In Search Of Darkness

This is a 2019 documentary from David Weiner (who liked my review on Twitter when I posted it; no, really) that has a full title of In Search of Darkness: A Journey Into Iconic 80's Horror--that says it all: 

This is a documentary (264 minutes long!) I’ve been interested in ever since it came out three years ago; the fact that it was so lengthy and I wanted to see it all in one day was a reason why it took this long. Via Shudder I was able to experience this yesterday, albeit w/ two small breaks included.

It was what I expected from other reviews that were read by me: it covered the entire decade of 80’s horror, spending a few minutes each on a plethora of pictures, along with a few topics such as “3D”, “T&A”, “the final girl”, “special effects” and “sound/score”. The movies featured were all the heavy hitters, along with a few picks that were presumably done because they already had a certain star or director present for something else. Many of the expected directors (Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, John Carpenter, etc.), stars (Heather Langenkamp, Tom Atkins, Barbara Crampton, Jeffrey Combs, Cassandra Peterson out of her Elvira gimmick, etc.) and personalities-Joe Bob Briggs-are present although it’s also nice to hear from a composer like Harry Manfredini and a special effects/makeup artist like Mark Shostrom as their contributions were typically major assets to all those 80’s genre examples they worked on.

Naturally all the movies listed deserved more than a few minutes of discussion on what made them great or at least memorable, but overall that did not ruin my enjoyment of this piece. There’s sites and resources that can tell you more about each one, and for me this was a nice chronicle of a genre through an entire decade and it was great that they captured all those words/images & for those far in the future that watch this (hopefully in not a dystopian wasteland although the way the past several years have gone for all of us…) this is one way of demonstrating the case that the decade was a lot of fun for genre fans, full of unforgettable memories. For those like me that was a child during the time but as I got older saw many of the pictures discussed here-enjoying the majority of them-it was a nice reminder of why I was happy to experience those movies for the first time. If this inspires people here younger than me-or elsewhere, for that matter-to see something like Re-Animator, The Changeling, Pumpkinhead or Fright Night, then that’d be awesome.

Sometime in the future I’ll check out Part 2, which is more about the hidden gems and deep cuts of the genre. That will presumably be more educational for me although that will be another 4 ½ hour investment so who knows when that day will arrive.