Dare you listen to the spookiest Big Finish stories?

This October saw the release of Doctor, Doctor, Doctor and Other Stories, a brand-new box set of spine-tingling audio drama set across the Doctor Who universe. 

But this wasn’t Big Finish’s first trip into dark and deadly territory. Here are ten adventures from across our ranges which make for perfect Halloween listening, which all come recommended by the critics. 

Many of these titles are currently available at a discount in our Halloween sale. Just make sure you lock the doors and bolt the windows before pressing play… 

Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures: No Place

Doctor Who meets Most Haunted and Grand Designs in this unconventional adventure from James Goss, featuring David Tennant and Catherine Tate as the Tenth Doctor and Donna. 

The duo, along with Wilf (Bernard Cribbins) and Sylvia (Jacqueline King), are renovating Moorly Manor, while being filmed for TV show Haunted Makeovers. The show’s host (Our Flag Means Death star Joel Fry) doesn’t expect to find any real ghosts, but when the Doctor’s involved, anything’s possible… 

No Place was a popular episode among fans of the Tenth Doctor’s era, with Big Blue Box saying: “Owing to masterpieces like The Others, The Conjuring, Ghostwatch and Most Haunted… this is one of those adventures that is not be missed!”   

Fans of the Tenth Doctor in need of more scares can also check out his encounter with fate in Death and the Queen, and his date on the galaxy’s most haunted planet in The Tenth Doctor and River Song: Ghosts. 

Big Finish Classics: Dracula

Just like Count Dracula himself, the classic horror stories live on forever. This full-cast adaptation of Bram Stoker’s beloved novel stars Mark Gatiss as the eponymous vampire, and was adapted for audio by Jonathan Barnes. 

Joseph Kloska plays Jonathan Harker, the young solicitor sent to Dracula’s crumbling castle in Transylvania, who unwittingly sets in motion a chain of events that leads to the bloodsucking count visiting England’s shores. 

The adaptation received praise from Unreality SF, who said: “This is one of the strongest Big Finish Classics: the casting is strong, the sound design and music suitably atmospheric, and the script one of Jonathan Barnes’s best yet.” 

For further audio takes on classic horror literature, check out the Big Finish Classics versions of Frankenstein, Jekyll and Hyde, and The Island of Dr Moreau. 

Doctor Who – The Novel Adaptations: Goth Opera

Why pick between a vampire story or a Doctor Who story when you can have the Doctor fighting vampires? Paul Cornell’s 1994 book was brought to audio by Lizbeth Myles as part of Big Finish’s series of page-to-headphones adaptations. 

The adventure – featuring the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) – takes place across 1990s Manchester, Tasmania and Gallifrey, and sees the TARDIS crew face off against the Great Vampires, as introduced in TV story State of Decay. And Nyssa ends up with an unfortunate bite in her neck… 

Who Review described Goth Opera as “one of the best releases of 2024”, while Blogtor Who praised it as “brilliant, blood-soaked, cross-wielding, fang-baring fun.” 

For further Fifth Doctor tales to listen to this Halloween, there’s Mark Gatiss’s occult adventure Phantasmagoria, a horrifying take on the Cybermen’s origin in Spare Parts, and a haunted tourist trip in Ghost Walk. 

Torchwood: The Flawless Man

The Torchwood monthly range, an anthology series featuring different characters from across the history of the Torchwood Institute, provided many opportunities for self-contained horror storytelling. 

One popular example is The Flawless Man by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle. In this found footage-style tale, Sergeant Andy Davidson (Tom Price) investigates a mysterious death, and the victim’s pile of video tapes – the rushes for an unfinished film, which carry a terrible warning. 

“The Flawless Man is spooky, gripping, and works just as well as a standalone horror story as it does another entry in the much loved Torchwood universe,” said Who Review, while Doctor Who Magazine said: “If you’ve never heard a Torchwood before, then start with this one – and if you’ve heard all of them then don’t waste another second… get stuck in this instant!” 

Other tales of terror in the Torchwood range include the folk horror Widdershins, Victorian ghost story The Empire Man, and a return from a classic Doctor Who villain in Night of the Fendahl. 

Doctor Who – The Fourth Doctor Adventures: The Haunting of Malkin Place

The onscreen era of the Fourth Doctor was known for its embrace of gothic horror, and this style has been returned to in several of his audio adventures. 

In one such story, The Haunting of Malkin Place by Phil Mulryne, the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) accompany a spiritualist (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s Simon Jones) to Romney Marsh, where a supposedly haunted house lies. The Doctor doesn’t believe the strange events have a supernatural origin, but his scientific theories can only get him so far. 

“If you like Doctor Who and ghost stories then you’ll love the perfect synthesis of the two,” said Blogtor Who, while Gallifrey Archive said: “This is what Doctor Who does best, taking a simple format like a ghost story, and adding a layer of humanity and emotion on top to create something new and something beautiful.” 

Fans of the Fourth Doctor may also want to check out the Edwardian scares of The Darkness of Glass, the ghostly nuns of The Cloisters of Terror, and the Victorian gothic horror of Philip Hinchcliffe Presents: The Ghosts of Gralstead. 

The Confessions of Dorian Gray: Trick or Treat 

Big Finish’s long-running series The Confessions of Dorian Gray, starring Alexander Vlahos in the title role, imagines a world in which Oscar Wilde based the character on a real person, and follows Dorian’s adventures across the decades. 

It’s a set-up ripe for horror storytelling, and one Dorian Gray adventure which makes use of this is Trick or Treat by Scott Handcock. This short adventure, available to download for free, features Dorian trying to turn away trick or treaters – until something else shows up at his door. 

Sci-Fi Bulletin said: “the combination of Scott Handcock’s script, Vlahos’ performance, Neil Gardner’s sound design and James Dunlop’s music quite definitely produced goosebumps”. 

For related stories suitable for Halloween listening, check out Big Finish’s original adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the various volumes of The Confessions of Dorian Gray, and the recent murder mystery-themed special A Night at the Theatre. 

Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures: Night Thoughts

Over 20 years old and just as unnerving as ever, Night Thoughts by Edward Young sees the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Hex (Philip Olivier) arrive at a remote Scottish mansion. 

Why have five academics gathered here, and what are they afraid of? Who is the whistling, hooded figure who appears to Hex after dark? And how many of them will make it through the night? 

This grim, ghostly mystery is one that listeners keep returning to. Blogger Sacred Icon called it “the quintessential spooky story in Big Finish’s back catalogue”, while WhatCulture said: “this a chillingly scary story, and if you think you're brave enough to listen to it, then we highly recommend it.” 

Other scary Seventh Doctor stories include Scream of the Daleks – which features Daleks at Halloween! – deathly double bill The Flying Dutchman/Displaced, and the titular story from 2026’s Halloween: Doctor, Doctor, Doctor and Other Stories. 

Big Finish Originals – Blind Terror: The Gods of Frost 

Written by Guy Adams, this original gothic horror tale stars Torchwood’s Eve Myles as Victorian housekeeper Kathryn Ellis, and was produced after Myles enjoyed working on Adams’ Torchwood scripts and asked him to write a scary original story for her. 

Across the six-episode audio drama, the recently widowed Ellis becomes the new housekeeper for the eccentric owners of Hodder Hall, and discovers she can’t escape from either the local ghosts or her own past.

Blind Terror was nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award, and was praised by reviewers including CultBox: “Deliciously, unnervingly dark, and confidently unformulaic, this foray into the macabre is both edgy and enthralling.” 

Other Big Finish Originals for horror fans include the Buffy-inspired series Vam PD and the murder mystery serial Shilling & Sixpence Investigate. 

Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: The Red Lady 

Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan) has become a long-standing companion of the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann), and she first proved her mettle when she was introduced in this chilling 1960s-set episode. 

Helen is a linguist working at the National Museum, which has recently obtained a collection of pieces, all sharing a recurring motif: a woman in a red mask. And then people who’ve come into contact with these pieces start mysteriously dying. Is the Red Lady moving closer? 

This episode by John Dorney was praised by many as a standout of the Doom Coalition 1 box set, with Blogtor Who’s 10/10 review praising its “real horror tale vibe”. 

Horror hounds who love the Eighth Doctor’s era may also want to listen to the Ravenous saga, which introduces clown-like killers who feast on Time Lords, and the creepy Monthly Adventures releases Embrace the Darkness and The Silver Turk. 

Dark Gallifrey: The Decayed Master 

This three-part story, written by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle as part of the epic event series Dark Gallifrey, is inspired by the writing duo’s love of gothic horror. 

The chilling tale begins in late nineteenth-century England, before taking in eighteenth-century Venice and medieval York, as the viciously evil Master (Geoffrey Beevers) and his strange new servant pursue a group of renegade Gallifreyans across time and space. 

Reviewers applauded Beevers for bringing out the scarier side of the Time Lord villain; Doctor Who Magazine said: “Geoffrey Beevers does a fantastic job, relishing each line, and the cast embrace the horror aspects of the story.” 

Fans of the Master will find him in further spooky situations across the Big Finish ranges, including 2003’s chilling Master, which also stars Geoffrey Beevers, and the MR James-inspired horror anthology The War Master: Future Phantoms, starring Sir Derek Jacobi.