Premiering October 19, podcast “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” invites fans of horror into “Hawthorne Manor” and an all-new world of terror that uses cutting-edge binaural audio technology, dropping daily in the 13 days leading up to Halloween
New York – October 12, 2020 - iHeartMedia, the No. 1 commercial podcast publisher globally, today announced the release of “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” from Blumhouse Television and iHeartMedia a new, original scripted podcast series starring Keegan-Michael Key. iHeartMedia will produce alongside Blumhouse, the iconic horror studio behind Paranormal Activity, Get Out and The Purge, and the podcasting master of horror, Aaron Mahnke.
In the 13 days leading up to Halloween, Blumhouse Television, iHeartMedia and its partners will bring a spooky world to life through an immersive audio experience, giving listeners a new daily story that’s a little scarier than the one before it. Set in the purgatorial hotel “Hawthorne Manor” and hosted by the “caretaker” – voiced by Keegan-Michael Key – listeners play the role of the hotel’s latest guest, putting them at the center of a new terrifying tale. Episode stories will range from family haunts and doomsday scenarios, to neighborhood mysteries and more.
“Hawthorne Manor is a unique world and we’re so thrilled to be working with iHeartMedia and Aaron Mahnke to bring this sinister tale to life,” said Jeremy Gold, President of Blumhouse Television. “With people staying home this Halloween, we thought listeners would appreciate getting lost in this world with us and having a taste of the spooky spirit of this holiday.”
“Who doesn’t love a good Halloween story?” said acclaimed podcast host and creator, Aaron Mahnke. “With iHeartMedia’s unmatched distribution platform and Blumhouse’s deep roots in horror storytelling, we’ve built the perfect team to scare the socks off our listeners this Halloween.”
“We’re always looking for different ways to immerse podcast fans into new worlds,” said Conal Byrne, President of the iHeartPodcast Network. “With 13 Days of Halloween, we’re partnering with the best talent in horror to create something special, with deeply haunting stories and ambitious sound technology that makes the experience that much better.”
All episodes of “Aaron Mahnke’s 13 Days of Halloween” from Blumhouse Television and iHeartMedia will be distributed through the iHeartPodcast Network. The iHeartPodcast Network is home to more than 750 original podcasts with over 251 million downloads each month. iHeartRadio Original Podcasts span every category from business, sports, spirituality and technology to entertainment, family, comedy and true crime – and everything in between – making iHeartRadio the largest publisher of podcast content in the world. The platform is also home to the most successful podcast of all time, “Stuff You Should Know,” and creator of hits like “The Ron Burgundy Podcast” and the “Atlanta Monster” series as well as fosters over a hundred shows from its on-air talent like the popular “Bobbycast” and “The Breakfast Club” radio show podcasts. These shows are distributed on all major podcast platforms including the iHeartRadio app, which additionally distributes more than 320,000 shows.
Fans can go to iHeart.com/apps to download and listen on all their favorite devices – including smart speakers, digital auto dashes, tablets, wearables, smartphones, virtual assistants, televisions, gaming consoles and more.
About Blumhouse Television
Blumhouse Television has earned critical acclaim and numerous honors for its dark, edgy fare including Emmy® awards for its productions of HBO's The Normal Heart and The Jinx, as well as the prestigious Peabody award for The Jinx and the documentary How to Dance in Ohio. Blumhouse Television launched as an independent studio in 2017 with funding from ITV. Projects since the studio launch include Golden Globe® and Emmy® nominated HBO limited series Sharp Objects; Golden Globe®, Critics Choice® and Writers Guild® award nominated Showtime limited series The Loudest Voice and The Good Lord Bird, the latter starring and executive produced by Ethan Hawke and based on the award-winning novel by James McBride; and a slate of eight genre films for Amazon Prime under the banner Welcome to the Blumhouse. The studio produced The Purge on USA Network from writer/director/producer James DeMonaco and based on the popular film franchise; the holiday themed anthology event series Into the Dark for Hulu; and anthology series Sacred Lies created by Emmy® nominee Raelle Tucker. Blumhouse continues its true crime docuseries tradition with No One Saw a Thing on Sundance Channel, A Wilderness of Error for FX from Marc Smerling and with Errol Morris, and projects in development at Netflix, Oxygen, and Epix. The studio continues to develop award-winning and critically acclaimed documentary films including A Secret Love produced with Ryan Murphy for Netflix; Pray Away an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival; and Pharma Bro an official selection of this year’s Hot Docs Festival about “the most hated man in America”, Martin Shkreli. Past documentary films include Writers Guild Award® winner Bathtubs Over Broadway and winner of the 2018 Sundance Audience Award This is Home. Blumhouse Television is the latest venture from Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, which is widely-recognized for its pioneering model of producing high-quality micro-budget films including The Purge, Get Out, The Invisible Man and Halloween.
