9 min read 27th Oct 2026
“Do you like scary movies?” With Halloween approaching, my answer is an enthusiastic yes. Although if you’re asking in Ghostface’s voice, I’m probably hanging up.
I love a good horror movie, and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said “don’t go in there”. Of course, the person on screen never listens. They open the door or head down the stairs, while I wonder why they can’t see what seems so obvious from the sofa. By that point, the story has me. I care about what happens to them and want them to make it out in one piece.
I recently watched the new adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie on Prime Video and thought it was a great reimagining of the original. It brought the story up to date while still leaving room for surprises and twists. (I won’t expand on it for anyone who hasn’t watched it!)
What interests me is how a familiar story can still hold our attention. Even when we think we know where it’s heading, we want to see how this version unfolds. The characters give us a reason to care, and the storyteller gives us enough to follow while leaving something to discover.
That’s relevant whenever we need to communicate an idea and help someone understand why it matters.
Give us someone to care about
In Carrie, the supernatural events sit within a story about a young person trying to find her place. Understanding that human experience gives the events their emotional weight. We have a reason to hope things might go differently for her.
In business, we often begin much further away from the people affected. We describe a process or announce a new system, then expect the audience to work out its significance.
You could describe Jaws as a seaside town dealing with a shark problem. But picture the crowded beach and someone swimming out into the water, unaware of what is beneath them. Suddenly, that problem has a human consequence. We can see who is in danger and why someone needs to act.
There’s a difficult decision at the heart of the story, too. Closing the beaches would protect people, but it would also threaten the summer trade the town depends on. We understand what’s at stake and why there’s resistance, even as we’re willing someone to make the right call.
The same question applies to your own message: who is affected by the problem you’re describing, and what happens to them if nothing changes? Giving your audience a clear picture of that experience helps them understand why your recommendation matters.
Help your audience see what you see
In A Quiet Place: Day One, the creatures hunt by sound. Once we understand that, even the smallest noise becomes a threat. We know why everyone is trying so desperately to stay silent, and an ordinary journey through the city becomes full of danger. That one piece of information changes how we watch everything that follows.
When we’re presenting, it’s easy to forget that our audience needs that context, too. We’ve spent months on a project and know why the earlier approach failed. The people listening may be hearing about it for the first time.
If we jump straight to the recommendation, they have to reconstruct the problem while we’re already explaining the solution. A sensible proposal can become difficult to follow simply because we’ve left out the context that makes it meaningful.
Before presenting, consider what someone needs to understand to appreciate your recommendation. You may only need a few sentences to establish it. Those sentences can make everything that follows easier to grasp.
Give people something worth discovering
I often mention The Sixth Sense when talking about storytelling because it has such a brilliant twist. I won’t give it away, but the ending changes how you understand what you’ve already watched. On a second viewing, familiar scenes take on a different meaning. The clues were there; you just interpreted them another way.
That’s a useful idea to consider when you’re presenting to people who think they already know the subject. What could help them see it differently?
Perhaps a headline figure looks reassuring until you look more closely at the experience behind it. Or a conversation with a customer changes your understanding of why people are leaving. Sharing that discovery gives your audience a reason to reconsider their own assumptions.
You can build this into the way you tell the story: explain what you initially thought, share what made you question it, then show how your understanding changed. The audience can follow your thinking and see why the insight matters.
There’s no need to save important information for a surprise ending. In a business presentation, you can state your recommendation at the start and use the story to help people understand how you reached it. The useful connection with The Sixth Sense is that moment of recognition when something familiar suddenly makes more sense.
Even Stephen King edits
Since Carrie brought us here, Stephen King’s advice on writing feels particularly appropriate. In an essay about his craft, he tells writers to “Remove every extraneous word.” It’s a useful challenge when you’re preparing a presentation, too. Once you know what you want to say, go back through it and ask what each part contributes.
That can be uncomfortable when you’ve spent hours on a slide or found an anecdote you love. But if it takes the audience away from the point, it may need to go. A detail earns its place when it helps people understand the situation or care about the outcome. Keeping it because you worked hard on it is a less convincing reason.
King also warns against reaching for a thesaurus while drafting. There’s a familiar temptation in business communication to replace ordinary words with language that sounds more impressive. “Utilise” creeps in where you would usually say “use”, and gradually the message starts to sound like someone else wrote it.
Try saying your story aloud as if you were explaining it to one person. Listen for the places where you stumble or have to explain what you mean. Those are useful clues about where to simplify.
What happens next?
When we tell a story well, the audience has something to follow. They understand the situation and can see why the outcome matters.
That’s a useful ambition for a presentation, whether you’re asking for investment or explaining a change to your team. Before you open your slides, ask yourself: what would make this audience care about what happens next and what would get under their skin?
You probably don’t need a dark corridor or a dramatic twist. A recognisable problem, told from the perspective of someone affected by it, is often a good place to start.
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