Our movie podcast recommendation of the week has a horror tinge to it, and it started from a love of Hellraiser.
Time for another delve into horror podcasts, and this one has a very specific link to one of the spookiest places in the UK; the London Dungeon!
Peter Davis and Philip North first met at the London Dungeon. They were, in fact, working there and not prisoners, we need to make that perfectly clear. Both were actors and became good friends, discovering a mutual love of horror, which makes total sense working in a dungeon.
They created their first podcast back in 2011, based around the lore of Hellraiser and its myriad sequels. The Hellraiser Podcast, which contained interviews with the cast of the first two Hellraiser movies, as well as contributions with writer Peter Atkins. The Hellraiser Podcast was a natural segue for the pair into Horror Movie Maniacs, which took the best parts of The Hellraiser Podcast (namely Peter and Phil an their love of horror cinema) and transported them into the realm of everyday horror. Is everyday horror a thing? It is now.
Peter and Phil clearly love horror, and not only are episodes of Horror Movie Maniacs well produced, they’re also a great mix of personal views, film history and passion for the horror genre; a genre with multiple subgenres and yet something for everyone to enjoy. Phil prefers vampire horror, whereas Peter isn’t a fan of demon possession. I don’t think many of us are keen on that idea to be honest.
Peter and Phil started Horror Movie Maniacs in January 2020, and then the pandemic hit. Right at the beginning of that first lockdown, no contact was allowed, and so they had to figure out a way to record remotely. Peter packed up his second microphone and a set of recording equipment, disinfected it, drove to Phil’s and left it on the doorstep for Phil to pick up. Phil then brought it in and quarantined the equipment for three days before they started remote recording. It seems overkill now, but indie podcasters are as persistent as they are professional. They follow the rules during a pandemic, you see. Professionalism is really at the heart of what Peter and Phil do, and Horror Movie Maniacs is a great example of a podcast that sounds terrific both audibly and thematically.
If you love your podcasts and your horror films, you can’t really go wrong with Horror Movie Maniacs. It’s easy-listening, fun and run by horror enthusiasts, for horror enthusiasts. It’s the dungeons for you if you don’t*!
*Not really.
Recommended episode: Episode 15 – The Thing (1982) (5 March 2021) – https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-15-the-thing-1982-dirty-drawers-and-icy-paws/id1497397097?i=1000511729874 (just in time for the film’s 40th anniversary!)
Horror Movie Maniacs can be found at: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/horror-movie-maniacs/id1497397097
And followed at:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ManiacsHorror
All episodes of Horror Movie Maniacs are available and can be listened to or downloaded from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts from.
Are you a British movie podcast who would like to be featured on Film Stories? We welcome all suggestions and requests, but we especially want to hear from you if you’re female, BIPOC, non-binary, LGBTQIA+ or have a disability. Email Em – verbaldiorama at gmail co uk (Just remove the spaces and add the ‘@’ and the dots, but don’t send spam. She’s vegetarian.)
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