The spooky season is already upon us, which means time to start plotting out how to fit even more horror content into busy Halloween schedules. It also means it’s the perfect time of year to get immersive with that horror content. The brand new Chilling App aims to change the game on horror lifestyles, offering a new way to experience audio horror.

It all began with a YouTube channel called Being Scared, created by Dane Petrali, after a lifelong, insatiable appetite for scary stories eventually catapulted him down a YouTube rabbit hole. The channel curated spooky tales with narration and ambient, relaxing sounds. Since its inception, it’s amassed over 300,000 followers, but Dane realized that YouTube’s limitations meant users couldn’t fully customize their listening experiences. Dane enlisted fellow childhood scary story aficionado Christopher Graham for the ambitious project. Graham brought his tech expertise, and together they created a new platform, the Chilling app.

The app was designed to make it easier than ever to find the type of story that sends shivers down your spine, broken down into easily navigable categories. Whether you want to discover tales of cryptids or only prefer to hear about the paranormal, Chilling ensures a smoother way to find exactly what you’re looking for. An expanded roster of narrators and hundreds of new stories means a wholly unique experience with fresh content and zero ads. 

While ease of access is nice, it’s the more immersive element that makes Chilling unique. It offers a one-of-a-kind ambient sound menu, allowing users to apply volume-controlled background sounds to any story of their choosing. In other words, hate camping but love tales of bigfoot? Curl up on the couch and select “crackling fire” to accompany your cryptid tale to evoke the atmosphere of a campfire without leaving the comfort of your home. Maybe soothing rain dampens the terror of a haunting ghost? 

It’s an Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) experience with the horror fan in mind. The app makes creating customized playlists effortless, a gamechanger for the scary story fan. Especially when the Halloween season gets overloaded with content, making it hard to keep up. Here, scary stories are available whenever the mood strikes you.

The ambition extends beyond the short story format; plans for adding video streaming content are underway, along with new short stories getting added every week. Audio versions of classic novels, like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, are available.

“We see Chilling becoming the ‘New Home for Scary Stories,'” commented Founder and CEO Dane Petrali in a press statement. “As we continue to build out the platform, the audiences will be able to interact directly with each other and with creators. Our users are a vital part of the creative process.”

“We are trying to build a unique community bringing together, borrowing concepts and best practices from technology and manufacturing to revolutionize the creative process,” said Co-Founder and COO, Christopher Graham.

Fans of fiction and non-fiction horror have even more ways to experience it and customize those experiences. Chilling gives ad-free, premium content for a $2.99 monthly subscription fee and is available for iPhone and Android. Want to test-drive the fear before you commit? Once you download, you can register and access the content with a 72-hour free trial. Reach for your phone and discover a new scare at your fingertips.