Hey folks! Welcome to Dead Ringers, a new biweekly podcast featuring a rotating cast of co-hosts (besides myself) and a round table discussion covering a double feature of two similar yet distinct horror movies.

If you want the lowdown on the podcast’s format, what makes a Dead Ringer double feature, and who makes up the current cast of co-hosts, check out the About page. However, if you’re interested in learning a little more about the personal inspiration behind the podcast and website, keep reading after the jump.

Dead Ringers came about for a number of reasons.

First, I love horror movies. While I don’t think my fascination fully kicked in until high school, that’s partly a result of having the shit scared out of me as a kid by movies like Jaws and Halloween — the theme to which would send me into crying fits of fear at an early age. But as Shock Waves‘ co-host Elric Kane has mentioned many times on that show, a bunch of horror die-hards are people who were traumatized by these movies as kids and later came to love them.

Second, I love researching and discovering new horror films, as well as programming horror movies for myself and others to watch — something that Dead Ringers co-host and real-life brother Ben McBride and I used to do every Halloween from 2006 until 2012, after which I moved to Texas. For our annual six-movie marathon that came to be known as Night of the Creeps, we would spend the months leading up to Halloween digging for horror gems we’d never seen or were dying to see with a group of friends willing to endure our selections.

After moving to Texas, I channeled this passion into programming my own 31-day selection of horror movies for Shocktober (as it’s known to some horror fans). I used this as an excuse to try my hand at writing about horror movies on a personal Tumblr, but I could never keep up with the writing and still watch everything I wanted to. As a result of this particular curation, I ended up starting to watch horror movies less throughout the year, instead saving up those I was most excited about for the Halloween season like a squirrel hoarding its prized nuts.

This all feeds into the final reason for creating Dead Ringers, which was discovering Killer POV/Shock Waves in the summer of 2016. I didn’t listen to any horror podcasts up to that point or many movie podcasts — I was more focused on video games — but Shock Waves reminded me why I love horror movies more than anything else. The hosts are fun, knowledgeable, and have a great chemistry; they dive into The Deep End of Horror™ and offer recommendations for movies I’ve never heard of; and their special guests and interviews constantly remind listeners of the passionate, creative, hard-working people behind the scenes of our favorite horror movies. Shock Waves inspired me get back to loving horror all year round and to create my own celebration of the genre that’s given so much to me over the years, and that’s exactly what Dead Ringers is.

Beyond celebrating horror, I wanted to create something that was about a community of horror lovers and not just myself — hence the cast of rotating co-hosts. This show wouldn’t exist without them and I’m thrilled to have each of them on board to bring something unique to the table. In particular, this show wouldn’t look or sound nearly as cool without the help of Philip Yount, who designed the logo and art for the podcast, website, and Twitter account, and Thomas Foster, who composed the theme for the podcast.

For whatever reason you’re here and reading this, I hope myself and the great cast of co-hosts I’ve assembled create something that helps you discover new horror movies and remind you why you love horror — or maybe even why you should love it a little more than you currently do.

New episodes of the podcast will go up every other Monday. I’m also planning to post some writing to the website once the show gets going. Stay tuned!