Best Dark Art Bell Open Lines Episodes
Some Open Lines broadcasts were playful or speculative; these five moved decisively into darker territory. Callers describe bizarre encounters, monsters, disturbing entities, ghost stories, and alleged bargains with the devil while Art keeps the conversation open without forcing the stories into one explanation. The sequence is based on cohort-adjusted Apple listening behavior, but it also works editorially as a distinct path through the caller archive: personal testimony first, atmosphere second, and no single guest controlling the night. Related collections connect these calls to Ghost-to-Ghost, shadow people, exorcism, general Open Lines, and cryptozoology.
5 shows, 1996–2015
- High Desert Origins1992–96 · 1
- UFO / Y2K Boom1997–99 · 1
- Post-Millennium Coast2000–09 · 2
- Return and Midnight Era2010–16 · 1
Related topics
Episodes in this collection
Bizarre Stories - Open Lines
Apr 16, 1996 · 2h 55m
A caller-driven parade of unexplained stories gives the collection its broadest and most replayed entry point. The episode captures Open Lines at its least predictable.
Art Bell delivers an open lines night packed with bizarre news, from an Ebola outbreak at a Texas quarantine facility to Marines being court-martialed for refusing to submit DNA samples. He raises urgent concerns about the approaching anniversary of April 19th, wondering aloud whether domestic terrorism will mark th...Open Lines - Monsters
Jan 25, 2002 · 2h 53m
The monster line invites callers to describe creatures and encounters outside ordinary categories. It is one of the strongest Apple-backed dark Open Lines broadcasts.
Art Bell opens the phones for a monster-themed edition of Open Lines, inspired by a harrowing call from the previous night. He brings back Ken and his girlfriend Sherry from Portland, Oregon, who describe two years of escalating paranormal terror in a house built in 1910. Sherry recounts being pinned face-down in be...Open Lines - Monsters and Disturbing Entities
May 24, 2002 · 2h 45m
This sequel pushes beyond creature reports into entities that callers experienced as threatening or malevolent. Its unusually deep consumption made it essential to the sequence.
Art Bell opens the phone lines for a themed Friday night session built around three listener-suggested topics. Callers share short-term predictions for the next six weeks, first-person encounters with monsters and unknown creatures, and accounts of sexual encounters with unseen entities or forces. A truck driver des...Ghost Stories - Open Lines
Nov 27, 1998 · 3h 14m
Ghost stories bring the collection back to classic oral folklore. The ordinary voices and unpolished details distinguish it from investigator-led paranormal episodes.
Art Bell dedicates the entire broadcast to listener ghost stories, fulfilling a promise delayed from Halloween when the Pegasus story interrupted the planned Ghost to Ghost edition. He opens by explaining his fascination with spirits as potential evidence of existence after death, then reads accounts including a 192...Open Lines - Pact with the Devil
Aug 21, 2015 · 2h 17m
The pact-with-the-devil theme gives the set a later-era finale with a clearly defined moral and supernatural danger. It connects caller radio directly to the occult collections.
Art Bell declares a special phone line after the Vatican's International Association of Exorcists announces demonic possession at "emergency levels." The question: have you made a deal with the devil? Such a pact need not involve a contract but can be sealed in one's own mind, and Art Bell warns repeatedly that the...