Borrasca (podcast)

Borrasca
Presentation
Starring	Cole Sprouse
Genre	Horror
Format	Audio drama Podcast
Created by	Rebecca Klingel
Written by	Rebecca Klingel
Directed by	Stefanie Abel Horowitz Tess Harrison
Language	English
Production
Production	Rob Herting Dave Henning Brian Kavanaugh-Jones Fred Berger Cole Sprouse Tess Ryan
Composed by	Darren Johnson
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	16
Publication
Original release	May 25, 2020 (2020-05-25) – November 10, 2022 (2022-11-10)
Provider	QCODE

Borrasca is a horror audio drama and podcast series written by Rebecca Klingel and based on her short stories of the same name, which she published on Reddit under the pen name C.K. Walker in 2015 and 2016. The series stars Cole Sprouse and is produced by QCODE. The first season ran from May 25 to July 14, 2020, while the second season ran from October 6 to November 10, 2022.

Premise

At age 12, Sam moves with his family to the former mining town of Drisking, Missouri. He befriends two local kids named Kyle and Kimber, who help him get used to bizarre things that are treated as normal by the townspeople—strangest of all is the occasional loud grinding noise in the distance which supposedly emanates from Borrasca, described only as "a place where bad things happen". When Sam's sister Whitney disappears a few months later, five years pass without answers until more people suddenly start disappearing. Sam, Kyle, and Kimber investigate why so many residents have disappeared over the years, why the remaining townspeople seem not to care, and how the disappearances appear to be connected to the abandoned mines on a nearby mountain.

Production

"Borrasca" was originally released as a four-part short story on the Reddit page r/nosleep in 2015, and Klingel expanded the story with a fifth part in 2016. "Borrasca" won r/nosleep's awards for both Best Series and Scariest Story in 2015. After the story went viral, filmmaker Mike Flanagan hired Klingel to join the writing team for his Netflix horror series The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

The podcast series was originally released on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and YouTube, and was later also released on other platforms.

Cast and characters

• Cole Sprouse as Sam Walker
  • Charlie Shotwell as Young Sam Walker
• Daniel Webber as Kyle Landy
  • Zackary Arthur as Young Kyle Landy
• Sarah Yarkin as Kimber Destaro
  • Lulu Wilson as Young Kimber Destaro
• Lisa Edelstein as Leah Dixon
• Peyton Kennedy as Whitney Walker
• Jama Williamson as Lisbeth Walker
• Mark Derwin as Graham Walker
• Dan Blank as Ken Landy
• Carmen Tonarelli as Anne Landy
• Carolyn P. Riggs as Megan Destaro
• Roger Howarth as Peter Destaro
• Caroline Newton as Krista Portnick / Lily Walstein
• Aidan McGraw as Young Parker Landy / Wes Litszick
• Beau Knapp as Erik Tucker
• Richard Burgi as Killian Clery
• James Wellington as Mr. Diamond / Tom Prescott
• Jules Giselle as Phoebe Dranger
• Ella Anderson as Paige Berry
• Hynden Walch as Young Kristy Nanbelt / Woman #5
• Jack McGraw as Kaiden Whitiger
• Louise Lombard as Mrs. Tverdy / Woman in White
• Rebecca Field as Kathryn Scanlon
• Sean Maguire as Jimmy Prescott
• Debbe Hirata as Grace Clery
• Cara Santana as Meera Daley
• Michael Deery as Phil Saunders
  • Christian Isaiah as Young Phil Saunders
• Aramis Knight as Mike Sutton
  • Rhys Alterman as Young Mike Sutton
• Seychelle Gabriel as Emmaline Bonham
• Sam Jaeger as Owen Daley
• Violet McGraw as Wyatt Litzick
• Kristen Tepper as Amanda Litzick
• Mace Coronel as Parker Landy / Boyfriend / Burnout
• Julia Henning as Kristy Nanbelt / Woman #2 / Nurse #1
• Dylan Bruno as Kevin Vanderveld
• Staysha Holcombe as Receptionist
• Carlo Rota as Pastor / Officer Jameson
• Nick Sagar as Officer Ramirez
• Gary Galone as Deputy #1
• Mara Shuster-Lefkowitz as Woman #1
• Sheila Carrasco as Nurse #2

Episodes

Season 1 (2020)

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"Tell Me About Whitney"	May 25, 2020 (2020-05-25)
Sam Walker, a parolee, begins to tell his parole officer about a series of events that occurred during his childhood, beginning with his family's move to the town of Drisking, Missouri. The following events occur as a flashback. After the Walker family moves to Drisking when Sam is twelve, Sam befriends some other children from his neighborhood. While hanging out with his new friends, Sam experiences a mysterious phenomenon called "The Scream", and starts to uncover some strange urban legends surrounding the town of Drisking, all of which involve a place called Borrasca, described only as "a place where bad things happen."
2	"The Woods Are Full"	June 1, 2020 (2020-06-01)
Sam starts school at Drisking Middle. Later that winter, Sam and Whitney fight when he tells his dad that Whitney has a new boyfriend. Sam learns about the history of the town's mining industry during a school assembly. Soon afterwards, Whitney goes missing, and Sam gets lost on the mountain that night while looking for her. Sam's parole officer urges him to talk about what happened to Whitney; she believes that something he witnessed when he was 17 is the core issue driving his addiction. Sam's roommate, Erik, tells him that a girl came looking for him earlier that day.
3	"Partial Remains"	June 8, 2020 (2020-06-08)
Sam, now 17 and in his senior year of high school, spends most of his time either hanging out with Kyle and Kimber or working at a sandwich shop owned by Jimmy Prescott. During work, he witnesses a strange personal conversation between his boss and her husband. Kyle and Kimber are now dating, but Kimber's mom dislikes Kyle, and she wants Kimber to spend more time with her, which puts stress on their relationship. Sam has an argument with his father about Whitney. After being invited by the girl he has a crush on, Sam plans to attend his first ever Borrasca party, and he insists on bringing Kyle. In the present day, Erik urges Sam to get clean and deal with his problems, and tells Sam that the same girl came to their door looking for him again.
4	"The Million Dollar Question"	June 15, 2020 (2020-06-15)
Sam, Kyle, and Kimber go to a Borrasca Party. Kimber is chosen by the Women in White and taken away into the forest. A few minutes later, another guest at the party tells Sam that Whitney had gone to a Borrasca Party and was also chosen by the Women in White five years ago, about a month before she went missing. Sam and Kyle follow Kimber into the woods, where they witness a strange ceremony. Kimber eventually returns and explains that during the ceremony, the robed figures took a sample of her blood, and she suspects one of them was Jimmy Prescott. Sam, Kimber, and Kyle visit Tom Prescott at the hospice. While talking about his son Jimmy, Tom becomes enraged by the townspeople's disrespect for him and "his town". Kimber's dad calls her to tell her that her mom is in the hospital. On the way to the hospital, Sam, Kimber, and Kyle get into a car accident.
5	"That's Not What You Told Me"	June 22, 2020 (2020-06-22)
Sam wakes up in a hospital, where he overhears two policemen discussing something about Kimber's mom and a letter. Sam's dad comes in and explains that he tore his rotator cuff in the accident. Kyle reassures Sam that he and Kimber aren't injured and tells him that Kimber's mom committed suicide the previous night. Because Sam's car was totaled, his dad offers to give him Whitney's car, which had originally been declared missing. Sam's dad denies saying that Whitney's car was missing, but Sam insists that her missing car was the entire basis for the theory that she ran away to St. Louis. Kimber finally returns to school after a few days. When Sam tells her about the conversation he'd overheard about the letter – presumably a suicide note addressed to her – Kimber comes up with a plan to sneak into her dad's study during her mom's funeral to find the letter. Sam tells his PO that he went up to the Triple Tree again to look for Kimber's mother's name, but didn't find it. He recalls that there was another name carved into the tree, and if he hadn't missed it that night, he would've been able to prevent everything else that happened. Sam's PO and Erik urge him to get a job, but Sam thinks his ex-con status will prevent him from getting hired. He tells Erik that he's considering getting himself sent back to prison so that he will have a steady job and be forced to stop using heroin before he ends up dying from it.
6	"All Her Shame on Display"	June 29, 2020 (2020-06-29)
Sam and Kyle get into an argument with Kimber's dad at her mom's funeral. Sam gives Kimber his car keys and her dad's house keys. He returns to the service to wait for her, but she leaves alone to look for her mom's suicide note. After Kimber's mom is buried, the retired sheriff and two deputies show up to talk to Kimber's dad. Sam and Kyle can't overhear what's being said, but Kimber's dad starts crying. The deputies leave, ostensibly to find Kimber, so Sam asks Phil Saunders to drive him and Kyle to Kimber's house. Before Phil picks them up, Kyle gets a text from Kimber saying that she found her mom's note, and then one that says "They're here." When Sam, Kyle, and Phil arrive at Kimber's house, she and her father are gone, along with their clothes and suitcases. One of the sheriff's deputies claims that they left town to stay with relatives in California, but Sam and Kyle don't believe him. Sam and Kyle fight over whose fault they think her disappearance is. During his appointment with Ms. Dixon, Sam tells her that he was sure Kimber didn't go to California because her name was carved into the Triple Tree.
7	"Mile Marker 54"	July 6, 2020 (2020-07-06)
Sam and Kyle get into a fight, but they quickly make up and decide to search for Kimber, starting at mile marker one. They find Kimber's name carved into the Triple Tree. While at Ambercot Fort, Sam gets a call from Emmaline, inviting him to her house while her parents are away. When Sam declines, Emmaline breaks up with him. Sam and Kyle find some unsettling graffiti in the treehouse. They keep exploring, and eventually find a new mile marker in an unexpected location, before a strange noise scares them into leaving. Sam tells Ms. Dixon that he and Kyle eventually found eight mile markers in total. The last one they found, mile marker 54, was Kimber's bed, which led him to believe that instead of measuring distance, the mile markers counted victims. On their way back down the mountain, Sam and Kyle run into Officers Ramirez and Jameson and retired sheriff Clery. The deputies make cryptic remarks about Kimber, which provokes Kyle into threatening and yelling at them. One of the officers hits Kyle, and Sam insists that he and Kyle leave. The two plan to meet early the following morning to continue searching for Borrasca, in the hopes of finding Kimber.
8	"The Place Where Bad Things Happen Pt. I"	July 13, 2020 (2020-07-13)
Kyle gets into a fight with Phil Saunders at a Borrasca party, and ends up getting injured. Kyle discloses to Sam that he's been having suicidal thoughts. Kyle and Sam go to the historical society and ask Kathryn for help with finding Borrasca. She tells them that a "borrasca" is a dried-up mine that has stopped producing ore, and when she leaves to find a map of the mines, Kyle picks the lock on a drawer in her office and finds documents that indicate when the mines close. He and Sam find the number of the oldest mine, and once Kathryn gives them the map, they set out to find it. On the way, they run into Meera, who tells Sam that she's pregnant, despite the recent conversation Sam overheard about her infertility. Meera discourages them from looking for Borrasca. Sam tells her that he's quitting, and he and Kyle head to Ambercot Fort, where the path to Borrasca starts. Sam finds Kyle's name on the Triple Tree, and, later, finds Whitney's mile marker, which is a dollhouse his dad made for her. The discovery finally convinces Sam that his dad was involved in Whitney's disappearance.
9	"The Place Where Bad Things Happen Pt. II"	July 14, 2020 (2020-07-14)
Sam and Kyle discover the horrifying truth about Borrasca and the Shiny Gentleman. Inside Borrasca, the two find Kimber, and begin to make their exit, promising to come back and save the other victims. On the way out, Sam sees Whitney and tells Kyle to leave without him. Sam tries to help Whitney escape, but she's unresponsive. Jimmy Prescott tells Sam the true history of the town's family business. Kimber escapes, but the deputies drag Kyle back to Borrasca. When he refuses to tell them where Kimber is, they beat him nearly to death and pin the assault on Sam. Sam runs away and stays in a hotel on the edge of town until Kyle is released from the hospital. After visiting Kyle one last time, Sam leaves Drisking for good. In the present, Sam shows Ms. Dixon a letter Kimber sent him six years ago. Ms. Dixon promises to help Sam, and contacts her friend at the FBI to begin building a case about Borrasca. Sam finally meets the girl who's been looking for him at his apartment, who's revealed to be Kimber.

Season 2 (2022)

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"Welcome Home"	October 6, 2022 (2022-10-06)
2	"The Gates of Borrasca"	October 13, 2022 (2022-10-13)
3	"Kyle's Map Theory"	October 20, 2022 (2022-10-20)
4	"An Unlikely Tomb"	October 27, 2022 (2022-10-27)
5	"All Roads Lead to Borrasca"	November 3, 2022 (2022-11-03)
6	"A Glorious Footnote Pt. I"	November 10, 2022 (2022-11-10)
7	"A Glorious Footnote Pt. II"	November 10, 2022 (2022-11-10)

Reception

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result	Ref.
2020	Discover Pods Awards	Audio Drama or Fiction Podcast	Borrasca	Nominated
2021	Webby Award	Podcasts: Scripted (Fiction)	Borrasca	Won
2021	iHeart Podcast Awards	Best Fiction Podcast	Borrasca	Nominated
2023	The Ambies	Best Performance in Audio Fiction	Cole Sprouse and Sarah Yarkin	Won

External links

• Official website
• Borrasca at IMDb