Nature Future Conditional

Do you dare enter the Deep Vault?

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Nicholas Yochum courtesy of Dead Signals, LLC

Posted on behalf of Liesbeth Venema

Imagine that you and your friends find yourselves in a post-apocalyptic world, fleeing the double threat posed by gas storms and lawless factions striving for dominance. How likely is it that you will find safety in a mysterious underground bunker abandoned by a previous government that had dubious intentions?

Not very, but it is a perfect premise for a horror/science-fiction adventure.

Deep Vault is unlike any thriller you may have encountered before, and its originality lies in the format. Deep Vault is an audio drama produced by Dead Signals, an audio production company made up of Mark Sollinger and Dan Powell. They are among a wave of writers and producers who have rediscovered the power of radio dramas, and who are pushing the limits of the format, doing away, for example, with the traditional narrator voice.

“We wanted to demonstrate to ourselves we could do this,” Sollinger says.

In this era of Game Of Thrones video streaming, it is remarkably refreshing to get immersed in a story just by listening to it. Of course, it takes considerable skill to make an action-packed thriller like Deep Vault — with its fair share of chases and unspeakable dangers — compelling using only sound. Dead Signals pull this off admirably.

“We want listeners to create their own images, which can be more powerful than video,” Sollinger says.

When asked what they find particularly challenging about making the series, Sollinger points to dialogue writing. “We can’t see the actors faces, so there needs to be a lot of personality in the dialogue, yet it can’t be over the top.”

The story’s characters do seem, unavoidably, slightly exaggerated. There is Carson, whose main ambition is to be a ‘badass’; his much more sensible cousin Alex, who has mysterious headaches and hears voices; their geeky friend Jeremy, with a degree in digital archaeology that comes in handy; and then there is Josie, who really does kick ass and hijacks more than a few situations to blame the apocalypse, and much else, on capitalism.

The voice actors are excellent and as the adventure unfolds it feels natural to empathize with the company of unlucky friends facing an array of dangers in the underground bunker. One problem are robots that are programmed to serve, but, in a twist of Asimov’s laws, need to be persuaded that it is a net benefit to keep the group alive.

But there is something truly horrific lurking at the heart of the bunker, a mysterious entity with evil intentions, and I am not so sure this will end well (5 of the 7 episodes are currently out). Although I highly recommend trying this original podcast series, it is not for the squeamish, so be careful not to alarm other passengers with your horrified expressions when listening to this on your morning commute. 

The last two episodes will become available over the next few weeks and the team is releasing a second series of Archive 81, their first podcast thriller, later this year.

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