John welcomes writer/showrunner Haley Z. Boston for a post-mortem on her terrifying new series, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. They look at how the series evolved from initial idea through production, her experience as a first-time showrunner, the special relationship between women and horror, and how she constructs terror on the page.

We also chart her early career, and answer listener questions on splitting scenes and how to handle an overwhelming amount of development notes.

In our bonus segment for premium members, it's spoiler territory as we look at what we can learn from the clever red herrings and misdirects of the series.

Links:

• Haley Z. Boston on Instagram
• Something Very Bad is Going to Happen on Netflix
• Read along with an excerpt from the pilot
• Saying 'I do' is supposed to be joyous — unless something very bad happens by Gina McIntyre for LA Times
• Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover
• Tasting Day
• Freaks Only
• Atomic Wave Dance by The Comet is Coming
• Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
• Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
• Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
• Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
• Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
• Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
• John August on Bluesky and Instagram
• Outro by Gloom Canyon (send us yours!)
• Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.