In Search of Darkness Part II: The Journey Into '80s Horror Continues

Having just recently sat through the 2019 "In Search of Darkness" documentary, I opted to sit down and watch the 2020 sequel the day after, because I thoroughly enjoyed the first documentary. And this time around, I was prepared for the 4 hour and 23 minute runtime that "In Search of Darkness: Part II" ran for.

Once again writer and director David A. Weiner managed to put together a rather enjoyable and entertaining documentary, once that takes you further into the glory - well, more technically, the guts and gore - of the 1980s horror movies.

There are lots of nice interviews with actors, actresses, producers, directors, writers, etc. From so many known and lesser known horror movies from the 1980s, which undoubtably was the most glorious age of horror cinema. And writer and director David A. Weiner takes you along on a fun ride as you get to see great behind the scenes footage, given interesting information of how and why certain effects came into being, and such. So yeah, you are definitely in for quite a treat here.

"In Search of Darkness: Part II", like the 2019 first documentary, has a lot, and I do mean a lot, of familiar faces on the screen for interviews, giving you personal views and takes on movies, and such.

If you enjoyed the 2019 documentary "In Search of Darkness", then you most certainly have to sit down and watch "In Search of Darkness: Part II" as well. And I am definitely looking forward to the release of part III next month.

My rating of "In Search of Darkness: Part II" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

In Search of Darkness: Part II might not offer much to the more seasoned horror fan, but it's entertaining nevertheless. It offers a nice array of talking heads to discuss a select group of popular (and not-so-popular) horror films from the 80's. The films included seem to have been selected randomly and some are discussed for a good chunk of time and some seem to only be talked about for 30 seconds. It can get a little frustrating at times, but this is a film made with a lot of enthusiasm and love and you can't fault them for something like that.

This is the follow up to In Search of Darkness and it adds more great horror flick clips and interviews. It was awesome to see Nancy Allen from Dressed to Kill and Robert Englund and Robert Rusler from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise being added to the mix of interviews. There's also excellent coverage of many great horror films that you've probably never heard of. This time around, the interviews seem more sincere and toned down which is a good thing. Definitely worth the watch. Catch it on Shudder as of July 2021.

As much as I like the 80's I must say that In Search of Darkness Part 2 becomes tiresome. Sure, there are plenty of gory clips but the comments by the usual bunch of horror fans, scream queens, and Fangoria Hall of Fame alumni are not enough to sustain interest for four and a half hours! They are mostly small talk and don't provide much insight. The noble cause behind In Search of Darkness Part 2 is to focus on lesser known horror instead of the usual Freddy-Jason-MIchael Myers stuff. What we get here is more Freddy-Jason-Michael Myers stuff along with very quick presentations of lesser known titles-some of it European and Asian. Another big problem is that titles such as Hills Have Eyes 2, Poltergeist 3, Saturday the 14th (!!!) are treated like classics. The makers of the documentary seem to neglect the fact that there was a sharp decline of the quality of pictures in the second half of the decade. This decline is obvious if you examine the covers of Fangoria becoming lamer year after year. As a presentation of 80's horror the makers could have done much better. If they had focused on the good stuff and had made this a bit shorter. Those who are new in horror may find it more interesting. If you've been reading Fangoria since the 80's and have already seen Trailer Trauma 80's Horrorthon and In Search of Darkness Part 1, most of this will seem pointless.

This isn't interesting enough to watch in one sitting. The info has already been put out there and it's a bore to watch former horror actors and directors inject modern politics into the genre. I don't mind pointing out how modern groups take a series and identify with it, but we all know that these guys didn't consider this stuff while making the movies at the time.

It's a lot of back slapping and self aggrandizement in an overlong clip show.