Podcasts
‘Demon Squad’ – Cinedigm and Bloody FM Launching Scripted Audio Series from ‘The Conjuring’ Producer
Cinedigm, Bloody Disgusting’s parent company and the leading independent streaming company super-serving enthusiast fan bases, has announced today that it will be bringing new scripted audio series Demon Squad to horror fans this fall. A supernatural thriller from Tony DeRosa-Grund (the author of the story that became basis of The Conjuring, and Producer of same), Demon Squad will be a weekly, 12-episode series, available as part of the Cinedigm Podcast Network, via Bloody Disgusting’s BloodyFM and everywhere podcasts are found.
Demon Squad is set in the grungy New York City of 1973, where an increasing number of very real cases and violent crimes with occult aspects have driven the public into a frenzied panic. Besieged by complaints relating to these supposed supernatural, cult and occult cases, and in an effort to merely placate the public, the NYPD forms a ragtag squad of misfit cops – purely as a PR exercise and to generate “positive” optics. One Police Plaza tasks a decorated Detective Sergeant to be the new squad’s “adult supervision.” Everyone is surprised when the eponymous Demon Squad begins to actually solve these cases.
The podcast’s plot is based on true events surrounding a real-life NYPD task force known within the NYPD as the “Demon Squad,” which is still active today. The squad’s real case files form the basis of Demon Squad’s episodes and overarching storyline.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Tony to bring these amazing but absolutely true supernatural cases to life via the newest fiction series being added to our growing podcast network,” said Tom Owen, Managing Director, Bloody Disgusting/Cinedigm. “Horror and true crime are two genres that we – like the fans of these genres– are passionate about, and Demon Squad has elements of both, making it the best of both worlds. We can’t wait to explore these cases through premium, audio storytelling.”
Said DeRosa-Grund, “I am excited to partner with Cinedigm CEO Chris McGuirk (who actually co-financed my very first feature film) and the entire Bloody Disgusting/Cinedigm team to tell these very real cases.”
Bloody FM, powered by Bloody Disgusting, has a growing lineup of audio shows that are part of the Cinedigm Podcast Network. With more than four million monthly downloads, the network’s 25 horror podcasts, both fiction and non-fiction, cover everything from the sinister anthology Scare You To Sleep to the Stephen King-inspired The Losers’ Club to SCP Archives Presents, which dives deep into the darkness of the internet’s most amazing stories.
The Company’s most popular podcast, Creepy receives more than a million monthly downloads alone and gives voice to urban legends and horror stories primarily posted online. The Bloody Disgusting Original Podcast Mayfair Watchers Society has been named one of the most popular podcasts of 2022 by Apple and finished the year as a top 50 show and the top 1% most followed podcast on Spotify in 2022.
Maybe you haven’t thought about your good friend Sweeney Todd in a while, or maybe you have. The 2007 movie is a bit of a memory, though a fond one – it has a healthy 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, for what it’s worth. But 2023’s Broadway revival starring Josh Groban, who your mom thinks is “so talented” (she’s right!), was enough of a hit that its run was extended.
It appears we’re in a bit of a Sweeneyssaince.
For the uninitiated, Sweeney Todd is the story of a barber who kills his customers and disposes of the bodies by passing them off to pie shop owner Mrs. Lovett, who uses them as a special ingredient. But there’s more below the trap door.
Sweeney Todd isn’t just a late 70s musical that turned into a movie; it started as a penny dreadful called The String of Pearls: A Domestic Romance (author unknown), told week-to-week in the 1840s. Penny dreadfuls were essentially fiction zines featuring serialized stories that were usually horror-based and cost a penny, leading to the very literal nickname.
The String of Pearls differs from the more well-known Sweeney Todd plot in that it follows the investigation of a missing persons case that leads to the reveal of Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett’s arrangement, as opposed to the more modern iteration which treats audiences to the duo hatching their homicidal plan and then giving the worst haircuts ever. What a delightfully wild reveal that must have been if you were a reader in Victorian London after weeks of wondering what had become of the missing sailor carrying a string of pearls to deliver to a lovely girl.
Kristen and Will discuss the history and future of Sweeney Todd and works inspired by it this week on Guide to the Unknown. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to get a new episode every Friday.
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