Considering how often I write about horror movies here on UnitedMonkee you might think I’ve been listening to or watching a podcast about the genre for years, but that’s not the case. In fact, up until last week, I don’t think the idea even crossed my mind. It seems likely that I checked out a few here and there over the years, but dropped them for the usual reasons (poor audio quality, overly cynical hosts, etc.). I came across Geek Nation‘s Killer P.O.V. recently thanks to following Scream Factory on Twitter. Jeff Nelson, the guy who runs that account and does a lot of work on the home video releases we all love so much, was interviewed (it was episode 8, which you can check out here). I’m actually really interested in the behind the scenes goings-on over at Shout Factory because it just seems like such a rad company, so I gave it a listen. Now, a week later, I’m caught up on all nine episodes.

Hosts Rebekah McKendry (Fangoria), Rob Galluzzo (FEARnet) and Elric Kane (Inside Horror) not only have cool horror pedigrees, but they’re also real fans of the genre. Much like other favorite shows Hear Me Out and Matt and Brett Love Comics, they love their respective topics, but don’t go overboard into the kind of tunnel vision fandom that populates message boards. Basically, McKendry, Galluzzo and Kane understand what works about horror and how it works in a business sense and don’t get too bent out of shape about things like remakes and whatnot while still having strong, well thought out opinions on those topics. Each episode features regular segments like “What are you watching” and news, but also a guest who comes in and talks about a given topic (we’ve heard everything from best/worst remakes to movies that actually scared them). Horror Movie A Day writer Brian Collins was on episode 6 which was really interesting as I’m a big fan of him and his site.

There is one kind of glaring problem with the podcast, though it’s more the fault of GeekNation than the hosts as far as I can tell. That problem? You can’t subscribe to this podcast. You have to go to the GeekNation podcast page, scroll down to the Killer P.O.V. section, select an episode page and then download from there (there is no general Killer P.O.V. page which means you can’t subscribe via RSS). For me, podcasts are an automatic thing. I subscribe and they appear when they’re available. I don’t have to do anything but occasionally look at iTunes. Having to remember every Friday to head over to the site, download the ep and then add it to my iTunes is a relative pain. By the way, the fact that the track imports to iTunes as a song and not a podcast can be a problem if you’re listening to an episode and stop to listen to a song (or hit the wrong button on your keyboard as I often do) because it doesn’t keep track of where you were like it would a podcast. These are all ultra first world problems, but when you’re dealing with a certain medium, it makes sense to get your content out like everyone else.

Still, I downloaded all nine eps and have given them a listen and really enjoy the show. Like with Weekend Confirmed, these guys are way, way more well-versed on horror than I am, but it’s still fun to go along for the ride. Since I have a lot more experience with horror than video games, though, I can relate to and understand a lot of what they’re talking about, even having my own experiences with many of the flicks they talk about. Also, an added bonus that’s a little bit more personal is that all three of the hosts are professional journalists and they often talk about aspects of the job that I can easily relate to — either thanks to current experience or memories from my Wizard and ToyFare days — so that’s a fun. When McKendry started talking about getting into fights over a big list feature in Fangoria, I immediately flashed back to the meetings I sat in on at Wizard, like the greatest single issues of all time. They also make the LA horror scene sound super awesome, like the kind of thing I could get into if I wasn’t on the opposite coast and vaguely terrified of strangers.