Jamie Nash is a professional screenwriter, book writer and teacher. His credits include Altered, a very under-appreciated alien horror movie written by Jamie and directed by The Blair Witch Project’s Eduardo Sánchez. He also wrote and produced A Ride in the Park the zombie segment in V/H/S/2 and Exists, the 2014 creature feature about bigfoot, and he wrote and directed the audio drama Black Velvet Fairies. Jamie is also author of Save the Cat! Writes Horror, my new favorite book on the craft of horror writing which was built from decades of Jamie’s experience screenwriting, teaching, and studying the genre.

In this episode, Jamie gets into his career history and explores some of the most vital horror screenwriting lessons he’s learned in his career history. You may want to get your note-taking apps ready on this one because Jamie really delivers the goods for writers. Please welcome, Jamie Nash.

Show Notes

Movies and Shows Mentioned

• Halloween
• The Exorcist
• Sinners
• Candyman
• A Nightmare on Elm Street
• V/H/S/2
• The Ring
• The Sixth Sense
• Scream
• Get Out
• Longlegs
• Nosferatu
• Barbarian
• The Conjuring
• The Blair Witch Project
• The Shining
• The Snowtown Murders
• Magic
• Poltergeist
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Alien
• Dawn of the Dead
• Friday the 13th
• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
• Aliens
• Highlander
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
• The Lord of the Rings
• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• Clayface
• Send Help
• Evil Dead II
• Ready or Not
• Weapons
• Toxic Avenger
• Phantoms
• Pet Sematary films, original and remake discussed in relation to the book

Books and Resources

• Save the Cat! Writes Horror by Jamie Nash
• Save the Cat! beat sheet and screenwriting framework
• Save the Cat! Writes for TV by Jamie Nash
• Danse Macabre by Stephen King
• Bare Bones: Conversations on Terror with Stephen King
• On Writing by Stephen King
• H. P. Lovecraft
• Shirley Jackson
• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King
• The Stand by Stephen King
• Dean R. Koontz, especially Phantoms
• Clive Barker
• Peter Straub
• Raiders of the Blockbusters podcast
• The S From Hell documentary by Rodney Ascher

Follow Jamie Nash at:

• IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1912178/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamie4475/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Jamie-Nash-Writer-158843424733788/
• X (Twitter): https://x.com/Jamie_Nash
• Website: https://www.jamienash.net/