In Search of Darkness

There was so much hype surrounding this with those brilliant crowd fund trailers. It would truly be hard for it live up to its promise. What stands is a decent effort but fails to offer anything really new and doesn't spend nearly enough time on any of the films and skips so many amazing gems of the decade. That being said it's decently entertaining but I would have preferred a ten hour cut instead of the four and a half one this is.

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.

Count me amongst those who were ecstatic at the prospect of a four and a half hour documentary on my favourite decade of horror, the 1980s. I felt disappointment set in pretty early however, as the obvious budget limitations had the film feeling like a slightly better produced YouTube video. That feeling may have also stemmed from a number of the talking heads being actual YouTube video bloggers. These people can be entertaining at times, but are ultimately little more than fans themselves. I would have preferred their time given to other folks actually involved in the making of these films. Then again, if Joe Bob Briggs was simply allowed to talk for four and half hours we would have gleaned much more than we did from the ensemble.

The best moments of In Search of Darkness were the sections in which the cultural and historical relevance of 80s horror was analyzed. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the doc is comprised of simple and brief commentary on classics of the decade. The decision to structure the discussion year-by-year (marked by title cards) made the project feel laborious at times.

I'm glad I watched the film, in the sense that it felt like talking about horror movies for an afternoon with fellow fanatics. Don't expect a deeply thorough examination though.

Well This sure wasn't anything special at all , I watch stuff like this all the time on youtube in online shows like Cinemassacre's Monster Madness and Trailers From Hell to name but a few, only difference is it doesn't cost fifty quid to see! This was cute and amusing enough though, I liked hearing what some of the actors like Barbra Crampton, Kelly Maroney and particularly the hilarious Tom Atkins had to say, but this was way too longer than it needed to be, I get much more out of the reasonably long documentaries on a lot of my blu rays, they talk about horrible nothing movies like Lair of the White Worm Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and The Stepfather 2, only the length of it is exhaustive, the rest of it is quite shallow and soon becomes horribly repetitive and that made it a considerable endurance test for me to sit through, in my opinion it's definitely not worth the time to watch it, not nearly deep enough and I feel sorry for those who believed the hype and rushed out to buy this AVERAGE bloated monster of a documentary, so glad I managed to watch it online for free!

Complete list of films as discussed in order.

1980 1.) The Fog 2.) The Changling 3.) Friday the 13th 4.) The Shining 5.) Dressed to Kill 6.) Fade to Black 7.) Motel Hell 8.) Maniac

1981 1.) Scanners 2.) My Bloody Valentine 3.) The Howling 4.) The Burning 5.) American Werewolf in London 6.) Full Moon High 7.) The Evil Dead 8.) Halloween II 9.) Ghost Story

1982 1.) Cat People 2.) Basket Case 3.) Poltergeist 4.) The Thing 5.) Halloween III 6.) Q - The Winged Serpent 7.) Creepshow

1983 1.) Videodrome 2.) The Hunger 3.) Psycho II 4.) Cujo 5.) Sleepaway Camp 6.) Christine

3-d sub-section 1.) Friday the 13th III (3-d) 2.) Parasite (3-d) 3.) Rottweiler (3-d) 4.) Amityville 3 (3-d) 5.) Jaws 3 (3-d)

1984 1.) Children of the Corn 2.) Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter 3.) Firestarter 4.) Gremlins 5.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 6.) Night of the Comet

1985 1.) The Company of Wolves 2.) The Stuff 3.) Day of the Dead 4.) Fright Night 5.) Return of the Living Dead 6.) Howling II 7.) Silver Bullet 8.) Re-animator

1986 1.) Chopping Mall 2.) The Toxic Avenger 3.) Poltergeist II: The Other Side 4.) Psycho III 5.) Maximum Overdrive 6.) Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives 7.) The Fly 8.) Night of the Creeps 9.) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 10.) From Beyond

1987 1.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors 2.) Dolls 3.) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn 4.) It's Alive III: Island of the Alive 5.) The Lost Boys 6.) The Monster Squad 7.) Hellraiser 8.) Near Dark

1988 1.) Critters 2 2.) Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood 3.) Killer Klowns from Outer Space 4.) Phantasm II 5.) The Blob 6.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 7.) The Lair of the White Worm 8.) Elvira: Mistress of the Dark 9.) Pumpkinhead 10.) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers 11.) The Live 12.) Child's Play 13.) Hellbound: Hellraiser II

1989 1.) The Burbs 2.) 976-Evil 3.) Pet Sematary 4.) Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan 5.) Stepfather 2 6.) Society