From the creators of “Flight of the Bucket” comes their next venture into podcast fiction, “From Within.” Ths time they’re entering into the world of dramatic full-cast audiobooks with a gothic horror of plants and the macabre. It’s “The Last of Us for audio. “From Within.” This was an expedited review. Learn more about expedited reviews.

Mixed Sound Design and Lawn Mower Metaphors

“From Within: A Tale of the Macabre” has little in common with its predecessor series, “Flight of the Bucket” in terms of tone and subject matter. That said, both series start off rough but in different ways. Where “Flight of the Bucket” relies heavily on over-the-top humor to make the audience empathize with its characters, “From Within” is more subtle. Unfortunately, its tact is found in the sound design. This would normally be a good thing. In this instance however, it’s not.

Call it nitpicking or not seeing the forest for the trees, but a good portion of the sound design is distracting to the overall story. The best way I can describe it is by comparing it to a neighbor’s leaf blower starting and stopping at irregular intervals. Voice actors will know the struggle of recording lines in the fall when everyone and their dogs are blowing leaves and barking. For those unfamiliar with the struggle, imagine you’re trying to concentrate and an early bird is chirping on and off at random times. When it stops, do you wait for it to finish completely? Or, do you risk trying to fall back asleep only to wake up again the same way?

An Epistolary “The Last of Us”

A story told through letters or an epistolary is nothing new and neither are their pitfalls. One of the biggest is having a character who died writing a letter post-death. Thankfully, “From Within” doesn’t have this problem. What it does have is the impossible choice in sound design of focusing on memory of the event or the thoughts happening while writing after the fact. In prose, lines such as “let us move on to other topics…” feel out of place in a letter. It’s more a thought one would have and not something one writes down. There’s a push and pull to the entire epistolary format. Sometimes it works and others it doesn’t.

Sticking with this train of thought a bit longer, the first couple of episode have a strange and ever so perceptible echo applied to many of the lines. It stops halfway through the second episode if memory serves. This may be an issue with the review copy files and not the final product. Wrapping up

Characters … From a Certain Point of View

The story is told through three people’s perspectives, often looking at the same event, but in a different way. Like “Flight of the Bucket,” there’s enough vocal variety in each performance that you never mistake the two male leads — a doctor or the sheriff — with each other.

While the three leads have distinct physical voices, a few side characters have more depth than them both on the page and in the performances. The Mayor is an obvious example of a terrible human being. Someone you’re not supposed to like and you don’t. It’s because of his bigotry he stands out more than other characters. The sheriff being for the most part the blandest of the three main characters.

Episode five dropped yesterday and there are 11 episodes in all. The middle episodes starting around the halfway point didn’t really hit the way I think the author intended. A group of hunters try and capture the creature they think is responsible for all the deaths in the town. Writer Adam Arthur treats it like a horror show. The problem is that this is the first and only time we’re with most of these characters. The exception is Horace the shepherd from the opening chapters. This type of hide-the-monster trope a la “Jaws” works better closer to the beginning. To do the same thing in the middle without established characters doesn’t hold the same impact as doing it with them. Fortunately, the last three episodes are more Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” than Stephanie Meyers “Twilight” if told in letter form.

Rating: Internally Consistent (8/10 Stars)