The Shadows on the Wall

Title: The Shadows on the Wall

Author: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

Narrator: Jonathan Dunne

Original Publication: 1903

Public Domain: Yes

Series Placement: Timeless Terrors No. 81

Description:

The Shadows on the Wall is one of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman’s most unsettling works of supernatural and psychological horror—a quiet, relentless study of grief, guilt, and unseen terror. After the sudden death of a brother, a family becomes haunted by an impossible phenomenon: a life-sized human shadow that appears nightly on the wall, cast by nothing and resembling the dead man with horrifying precision.

Central to the story is the shadow itself—motionless, silent, and utterly inexplicable. As fear deepens, another brother attempts to confront the apparition with desperate violence, only to discover that reason and force are powerless against it. Freeman transforms an ordinary domestic space into a site of mounting dread, where silence and stillness become instruments of terror.

Rather than relying on spectacle, Freeman builds horror through psychological pressure and restraint, allowing fear to grow naturally from the characters’ reactions to the impossible. Narrated by Amazon-bestselling horror author Jonathan Dunne, this performance captures the story’s slow-burn tension, escalating panic, and devastating final revelation.

The Shadows on the Wall endures as a masterclass in subtle horror—a reminder that the most frightening forces are often those that cannot be seen, explained, or escaped.