experience to be enjoyed or endured alone, this is Darkfield’s scariest show so far.
Playing through an app on a phone, Eternal goes out at certain times, meaning that while you listen in bed to the 20-minute show, others across the country are doing exactly the same. The instructions make it clear that you should be alone in a bedroom with the lights off and the door closed, preferably locked. You are also required to keep your eyes closed throughout but it’s a brave soul who will be able to stop from opening them to check that no one has come into the room.
The sound playing into your ears is extraordinarily clear, and the creaking of floors and the banging of doors seem to be coming from your own room rather than through the headphones. A man has woken up hearing these noises wondering if they are real or imagined. These eerie sounds are nightly occurrences for the man, but it still doesn’t stop him from rising and going to the door to plead ‘Is anyone there?’
The man has a slight Irish accent, and Eternal has its origins in Dracula, Bram Stoker’s seminal novel about the blood-sucking Count who’s granted immortality. But it takes awhile for the allusions to settle, and there are flashes of Psycho here, too, as the man talks about his mother who he says is dead, but who is also coming into the room.
As the story plays out your nerves will be jangled and body made feverish. Stoker’s Dracula was attractive, persuasive and charismatic as he coaxed his victim/lovers into submission. Only the courageous will be able to answer the question: What would you do for eternal life?
Here from 1 December 2020