Welcome back to the evolution of horror, my name is Mike Munter, and as ever, I am your host.

If you're tuning in for the first time, then welcome, usually on this podcast we explore

and dissect the history and the evolution of the horror genre by looking at particular sub-genre's

one series at a time. Before Christmas, we finished our eighth season on the evolution of the

Vampire movie, and in a couple of months' time we'll be back to begin our ninth season

on the evolution of home invasion horror. But while we're in the middle of a little hiatus,

we are taking the opportunity to bring you a special bonus episode to celebrate the release

of the new James 1 movie, Megan, which is out in cinemas this weekend. So Megan directed by

Gerard Johnston, but it is actually executive produced and with a story by James 1. It kind of

has James 1's fingerprints all over it, to be honest, and I got the chance to sit down

and chat to James about Megan and about his career today, about a man who is arguably one of the

most important figures in 21st century horror. He burst onto the scene, of course, with

Saw in 2004, essentially kicking off the torture porn and extreme horror movement of the 2000s.

He then reset the pendulum in 2010 with his movie Insidious, which then started a wave

of haunting and ghost movies that were so prevalent in the 2010s, and of course he made one of the

cult hits of the decade so far, last year, with Malignant. So I loved getting the chance to sit

down and have a little chat with James 1 about his legacy in the history and the evolution of the

horror genre. Just so you know, this interview is basically spoiler free. We talk a little bit about

Megan initially, but we don't give away any major plot points, so anyone can check this out.

And if you want to hear what I thought of the film, Megan, sign up to our Patreon, patreon.com

slash evolution of horror. We have a monthly strand there called Fresh Blood, in which me,

Brad Hansen, Becky Dark and Louise Blaine discuss and review every new release in the world of horror

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