Camp Monsters - BONUS: Season 7 Recap

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Go behind the scenes of Camp Monsters as host and writer Weston Davis teams up with sound designer Nick Patri to recap their favorite moments from Season 7 and reveal the creative process behind the stories and sound design.Stick around until the end for some hilarious outtakes from Weston’s recording sessions! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Well, welcome to season seven recap of Camp Monsters. Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Patriot, the sound designer of Camp Monsters podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, Weston Davis, the writer and host of Camp Monsters podcast. We wanted to do a quick overview of the season that was. We did one of these last year, and I think people, you know, enjoyed hearing our perspectives on things, especially yours, of course. So this season, three different camp monsters, as it were, two-part stories for a total of six episodes. When you think about this season overall, does a certain monster come to mind?

Does a certain moment come to mind? The two-part writing style, was that different? Like, what comes to mind when you first think of season seven? Yeah, it was very different. I think doing that two-part style threw us back a little bit more into what we'd explore a little bit with the Sasquatch series. Right. where we'd had and then that was season three maybe

I mean it was a while ago now yeah we did you know where we did a four a four part mini episodes and uh you know and all that and it is a different structure to your story because we're still trying to deliver something punchy you know which we'd want to end it on something exciting and a cliffhanger but then you want to have you know enough material for two different stories and

it always seems like you either have too much material you have to kind of condense it or you're or we played around a lot with the structure of it. I mean, we sort of had, with the Hopkinsville Goblins, we sort of had similar stories or the same story told from two different angles and then have an unpack what that meant, you know? And then we, with the mermaid of Moon Lake, we just had a sort of a classic two-part story where we started a story and then we finished it. Yep. And then with cliffhanger in the middle there. Yeah, with the cliffhanger in the middle. And then with the cracklehand story, we did sort of the modern day story cut, you know, go back in time and discuss sort

of a historical precedent, you know, the historical background of the story. We had three different stories and three different methods of breaking them in half and hopefully creating something exciting for everybody, you know, within that. Well, that's a great overview of the season overall. And now let's take it a little bit part by part. So this season started off with a video trailer, starring you, which was very cool. Tell us a little bit about how that was, what it was like shooting it, how it came together,

what it was like. Shooting, it was so much fun. We worked with Amy and Hauser and some of the other folks from R.E.I. They do a fantastic job putting together their video promos anyway. Yeah. And I worked with Hauser before on the Instagram Live feed we did on Halloween. Again, a number of years ago was like maybe 2021. I think it was just post-pandemic or something like that. But anyway, they do a great job setting it up. And it was so much fun. I mean, we've got to find a way to get you down there next to your next to hang around just to be part of the entourage. I would, yeah. I can run for a

lunch and stuff on set. Yeah, you'd be a runner. That'd be great, you know. But, uh, you know, yeah, it's just so much fun. We just went deep in the mountains, the darkest forests of Washington State. Anyway, yeah, on the middle of nowhere. We went out there into the wilderness and we just spent all day just kind of messing around, playing around, you know. And, uh, they had a great schedule. They had a great plan. They knew the shots they wanted to get. But as it turned out, as these things often do when it got came time to cut the the video together they used a lot of the kind of goofy in between stuff yeah yeah you know i mean they made a lot of use out of the stuff we were just having a good time you know it seems like you're having a good time yeah i laughed a few

times during the video i thought it was yeah it looked very fun and just perfectly camp monsters and and perfectly you as well well they're they're they're all you know all credit goes to the r a team because they're just so great it making it natural making it fun i mean it was it was just a good time It was a good time in the woods, you know. That's what we're all about. Narii is all about. Good time in the woods. It's a good time in the woods.

We had it. Now let's talk about a good time in the mountains. You did a live event for the second year in a row. Third year. Third year in a row in Denver at the REI in Denver. Tell us about that. Oh, that's so cool. If you haven't been to Denver,

and if you haven't been the Denver, and if you haven't been the Denver Arii specifically, it's just such a great store. It's in this great big old, I was like an engine house or something for that used to, yeah, it was like the powerhouse that used to run their electric street cars when they had electric street cars 120 years ago in Denver. And so there's this great big, massive building.

They also have a great big fire pit right outside. It's right next to the Platte River there. So this is an awesome setting, bike paths next to it. And we had a great turnout this year. It just felt like we were all settled in. The Denver team does an amazing job of, again, They just have a plan. All I had to do was just show up and tell the story, and they had it all, you know,

just locked in. So our sponsors showed up, you know, and did a great job with that. Brompton, we're showing off their folding bikes. Ultra was there with a fantastic table full of their shoes. And really, I had a good display that made you appreciate the technology that goes into shoes. You don't often think of it, you know? A6 and Merrill and the North Face, we're all, you know, all sent a lot of cool loot that

we were able to give out. So we had a full family, the Malulis, we love you, showed up from Wisconsin. That's great. Fantastic. It was just so much fun to see and hang out with. And yeah, we had some folks from Carolina there and folks from all over that kind of mountain west region from Colorado, New Mexico, and places like that. So cool.

So cool. Camp Monsters Nation. I had to let me know. Let's talk a little about sound design. I was about to say, I was going to turn this around on you and ask you about your favorite moments in our episodes this year. I mean, there were so many fantastic soundscapes to create the character of crackle hands all by itself. I thought gave you a lot of scope to make all kinds of awesome noises happen. And you did not disappoint. Thank you. Yeah, that one was a lot of fun.

And some of the things for the crackling sound and the, you know, you just imagine like these long crackly knuckles coming out. A few of the things I used, one was bubble wrap. Was like twisting a bubble wrap in different ways and you know playing around with it in post Did you use any real sticks? I mean did any real sticks get involved? I did. There were a couple days where I was out in my yard here with my sound

recorder sort of moving it through the bushes and the trees and I think my neighbors probably thought I had lost my mind when they saw me out there doing that but um that's Seattle you know right you're like yeah yeah man's got to have hobbies right dragging his hand through the bushes.

That was fun to do. I love that sort of thing. The knuckle popping sound that you used. I think it was actually at the end of Mermaid and Moon Lake. Anyway, when we were doing the promo. My wife can't even listen to that. It was so gross. It was great. It was fantastic. I love you.

You teed me up for that one by writing that into the final thing. That was fun. Even deeper in these dark woods, something else is crackling. but that's just our sound designer Nick Patry nervously popping his knuckles as he works late in his remote outer banks cabin struggling to find that perfect stick snapping

sound for this episode wait a minute the sound of his knuckles popping that's perfect I do want to hear more about your take on crackle hands set in the Outer Banks

North Carolina And where did this story come from? Not exclusive to the Outer Banks. I've heard. You know, that was just where I first became familiar with the idea of the creature of cracklehands. But it's the kind of story that exists in a lot of different places that have thick, heavy woods. Yeah, yeah. But, you know, it was really just an outline and just see these kind of Internet rumor stories that, you know, you can stumble across here or there.

It was actually my kids that fleshed it out. Yeah, I love that. I've got four sons. And from way back, from when they were small, they got a hold of this idea. And they would draw pictures of the Crackle-Hands monster. And that and a couple other monsters that we're still pitching, trying to get out there for future episodes. Nice. It was, you know, largely their idea.

So I had to take some of their art and run with it, you know. I think we, I think we succeeded. Did it just us? Yeah. Did they enjoy them? Like they listened? Yeah. They really got a kick out of it, especially that one.

And I think it was nice working in the way that kind of the Roanoke colony story. Now, full disclosure, I don't think, I think we're the ones that originated the rumor that Cracklehands was responsible for the disappearance of the Roanoke colony. But, but it fit right in. I mean, it worked out. You know, who knows? Who's to say? Yeah. Who's to say.

It started here. Now it can become part of the legend, you know. I like it. I want to hear a little bit more about your sound design on the mermaid of Moon Lake as well. because that had a very, fairly restrained kind of a setting, but you managed to create some very evocative sounds. I mean, I felt like, oh, yeah, here we are. We're high in the mountains.

We're on a lake and all these things, these strange things are happening. He did a really good job with that. So water sounds especially were compelling. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, that is what comes to mind is the difference between sort of when we're above the water and we're not really sure what's going on. And then when we're underwater and there's like monsters coming up out of nowhere.

so creating that differential in the sound design was fun and I think makes the story a bit more like you can build it more by doing that and putting some little you know because in that story spoiler for anyone who hasn't heard the saga of the mermaid of Moon Lake there's we sort of have a three part monster in that one and so they're all three and one like they're all the same thing but they're all have their different characteristics and so in the sound design I tried to build that into it a little bit where the little girl has her own sound signature sound the sea monster whatever that may look like shark creature creature has its own sound and then the old woman has her own sound and she's above water the whole time so she kind of has that yeah very ominous like hollow sound to her whereas the monster underneath you know a lot of thrashing a lot of like you know jaws esk almost and then you did a good job in the script as well i thought with the describing of like the teeth gnashing and like that whole sequence of the what does dying sound like i like that a lot um it gave me a A lot to play around with. You got to ask the big questions, you know, on the camera.

It got very philosophical there during that part. Thank you. Thanks to Nick for carrying that. And, you know, hopefully making it interesting for the viewers while I'm waxing philosophical about life and death, you know, and you're like, ah, I put more screaming sound effects in here or something. Yes. I really make it play. But it worked. I got it worked.

I hope so. What does dying sound like? Does it come with a roar or a bang? Huh Orin just heard a squeak Orin had to assume that he made the sound just as those big jaws closed on him

and snuffed him right out Other than that Death was just darkness Like keeping her eyes tight shut And there it was again That squeak And a third time from a different

direction so do angels squeak all the episodes my favorite and i don't you know and everyone that listens is going to have a different favorite yeah so that's something that i that's how i dodged a question in denver from a listener um about what was my favorite episode was like right and i don't pick favorites because everybody's got a different favorite yeah um but the the first episode of mermaid of moon lake was the one that wrote itself most naturally this year that was just like yeah got it you know what i mean like that was the one that just flew off the pen and it was like okay just had a good arc to it a good flow to it a good build we haven't talked about the uh hopkinsville goblins a bunch and that was a fun one too because

i think it was our it wasn't our very first episode using other people's voices yes because you have been a frequent contributor thank you to that oh right i have yeah yeah but but uh we did have a chance to get my old my old friends um bridget and byron Melton involved. Yeah, that's awesome. That was really, yeah, that really was very natural. Great to have them in there. And I think, so what was, Aunt Lucinda?

Yeah, Aunt Lucinda was Bridgette's part and she did a killer job. And Bridget is actually very, very talented in the audio description world and accessibility and stuff. I mean, she's, she's done, she's famous people. We're working with somebody famous here. I mean, I believe she's done big time

description work. Very cool. You know, for the visually impaired and stuff like that. Yeah. So she's a, she is a an awesome pro you know yeah and their vocals were great both of them yeah both of them very experienced actor and uh all around great guy so yeah awesome that was a fun one yeah that was a fun one and that was that sticks out to me from doing that one was the uh sort of doctor patient scene yeah you sent me this old clip documentary i guess that wasn't a fictional thing you sent me yeah tell us more about this documentary as an inspiration for the doctor patient scene well you know

we had a doctor patient scene yeah where they're doing they're doing hypnosis yeah as a part of the treatment and this film was made in during world war two it's called let there be light john houston fairly famous director and and actor and stuff like that was the one who made it and it's tracking the work that the veterans administration did with people that were suffering from combat fatigue as they called at that point or you know they'd had really PTSD extreme PTSD And one of the tools they used a lot was hypnosis. But it wasn't, again, it wasn't the kind of the hypnosis that you might think about nowadays. It was a fairly aggressive sort of style of hypnosis.

Yeah. And so I had to send Nick that because I thought, well, if we're going to set this thing back in the 50s, we want to give it that certain feel of not necessarily the, not necessarily with the same kind of, I guess, empathy or, you know, that we'd have nowadays. You know, I mean, they were a little bit more production. It wasn't velvet gloves. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I just wanted to give you a little feel for maybe where they were coming from in the 50s.

I thought you pulled it off wonderfully as the sort of driven doctor. Now we're going to try something. But medicine I gave you earlier should be taking effect now and we're going to try something. How do you feel? Good. Relaxed. Yeah, I feel good. Good.

Now I've got something in my hand. Do you see what it is? Just a pen. It's a writing pen. That's correct. Now I'm going to hold this pen up here, right in front of you. And I want you to look at the very point of this pen. I want you to concentrate on the point of this pen. Concentrate. Good. Good.

Now you're becoming, as you concentrate, you're becoming very relaxed. Very relaxed now. Sleepy. You're very sleepy. You're getting very sleepy now. Your eyes are heavy, completely relaxed. completely relaxed. One thing I would like to talk about before we wrap up

is once again to thank all the listeners that listen to Camp Monsters because every season I feel like they're having more and more of an active role and active impact on the way we do the show and the creatures that we use and utilize. The stories around Moon Lake was a listener's suggestion

and the Hopkinsville Goblins. I don't think it was a direct listener suggestion, but it was part of one that someone was talking about sort of UFO type stuff because that's kind of where the Hopkinsville Goblins is merges with the UFO idea. So anyway, we just want to really thank the listeners for being as engaged and involved as you are. Definitely. All the comments on, yeah, YouTube, Spotify, emails do you send in?

If you want to send any more comments, podcast at REI. Is that right? Podcast at RIA.com is the email. But, yeah, thanks for listening. You really are the reason that we keep doing this and get to keep doing this. So, you know, spread the word. You know, and there's no reason to turn Camp Monsters off just because the Halloween season is over. I mean, we do have steady listener numbers throughout the year.

Yeah, check them out. Getting to the backlog. He's scared all over again. Scared all over together. Yeah, I know I do. Every time I see West and I get scared. So you can do the same by listening to him. Yes, you should.

We want to thank, of course, Jenny Barber. Total thanks to her. Hallow Movedlove, Joe Crosby, Jenny Barber. Tyler Grabowski. Tyler Grabowski for the art. He does an incredible art. So check out Grobo. He's amazing.

The merch, his art got on some merch this year. If you want to get a coffee mug, a couple water bottle options, tote bag, rye.com. Search cam monsters are all pop up. I got them. I've sent them to people, send them to my parents, you know. Spreading the word about game monsters. It's cool stuff. And I've gotten comments on it walking around with the water bottle.

people are hey what's to deal with that you know or like friends of my son on the soccer team and stuff like that you know so perfect it's a conversation it's a great conversation starter break the ice you know you got to make connections in this world you know but uh yeah well let me just say as well what an honor and pleasure it's been working with the great nick patry for the seven i can't believe we've been doing this straight through for seven years you know i was a young pup when i got involved in this you know and you're ageless you haven't changed even a tiny bit but uh yeah it's incredible so thank you for making me sound good and for putting together these question and answer sessions at the end you know and for making so intense around

just pouring sweat over here just really oh you're fine and of course thank you i mean that none of this could exist without you your creativity your voice storytelling knack for storytelling and performance so thanks for everything you do hey all right get monsters nation until next year good night and we hope to see you again soon around the campfire you can't welcome to the camp monsters

podcast I am not a crook you can run up through your modulation machines you can auto tune it you know the hair on the back of who's next straight up make me sing against my will. I know you do it.

You're the Brian Epstein to my Beatles, okay? Except more of like whoever produced Millie Vanilli, to my Millie Vanilly. Just as the creature turns toward the sound, just as it begins its final lunge at you, you could swear you hear those shifting sticks beneath you say, Monsters Podcast One more time because it's so much fun

There's got to be a good one in there somewhere, Nick I know there is, all right Woo! Woo! Now I'm feeling my juice. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do It wasn't that a passion But the morning means goodbye Beware of what is flashing in her eyes

She's going to get you all that she wants Here's another baby She's gone tomorrow boys All that she wants is another baby You get all the greatest hits of the early 90s here In Camp Monsters podcast Want to do both ads again Because we love our sponsors

Oh so much Want to make it sound just a perfect And her wrists are so good. Every stitch, pocket, flap, and grommet on REI equipment has been informed by the adventures that REI members have taken it on, my fellow countrymen. And now the end is near. And so I face. The season's curtain, my friend, I'll say it clear.

I'll state my case of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's full. And you get it. This is the last bit of season seven of the Camp Monsters podcast. Boom Shackalaka for the win and including a 1990s song reference so I think we I think we killed it frankly