 Thanks for checking out this movie review. This is for the yet to be released. Well when I'm recording this at least the 2019 documentary horror film in search of darkness now what this covers is 80s horror basically it takes a very in-depth look at the importance of 80s horror a lot of the themes that come up in 80s horror and Important changes that happen within the genre to kind of move it forward in addition to that They also go year-by-year all the way from 1980 to 1989 going Kind of going inside and pulling out some some films that they view as Pretty essential and kind of tell you why and within the interviews They have people kind of breaking down some of the behind-the-scenes information about those films And then other people kind of reacting to when they saw it what they thought about it So there's a little bit of extra information about the films But there's also some analysis done as well as well as the themes that I'm talking about Kind of like overall things and you'll see what I'm talking about because I'll kind of go into what those themes are a little bit later So for that reason it's gonna be a little bit spoilery based on the themes But seeing as it's a documentary. I can't cover everything. I can't cover every individual person's ideas who was interviewed So I would just tell you right now You're gonna want to watch this if you are a fan of horror If you are specifically a fan of 80s horror, you're gonna want to see this well Let first let me say if you're a fan of horror You're probably gonna want to see this if you're a fan of 80s horror. There is absolutely no reason for you not to see this film I Actually, okay, I'll I'll let everyone in on something I was gonna say it anyway But Heather Wixon who was the managing editor for this film in search of darkness reached out to me and asked if I wanted a Screen or copy to review. I said I love horror. I love documentaries. I specifically love horror documentaries Kind of nothing brings me more joy. So I was like I'm very excited for this so I really wanted to love it and I'm very happy to say that I legitimately loved it. The only thing that kind of got me initially is I sat down to watch it and I was like, okay, I'm gonna have breakfast I'm gonna start watching this and see if you know, it's probably about a two-hour film I'll see if I can watch it and you know get all my notes down and get this ready for my review and then I see the runtime is four hours and 18 minutes and I was like this has to be wrong and I looked and sure enough. It is four hours and 18 minutes. That's with credits and everything So that's one drawback I think that you might have some people who kind of look at that and they're like that is intimidating I don't have that kind of time and when I sit down. I want to watch a Film even if it's a documentary all in one shot Typically, I like to do in one shot, but I feel like the way that this film is put together It's fine to watch a certain amount and then leave it and come back. Honestly, I prefer it that way I didn't watch it all in one go Because they keep information coming at you So it's kind of nice to like stop it for a little bit go away Digest some and then come back and get another chunk and then digest that and so on and so on I actually did it in two parts I did like an hour and a half first and then the rest Later and I enjoyed it and I will say that my my wife who's not into horror so much Although I can find a horror movie here there to get her into she Was in the vicinity of when I was watching it and she just started paying attention to it while it was on and she was like This is very interesting because it is I mean even for people who aren't into horror It is interesting to get this kind of thematic analysis the film analysis and just talking about all these crazy films that came out and Amazing films and wonderful films and you know, however you want to put it But so big shout out to Heather Wixon. Thank you so much for for giving me the screener for this I really appreciate it. I truly Really loved this film Even at four hours and 18 minutes like I was saying is very intimidating and you might lose some people because of that But I think I want to buy this film to be honest just because I like it so much. It really is up there for me With some of my favorite documentary horror documentaries that is The other ones at the moment being these would be my top three in search of darkness is definitely up there I don't know if I can put them in a particular order, but definitely in my top three now The others are horror in red white and blue that one is amazing and also you're so cool Brewster, which is one about the making of Fright Night Which they cover a little bit of Fright Night in here, but you know So anyway, let's talk a little bit more about this So this film was actually crowdfunded through Kickstarter and then eventually it ended up moving to Indy go go They met their goal within two days and they kept going with the money So I'm very glad that that happened They put a lot of work into this because they got a lot of good names and I'll talk about that a little bit later They're they're kind of slogan for their Kickstarter campaign was this quote Bringing the horror community together to celebrate the most iconic era in cinema history and when you think from a horror standpoint the 80s was a huge time and that's kind of what they Really delve into with this documentary is everybody knows that there are a lot of very beloved Horror films that come out of the 80s very iconic ones but then there are ones that people don't necessarily know about or only certain people know about or one subsection or a few subsections of the horror community have found out about and I feel like they just keep resurfacing nowadays because people are hungry for it And you keep finding out more and more and more that the 80s had even more and even more that we didn't know about and it just keeps coming up It's it's the decade for horror that literally just keeps on giving and it's amazing And that's why this is an important documentary because it really delves into that and I appreciate it because I kind of like knew this about that decade because a lot of my favorite horror films are from then but When someone then presents you with something about it and it kind of says it to you Hey, this was the most iconic and they kind of break it down for you You're like I guess I always always knew it, but I wasn't it wasn't in the front of my brain I wasn't very conscious of it. It was subconsciously in my head So it's nice for that to kind of come to the forefront. I'm like, yeah, you're totally right about this so there are a lot of people Interviewed in this and I was very happy with who they interviewed and the the Audio video clips that they got from these individuals to talk about the films to talk about the trends and the analysis of all this stuff There's a lot of really good stuff. I cannot imagine how much work went into editing this thing Well, first of all shooting this thing putting it all together, but the editing portion. I was like, how do you go through? what must have been a Ridiculous amount of footage Because you have to think they did like full-length interviews with each of these people basically and then as they go through They need to cut the proper clips out to put with the right topic or the right film and Get a good mixture of you know what they want to say with the film for each of those things And that just has to be a crazy hard to make puzzle You know and they did their Kickstarter in 2018 and they're releasing it now in 2019 So it seems like it went kind of fast in my opinion for the amount of work I would assume there is but it's really well done the pacing is amazing the editing is outstanding the interviews are phenomenal the Kind of the the direction of the get the directing of it is really good. The cinematography is really good Everything looks great. They have awesome 80s music in it too to keep it authentic and Yeah, I love it So like I said, there are a lot of big names in this and a lot of interesting names in this There's one person in particular who I thought didn't fit Which like there's one portion within it where I'm like, okay Like this is kind of their time to shine a little bit But otherwise I was like I don't understand why they're in this everyone else felt like they really fit But Cory Taylor the lead singer of slipknot was in it like I like slipknot I've been a fan of slipknot actually since before their first album came out when I heard their Demo that a friend got from an Oz Fests. They were at So I've been a long time fan of slipknot But I was just like why is Cory Taylor in this he's not like qualified because everyone else interviewed was qualified somehow To be talking about this stuff. So I don't know that was the only one that was a little weird to me But there's some great names in this. So I'm just gonna give you a sample of some of the people in this is this is not everyone So you'll see others Tom Holland John Carpenter Joe Bob Briggs Joe Dante Barbara Crampton Kane Hodder Greg Nicotero That is just naming a few but there's so many in there and it's wonderful Jeffrey Combs. I want to say that one too. Just I love Jeffrey Combs. Okay, so like I said It is intimidating at four hours But what I would recommend is first of all definitely see it and it's not just because I got a screen or this They're not paying me or anything. I just loved my experience with the film. Just break it up into a few pieces It's easy to do that because there are definitely the parts where you know You can stop right then and digest what you just had and then come back. No problem The music is amazing. Like I said the point for this There's a point in this that's made immediately that horror has basically been shamed within the film industry And I think that's a really good way for them to open this up Because it's true and I feel like a lot of horror fans even though even if it's not in the front of their minds Know that we're kind of shunned as a Community kind of shunned because of the genre that we love because it's not looked at as legitimate film But if you think about it It's kind of the film that has the most to say and has consistently been that way and they talk about that in the film So now I'm gonna go through a bunch of their themes. I'm not gonna go through the years Because I mean I could give you examples of within each year what films they talked about But I don't want to do that because I want to encourage as many people as possible to actually watch it and there's a lot of joy in not knowing what films are gonna choose from each year because I found myself getting kind of Excited every time they were gonna go to another film and being like, okay What is it gonna be and then seeing what it is and sometimes being like? Oh, yes, of course of course of course They picked this one. This makes so much sense then seeing other ones. I'm like, oh my gosh I can't believe they picked this one. I love it, but I didn't think they would and then seeing other ones where I was like I don't even know what this one is. I Got a lot of ideas from this documentary of movies to add to my Netflix DVD list Online I literally had my notes my notes app open and My page for my Netflix DVD queue open while I was watching this going between the two Because I added a lot of films because of that So that's another thing just watching this because if you're big into 80s horror like getting a good idea of other films You may not have seen that you should definitely see because they're very influential So but I'm but I'm not gonna go over each year because I think everyone should be able to Partake in the surprise of what films they choose to do because it's a lot of fun And then but I will just talk about like the the themes that they kind of talked about the important things that happen in the 80s So one was why we watch is kind of just breaking down You know why do why do people are in general like horror and that's kind of diverse So you get a lot of you know different opinions on that but a lot of it has to do with you know Confronting your fears and mortality being a big one I think is what Mick Garris said. So, you know Mick Garris isn't it? So it's just like what does it say about our psyches would say about us as human beings that were drawn to it all in Positive light then they have one on pop culture and politics in the 80s. So this is something that the documentary nightmares and green and red, white and blue Does throughout the whole documentary that one basically takes a bunch of decades and kind of like tracks through how horror has changed Based off of the politics and the societal Climate at that time. It's and it just is based on like what the most popular themes Within horror films end up being at that time and that's one of the reasons I love that documentary, but they do a little bit of that in this section. They're talking about So they say the whole idea that what stresses exist within society drive horror films and People are drawn to it because of how it basically speaks to them particularly because they're sensing these stressors They're involved in these stressors. They're stressed by these stressors I guess you could say so they kind of talk about that then they have the home video revolution Which you know, I'm I'm very aware of home video because I was a lot I was a kid during that time. So I remember going with my parents to the store and You know seeing all the cool artwork on VHS and Running movies and everything although I wasn't able to watch horror movies at that time So I was very aware of that and I have a lot of nostalgia for that But I didn't really think particularly about the importance of it So they break it down here and they basically say that of just a few things There's still more there break that break down How important video rental was for the horror industry and for fans then also movie ownership basically How much was available and then the fact that people could actually get it and you have to remember one of the big things They point out is now everything's kind of like digitally available So it's very easy to get ahold of back then you had to get the physical VHS of whatever movie you were interested in And so people would kind of like trade VHS's and it came down to that and also, you know What was available at your local, you know movie rental store? So it was more exciting and more of a triumph when you could find things It was kind of like doing a bunch of work to uncover something versus what we have now Where you don't have to do a whole lot of work There's there's not a whole lot of payoff because so much is available at your fingertips That you could just find it real quick and watch it if you want it having to put in work to find a particular Film that you've heard some good things about because it had amazing practical effects So the story was you know, like genre defining or genre changing, you know You felt good when you were able to actually find those things Whoa, sorry messed up my notes a little bit there My apologies they talk about cover art, which I totally miss nowadays cover art used to be amazing a lot of the Early, you know the more recent cover arts been very simplistic and computer done and crappy Although there has been a little bit of a return to the better cover art They speak mainly to the thrill of discovery like I was talking about and availability is another big thing about how we don't think about it But we're actually going to be Losing we have lost a lot of titles because not everything moved from VHS to DVD and then even less move from DVD to Blu-ray and even less moves from Blu-ray to streaming So I hadn't even thought about that and I was like, oh my gosh, they're totally right That we're losing films with every step of technology and that's crazy. It's sad, too Like I it hit me when I was doing it when I was watching I was like, oh my gosh Like someone needs to do something about this basically it actually had me consider for a minute like should I quit my job and like Start trying to find all these old films and restore them and I don't have the tech I mean, I don't have the know-how or the technology to do it But someone if you're watching this and you can do that get on it Then they had a section for special effects, you know practice the practical effects Explosion how practical effects took a huge leap forward especially for horror and because of horror in the 80s And how everything just started looking really great with people like Rob Boutin and Tom Savini Greg Nicotero, you know all those individuals scream and mad George or and yeah all those guys So they talked about the importance of realism that's created by the amazing practical effects of the 80s And how that kind of like gives gave another dimension to horror films. So it wasn't so abstract. It wasn't so Fantasy feeling you could feel more real life and obviously we've gone further because of that and it's you know Gone more down that rabbit hole. They had a little quick little quick portion about holiday slasher films That's kind of self-explanatory I don't really need to go into that one because I'd really just be talking about Specific films, which I'm not gonna do then they talked about horror 3d films Which were a thing very quickly pretty much a flash in the pan They kind of just talked about the popularity of it But basically kind of the ultimate disappointment that existed because of that Then they talked about horror villains and franchise formulas Specifically talking about how villains kind of became the focus for a while and they were the most interesting portion of films You know think about people like Freddy Krueger Jason Voorhees Michael Myers, you know, they became the focus. It wasn't so much about people who are being stalked and killed It was about these interesting bad guys So they kind of go go into that and then also kind of the spin-off of what happened because of that Which is merchandise and merchandising like evolving Then they have a section on horror heroes and rise of final girl So this was basically kind of looking at the other side of when after it was all about the villains Now it shifts over to all of a sudden we're talking about all these Heroes now and now it's not the main focus on this very interesting villain It's a main focus on this very interesting hero who we're now rooting for and we think is a badass and then You know eventually getting to the point where it's women And then kind of the confusion of people feeling like well is is the the horror genre Just trying to torture women and be very unfair to females or are they actually trying to empower women and say hey Here's this this woman who survived and no one else survived because she's so strong So there's a bit of debate that goes on too Then they talk about music and sound which not a lot of people talk about when it comes to film But is obviously very important So they kind of get to the point of how important it is because it will tell you how you're supposed to feel and kind of the use of music and sound versus the absence of it and what it can do with a scene and what it kind of telegraphs or Telegraphs to you. That's a little too old of a term to use how What it basically for shadows for for how you're supposed to be feeling at that point Then they talked a lot about, you know The the stint of time where there were a lot of well-known bands who are giving their music to horror films Which I kind of forgotten about and then when they were going over I was like, oh, oh, yeah That was definitely a thing. There was a lot of that that went on Then they had a section on sex and nudity and there was this kind of like debate of was it gratuitous or not? Exploitative or not. Is that a big deal or not? You know, so they went over that Then they talked about horror fandom Which this was very touching in my opinion because they had a lot of people who are involved in the industry Who we're talking about horror fans and how much they love horror fans and how wonderful and loyal they are and everything And you know me being a horror fan, and I'm sure everyone out there watching this It's just nice to hear those things from the people that you may go to conventions and And and talk to for a little bit or get their autograph and it means a lot to you then But to sit there and hear and see them say these things these words come out at their own mouths and say that you know We love these people. We appreciate these people. We understand that some of us who were only in a few films Like that's how our livelihood continues is because of these wonderful people who are not like any other Community out there So it was really touching and really nice to see that portion And then they have the portion of passing the torch and Joe Bob makes a great point that the 80s were about original scripts It was by and large about original scripts, especially for horror everyone I want to do something new something interesting and now we're kind of in this rut where it's mainly about well What can we remake? What can we make another sequel to what can we reboot at this point? So I thought that was a great point and then the the very sad point also made about you know I was talking about losing movies, which is terrible So let me see if I have I'm sorry, I has to have so many notes on this but I already covered some of the stuff when I was talking in the beginning Yeah, I'm not gonna tell you so for real fans and for This is really good nostalgia so so for people like me This is a really good film to watch and just geek out especially if you're into that 80s decade of horror There were just so many moments where I was just like I was aware of the fact that I was smiling I was very happy about it Especially when they were revealing the films they were talking about and kind of what some people say about them and Just kind of being like yeah Yeah, that's how I feel or I picked up on that and now you're saying that that's exactly what it was supposed to be in this film That's amazing. You know just those types of things that were so great There were many times while I'm watching this and my wife could tell you where I was saying out loud Even though I wasn't interacting with anyone to the screen basically just saying yeah or man That's right or you you know that like you knew I knew it. You know just It shows you're involved and it's exciting and I was just able to geek out while I was watching this obviously I love this I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I'm gushing a little too much. I just I loved it Edited extremely well like I said probably a really tough task to do that and I got super sucked into it So it's really fun to hear what the people from within the industry and sometimes Involved with the films have to say about their own movies and then also the feelings and analysis so In some of these instances you get people who are basically telling you What was going on with the film not just some behind-the-scenes talk about things that you know went on on set? Which there's some funny stuff involved with that, but also Kind of here are the themes that were supposed to come through in this So I know a lot of people sometimes will just Project their ideas of what the themes are supposed to be myself included. I do a lot of that But there there are people saying in there specifically well with this movie This is what the theme was supposed to be and it was supposed to be like about this and about this and about this And those things are great to just hear because I love it Larry Cohen is in this I will tell you and it's really sad because and they did dedicate it They said in memory of Larry Cohen at the end So it's great that they had him in there and when I saw him come up I was like I lost him this year So he made a great point Larry Cohen made a great point that films making Statements on the ills of society will only draw an audience if disguised as fictional story So this was one of the other big themes that kind of speak specifically to horror horror is very much known for Having a theme that having a lot of metaphors with and analogies within the film and He used his film the stuff as the prime example for it where he's just kind of saying that you know You know, are you you want to say something about how all these? food companies are putting terrible things inside their food and You should really be thinking about this and it's nefarious But you can't just make a film that's blunt like that you have to make it entertaining and then people can Then people are drawn to it as an entertainment and then they'll get the point of what you're trying to say And the stuff is a very good example of that. I love the stuff. I think it's great. So Whoo, anyway, sorry, I talked for quite a while about this But I felt like I had a lot to say I wanted to break it down as much as I could but Insomation, I'm gonna give it my star rating Five stars possible with half stars in play. I'm gonna give it five stars. I think For a horror documentary. I think it's up there with the cream of the crop in my opinion I'm very glad that that's the case because I mean, there are a bunch of horror documentaries out of out there But I want more I want more and I want more and I want more because in comparison to other sub-genres within horror There's not much, you know what I'm saying? so yeah, it's definitely now in my top three and Once again, I'll tell you in search of darkness, which is this film Nightmares in red, white and blue and you're so cool Brewster Essentials in my opinion for a people who want to watch really good Documentary horror documentaries. So thank you so much again, Heather Wixen Everyone who worked on in search of darkness. I love it and thank you everyone for checking this out Hit that subscribe for me if you could please if you appreciate any of this or if you just want to support a fellow horror fan Which would be awesome put some comments down there. What are you excited about? Also? Let's just talk about 80s horror. What are some of your favorite 80s horror films? Let's just do that. Let's talk Anyway, thanks again and until next time keep it brutal