Remember those nights when you couldn’t sleep because a movie scared you senseless? That’s exactly what Chris Jones and Bob Schultz dive into during their fascinating chat about the horror movies that shaped their childhoods. As the founder of Twisted 50 and the London Screenwriters Festival, Chris brings a unique perspective that meshes perfectly with Bob’s experience as a horror movie writer and producer.

The conversation kicks off with those unforgettable first encounters with horror films – you know, the ones that left permanent marks on our psyches. They recall how Jaws and Alien totally changed the game, with that chest-burster scene in Alien being particularly nightmare-inducing. As one of them puts it, it “absolutely shook me to my core.” Who hasn’t felt that way after watching something truly terrifying for the first time?

Then there’s the whole slasher genre – what a wild ride that was! Halloween and Friday the 13th basically wrote the rulebook for how to scare teenagers out of their minds. The hosts share some pretty cool stories about watching these films in tiny theaters, which honestly sounds like the perfect way to experience a horror movie. They talk about how these films mastered the art of making you feel unsafe from the very first minute – like pulling the rug out from under you and never letting you find your footing again.

But let’s talk about the really gnarly stuff – the creature features. The Thing and The Fly pushed the boundaries of what practical effects could do, and boy, did they deliver! There’s this amazing moment when they discuss the maggot birthing scene in The Fly, where one of them proudly stayed in the theater while their friends bailed. That’s true horror dedication right there!

The supernatural hits get their moment in the spotlight too. The Exorcist, Poltergeist, and The Omen – these films didn’t just scare us, they got under our skin and stayed there. The hosts reminisce about that infamous sheet of glass scene in The Omen, and how Poltergeist managed to make even a peaceful lake seem terrifying. They also get into some interesting stuff about British horror TV shows and those weirdly scary public information films that traumatized an entire generation of UK kids.

Wrapping things up, they geek out over werewolves and vampires, particularly in films like An American Werewolf in London and Fright Night. These movies showed us that horror could be funny and scary at the same time – pretty revolutionary stuff! They also give props to the literary giants of horror, Stephen King and James Herbert, who proved that sometimes the scariest stories start on the page. The conversation ends with some solid advice for aspiring horror writers: “The more original and yourself you can be with your writing, the more you’re going to stand out and really sparkle. So don’t be afraid. Just make other people afraid and you’ll do great.”

And honestly, isn’t that what great horror is all about? Making other people afraid while having a blast doing it? This conversation really captures why we love being scared by movies – it’s not just about the jumps and screams, it’s about those moments that stick with us long after the credits roll, making us check under the bed just one more time before we go to sleep.