PIHM Podcast Review: Hi Nay
Hi Nay is an award-winning queer horror podcast that fans of The Magnus Archives and Welcome to Nightvale are likely to enjoy. It follows Mari Datuin, a fat, Filipina immigrant, who grew up learning about the supernatural from her babaylan mother. Now living in Toronto, she finds herself embroiled a sinister series of supernatural events, which left a trail of bodies until Mari saved one of the would-be victims. Joined by detectives Donner and Murphy, as well as her neighbor, Laura, and Ashvin, a fake guru with real magic, Mari must deal with cursed objects, her attraction to the hot-but-emotionally-unavailable detective, and rich occultists.
Episodes are framed through Mari’s calls to her nay, her mom, and analog tapes made by various members of the group during their investigations. The sound design has literally left me with chills several times. The music choices often have some hidden clues to characterization or plot twists that sharp-eared listeners may catch. And for those listeners who are desperate for disaster queers? Hi Nay has them in droves.
The plot is a roller-coaster ride, with unexpected twists and turns, enriched by character backstories that unfold one-by-one over the course of the first season. In Hi Nay, the real horrors are rich people and fascism, brought to life as occult members of a secret order who have found immortality through the fear-deaths of others. Hi Nay seems to serve as a vehicle for Dapul to explore themes of how to survive a colonial, fascist regime through community care, healing our own trauma, and friendship, making it more relevant than ever.
In the hands of a less talented writer, the expansive cast and branching plot would lead to dead ends, plot holes, and a fizzling out of the series. Instead, Dapul weaves an intricate tapestry of character relationships, past and present timelines, and stunning reveals, which never fizzles out or drops a thread. Where other podcasts may shy away from describing characters to let listeners fill in details, Hi Nay proudly writes explicitly diverse characters and works hard to cast diverse voice actors for these paid roles, as well.
Hi Nay is a powerhouse of a podcast, started by Motzie Dapul, Reg Geli, and Yoyi Hilago and sustained by crowdfunding from fans (I liked it so much that I donated during their first big fundraiser!). It has won the 7th Annual Canadian Podcast Award for Outstanding Fiction Series and was recently picked up by the Rusty Quill network. If you’re looking for a spine-tingling tale of friendship amongst The Horrors, then check out Hi Nay anywhere you listen to podcasts.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
About Jesse Goodsell
Jesse Goodsell is a podcast fiend who is always on the hunt for new, excellent queer horror podcasts to escape the horrors of reality. They are a morning person who hates coffee and drinks it anyway. They believe that queer fiction finds its audience through word of mouth and gets most of its funding from fans. Family and friends have come to expect that any conversation will eventually touch on queer fiction, including Hi Nay. Jesse writes dark fiction under a pseudonym and enjoys consuming dark fiction under their true name, which people forget after they hear it (this is a Hi Nay joke, you must listen to the podcast to get it).
Disclosure: Jesse enjoyed Hi Nay so much that they donated to the initial fundraiser at a high enough tier to be listed as co-producer on the show, but they have never been involved in any way in writing or producing show, only helping to fund it.
