Jordan Peele, the filmmaker behind hit thrillers “Get Out,” “Us” and “Nope,” is taking his penchant for horror to his first audio-only series.
“Quiet Part Loud,” the first fictional audio series from Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, is slated to launch exclusively on Spotify on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The show, produced by Monkeypaw and Spotify’s Gimlet Media, comprises 12 short-form episodes that will be available for listeners to binge all at once. Tracy Letts, Arian Moayed, Christina Hendricks and Taran Killam star in the podcast.
Set before the Trump presidency, “Quiet Part Loud” follows Rick Egan (Letts), a fear-mongering, right-wing radio host who loses his platform in the wake of 9/11 for spreading xenophobic rumors surrounding a group of missing Muslim teenagers. Eight years later, the washed-up Egan is slumming it on the convention circuit when a mysterious woman (Hendricks) offers a tantalizing revelation: one of the missing teens has reappeared. Egan embarks on a crusade for vindication and ultimately makes a Faustian bargain with a demonic, shape-shifting sound monster known as “The Blank” (Killam) — which thrives on hatred.
“I’m always looking for new ways to explore and innovate in genre storytelling,” Peele said in a statement to Variety. “The potential in audio was tremendously appealing: By stripping horror of all its visuals, you can focus on just conjuring dread and unease in your listener’s ears on this intimate and visceral level. I wanted us to make the scariest podcast of all time.”
According to producers, “Quiet Part Loud” uses immersive audio and sound design to present “a haunting parable and an unflinching examination of the current state of fear and divisiveness in America” that “explores the roots of our conspiracy-obsessed culture where disinformation now runs rampant.”
“Quiet Part Loud” is executive produced by Peele, Monkeypaw’s Win Rosenfeld and Spotify head of scripted podcasts Mimi O’Donnell. The series is written by Mac Rogers and Clay McLeod Chapman, directed by O’Donnell and produced by Geoff Foster, Amy McLeish and Katie Pastore.