Springfield native Matthew Brookens has written, produced, directed and starred in “Illinois Hell Hole,” a project he describes as a “two-hour, fully scored horror-comedy audio drama.” This oddball extravaganza aired on NPR Illinois (91.9 FM) in three parts Oct. 28-30 as a uniquely flavored Halloween treat, with spooky humor and voice performers ranging from narrator Corey Burton (Count Dooku in Star Wars: The Clone Wars among other high-profile roles) and Daran Norris (The Fairly OddParents and more) to local celebrities such as Springfield theater scene MVP Reggie Guyton, Jeff Williams from punk rock stalwarts NIL8 and Patrick Russell of the Portuguese Rodeo Clown Company.
Brookens is back living in Springfield after several years working as a filmmaker and editor in Los Angeles and elsewhere. Along with work online and in reality TV, he was involved in the popular Walking Dead franchise and directed the feature film The Art of Pain, which streamed on Netflix and Amazon. However, his latest project is not only proudly Illinois-centric but looks to put a modern spin on the kind of audio-only dramas that were hugely popular on radio in the decades before television took over the culture’s eyes and ears.
“Illinois Hell Hole” began as a movie script but a cast read-through got Brookens thinking.
“It just felt like its own thing,” he said. “I realized it doesn’t necessarily need the camera. Your imagination has the best, biggest budget for special effects you can possibly ask for.”
The result is a finished product that he likes to describe as a “movie for your ears,” with immersive soundscapes, music and the kind of engaging performances that would be at home in a big-budget theatrical release.
The entire project reflects Brookens’ experience as someone raised in Springfield who left to pursue a career in entertainment and found his way back here. The main character, Ned, is a cynical goth who is forced to return to the Springfield area when he inherits his parent’s farm, where he discovers that something unnatural and sinister is ready to open up under his feet on the family property. At base, “Illinois Hell Hole” is a quirky comedy with a scary twist, all based in the landscape of the area. At the same time, like a lot of comedy, the story has personal – even tragic – underpinnings.
“My mom suffered from ALS and passed away. I was torn away from L.A. and had to be away from my daughter, so I decided to write a story with some of those elements.” Pause. “But a comedy,” Brookens said.
Another thing that influenced the script was the rush of feelings that came over him when he came back to his hometown.
“You can understand things a little better after you’ve lived far away for a while,” he said. “I’ve moved back fairly recently. When I lived here growing up, I loved it, but I was different – I was nerdy and in theater and a punk rocker and stuff. And socially, there’s an element of people here who hate that, but I think that rejection can strengthen that creative community, too.”
One cast member of “Illinois Hell Hole” who might understand this specific feeling more than most is Meghan McDonough, who plays the character of Lenore. She and Brookens were high school friends when they attended Sacred Heart-Griffin together. They hadn’t seen each other in years other than through what she calls “the beautiful connection of social media” as they each pursued careers in show business, he as a writer-director and McDonough as an actress and improviser.
“We were both back in Springfield, and he told me about this project he had coming up and asked if I’d be part of it. Of course, I was delighted,” she said.
Also delighted to take part in “Illinois Hell Hole,” but with no Springfield connection at all, was veteran actor Daran Norris, known for the part of Cliff McCormack on Veronica Mars, along with voice work on animated hits like American Dad.
“The writing was really good and very funny and different,” Norris said. “When I heard that my friend Corey Burton was already involved, I just said, ‘Oh, I’m in.’”
One aspect of voiceover work that can be both convenient and a challenge is the fact that it is almost always done remotely. This makes scheduling fairly simple but can make performing difficult as the actor is often in the position of reciting lines in a vacuum, with no sense of how the other actors might sound or respond. Norris found even this aspect of his “Illinois Hell Hole” experience enjoyable.”
“For this project, it was really great because I’m recording in my studio, and Matthew’s recording in his, and he was able to read all of the other characters that I was interacting with. So you have that natural back and forth – it’s much more playing a scene instead of just recording some dialogue,” he said.
The fact that this was a long-form, audio-only narrative was also attractive for Norris. “Part of the allure of this was that it was a new format for me,” he said. “I’ve never done anything like this. It was intriguing, and even just the length of the piece was, I thought, pretty bold. It was a very fun project to be involved in.”
Springfield theatrical staple Reggie Guyton said he had a great time playing the main character’s cousin, Moose, who he described as “naive and well-meaning,” providing levity as other things in the story become increasingly eerie and menacing.
“The human psyche is an amazing thing,” Guyton observed, a thought that he said also applies to his next project, pulling double duty acting and directing in the play Fences, which opensat the Hoogland Center for the Arts Nov. 14.
As for future projects, Brookens said he is not quite done with “Illinois Hell Hole” yet.
“I honestly think this could be a movie or a TV show,” he said. “I think I can easily expand this first story into a season of a series and then “Texas Hellhole” would be the second season – there’s franchise potential for that. I’m a filmmaker, though, and I would also love to make a movie and have it be its own thing. I wouldn’tbein the movie, though. I play Ned in the audio version but I’m not a movie star. I’ve got a face for radio.”
Visit illinoishellhole.com for additional information and downloads.
Scott Faingold is a journalist, educator and musician. He has been an instructor at University of Illinois Springfield, founding editor of Activator magazine, a staff reporter for Illinois Times and cohost of Old School Bleep, a music-centered podcast. He can be reached at scottfaingold@gmail.com.
This article appears in November 6-12, 2025.
