In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic '80s Horror

Just tons and tons of horror thrown at me. I loved it. Interviews with directors, actors, practical FX artists, horror hosts, and lovers of the genre. I liked the format as well. They showcased several films per year as well as topics such as exploitation in horror.

I've only really been into the horror scene the last few years and have mainly stuck to the more well known movies so there were a number of films highlighted that I've yet to see. That alone was a treasure to me. I now have a checklist. :) For a 4 1/2 hour documentary, time flew by.

As for negatives, I thought they spent a little too much time on certain series, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, but they are talking 80s horror. Also, it would have been great to see more key actors and crew. For example, a lot was said about Tom Savini's work yet he's not an interviewee. Budget, scheduling, and the willingness of the individuals could have all played a part in who participated though.

Lots of juicy clips from films, not much substance otherwise. No big names among the talking heads. They are pleasant enough but don't bring anything new to the table. Its nice to see how some of those 80's femme fatales have aged-Barbara Crampton is still impressive while Heather Langenkamp doesn't seem to care much about her appearance.

It is really disappointing that this documentary spends too much time on well known franchises such as Halloween/Friday 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street while other much better films are not mentioned.

A couple of UK releases are mentioned, but nothing from Europe or Australia.

The guys behind this video need to expand their horror horizons.

I was looking forward to this documentary, but after slogging through almost four and half hours, I'm disappointed. There are too many titles missing, too much time spent on the usual Freddy and Jason series, and the titles they do include are given short shrift.

It seems like the creators were going for quantity over quality. And some of the talking heads are a little tough to take, especially the obnoxious James Janisse from the Dead Meat channel. He's obviously reading his lines, and trying to sell them like a used car salesman.

Seeing John Carpenter was cool, but we learn almost nothing new from him here.

While this is an ambitious attempt to document 80's horror, it misses the mark.

Great mix of horror clips and interviews. The only person who I found annoying due to his fake weather man/newscaster voice was the overly-animated host of Dead Meat on Youtube. I don't mean to single him out but the guy should consider toning it down as it smacks of phoniness. The rest of the interviews seemed great and authentic and it was a fun throw back to see all the clips of 80's films. Awesome watch for horror fans.

Sadly that's really all it is. It's great to see some of the faces but they don't really have anything interesting to say.

They give a quick intro on what the 80s was like and then 7 minutes in they start listing movies, giving a short description and saying they like them over alternating shots of talking heads and clips from the movie.

The first movie is The Fog. You get 3mins, 5secs of talk about The Fog. This is a transcript I made for you. -----

John Carpenter: After Halloween I had a deal with AVCO Embassy to make two films and the first one turned out to be "The Fog". It was a ghost story conceived on a trip to England and Stonehenge. I said to Debra Hill, man it's really amazing here. And a fog bank at the time was off in the distance. "I wonder what's in there?" we said. I was gonna get hired for horror films, that's what was gonna happen, 'cause that's where I had a hit. So off we went.

Tom Atkins: You know, it's kind of an old-fashioned ghost story. It's not big, gory, scary stuff.

Carpenter: The Fog was shot up in Point Reyes, California. It was a beautiful area.

Atkins: My dear friend Adirienne Barbeau, she spent the entire time up in that tower and so we were never ever on screen together. Jamie Lee: she's hitchiking and the first thing she says when she gets in the car is "Are you weird?"

-brief clip of the Are you weird? moment-

Atkins: Then I offer her a sip of beer and then they cut and there we are in bed. Just like that. It's that easy 'cause I'm smooth. Hah! I don't think it bothered her to get on that scream queen path as long as she thought she might be able to get off of it. And she did.

Nick Castle: The Fog has Nick Castle as the lead! That's the name of the character in it! I also remember that very fondly because as you pan across inside Adrienne's room she's holding a baby and that's my son.

Atkins: The guys that come out of the fog at the end, into the church, take Hal Holbrrok to heaven. Or hell. Somewhere.

Andre Gower: The seaweed dudes: did not like. Did not like the seaweed dudes at all.

Atkins: They look great in their seaweedy ooky outfits. Big box fans and fog machines at the end of a street trying to make enough fog to look eerie and creepy, threatening, the slightest breeze took it all away and then... to start over again, to build it up and get it going...

Carpenter: That was re-vamped after we finished it as it didn't work and the script was changed.

Atkins: It didn't get going quick enough, somehow.

Carpenter: I was... that was a nightmare. I don't ever want to do that again.

-----

And that's it. That's the level of insight you can expect. Hell, I'd say you get a bit more from The Fog than most of them - they hint that there's an interesting story about post production. They don't tell you anything about it but you know something interesting happened so that's something. And they don't waste a tonne of time telling you how much they like The Fog, something that happens on a lot of the other films.