All language subtitles for In.Search.Of.Darkness.Part.III.2022.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]part2

"Critters".

They bite.

People kept trashing "Critters"

for being a bad cheap
imitation of "Gremlins".

They're not the same movie.

No, the critters are fucking
gonna eat you alive, man.

It's attitude with an
emphasis on the drama.

I didn't even do nothing.

Boy, you shot her
with a slingshot.

It's really just the way
Stephen Herek approached it,

and took it seriously.

We want the Krites.

Oh really?

Who are they, some new team?

It acts like a studio movie,

and it's a $2 million
little independent.

I love the little
country family,

completely innocent
of everything.

And boy, Dee Wallace
gives it her best.

Get out of my house!

We had so much
fun on "Critters".

I loved working
with Stephen Herek.

He was so easy to work with.

Always knew what he wanted.

And it was a tough shoot,

because we worked mostly nights.

The creature
designs in "Critters"

I remember thinking were
really funny when I was a kid.

Little creepy yet
adorable balls of spikiness,

and they have really
terrifying eyes and teeth,

but that's what
made them so fun.

The Chiodo brothers of
"Killer Klowns from Outer Space"

fame created the
Krites in "Critters".

With "Critters" there is an
element where you are scared

because you don't know
what's gonna happen.

They just seem in
it to destroy things

and kill people.

They didn't have the
big critter finished.

That's why in that one
scene, you only see his eyes

coming up through the window.

It was hard to stay in the fear

and everything that we had to do

because it was pretty funny.

We would be ready to do
this hysterical scene,

and Stephen would go
okay, roll them in.

Just roll the little balls

across the set.

I did not have anything to do
with the Krite and E.T. scene.

Nothing.

And the fans that
are really fans

that are really knowledgeable,

they just get off on all
that stuff, and it's great.

I think it's wonderful
that directors

throw in all those
cross references.

A lot of people
make horror movies

just because it's the easiest,

or what they think
will be the easiest

stepping stone to a career
or a paycheck or something.

But there's a lot of love
and craft in that movie

that I really appreciate.

"Manhunter".

"Manhunter"'s based off
the novel "Red Dragon"

by Thomas Harris, who also
made "Silence of the Lambs",

and just like with
"Silence of the Lambs",

this is a movie that
critics have to refer to

as a thriller rather
than a horror movie

so they're allowed to like it.

The movie is about a killer
named the Tooth Fairy

who bites people's faces.

You can't call this
a horror movie?

Give a kiss.

William Peterson plays
a detective, Will Graham,

who's investigating
murders being committed

by this killer, who we
later learn is this guy

called Francis Dollarhyde,

and the reason the novel
was called "Red Dragon"

is because Dollarhyde
worships this painting

called the Red Dragon,
and identifies himself

as the Red Dragon.

You will lie awake in fear

of what the Red Dragon will do.

Francis Dollarhyde's
played by Tom Noonan

who also played Frankenstein
in "The Monster Squad",

and he's a very, very
effectively creepy villain.

He's up there with Buffalo Bill

from "Silence of the
Lambs", in my opinion.

Put the fucking
lotion in the basket!

As a testament to how
scary Tom Noonan is,

he can wear pantyhose
over half of his face

like he's Howie Mandel
trying to blow up a glove

with his nose, and
still be scary.

Well, here I am.

This was the very
first screen appearance

of Hannibal Lecter,
except this time

he's played by Brian
Cox, not Anthony Hopkins.

And Cox as Lecter
is a lot more subdued

than Anthony Hopkins,
but he still has

this quiet menace about him.

Would you like to leave
me your home phone number?

Even if he seems to
be cooperating with you,

he still never
really lets you know

what his true intentions are,

but you can be rest assured
that they're not good,

and he's smarter than you are.

I know that I'm
not smarter than you.

Then how did you catch me?

You had disadvantages.

What disadvantages?

You're insane.

At this point,
Michael Mann was famous

for the series Miami Vice,

and this movie uses
a lot of the same

color scheme, a lot of
the same use of music.

In a way, this could almost
be like a really scary

extended episode of Miami Vice,

and I think that kind of
ended up overshadowing

the movie a little bit.

Wes Craven, a very
groundbreaking filmmaker,

whenever his name was on a film,

I would always either go
and see it or rent it.

He definitely had a
shaky track record.

But it seemed like
he was always looking

to find something
that would catch on.

He was always doing these
very interesting stories

about how kids were
dealing with a lot

in terms of their family
dynamics, and things like that,

and we see that especially
in the movie "Deadly Friend".

"Deadly Friend".

She can't live without you.

"Deadly Friend" was adapted
from a story called "Friend".

They were trying to
make this love story.

A little bit of science
fiction element,

little bit of action,
little bit of horror.

We're pretty close approaching

the way a normal
human brain works.

"Deadly Friend" is
about a guy named Paul

who is a genius.

He's created this
robot friend named BB,

a robot with super strength
who thinks for himself,

and has emotions,
and feels things.

What could go wrong with
that kind of strength?

Well, turns out everything.

I'm side eyeing this robot here,

because that robot's a killer

just waiting for
an excuse to kill.

Sam was played by
Kristy Swanson,

who we love her as
the original Buffy.

Dad just will beat her,

which is terrible.

He yells at her, and then
throws her down the stairs.

You whiny little bitch!

Ow!

She dies.

Paul's like, I think
I can save her.

You're giving her a robot brain?

Giving her a computer.

It's a battery powered
self-contained computer.

So now he has a robot's brain

in a human girl's
body, but she's dead,

so he has to hide her, or
else she's walking around,

she's a zombie, right?

And then it all goes badly,
and I'm glad it goes badly,

because it would be weird
if it didn't go badly.

She sort of becomes
this very interesting

kind of totem, in a way.

How she's able to
right the wrongs

of the way that
she's been treated,

the way other people
have been treated.

Elvira, played by Ann Ramsey.

She's that gun-toting
get off my lawn

times 40 Karen that
you could meet, right?

Who's out there?

What are you doing?

It's just me, Ms. Parker!

What is that?

BB!

But we love her.

We love Ann Ramsey from
"Throw Mama From the Train",

and from "Goonies".

We love her in that mean
scary woman character.

Damn kids.

BB picks up the ball,

and throws it at Elvira's head,

and her whole head explodes.

The whole head goes

That's my favorite
kill of the movie.

When they had
the movie together,

a studio watched it,
and they said, no.

This needs more violence.

It needs to be gory.

Because they're under
contract with the studio,

they went back and
shot gore scenes.

Then they were told
it was too much.

They needed to be trimmed.

So the creativeness is
pulled back from Wes Craven.

Another movie where
everybody had fun.

But I don't think
Wes Craven did.

♪ Rock and roll

"Trick or Treat".

The ultimate rock
and roll horror movie.

The perfect mixture
of the mythos

behind the heavy metal
culture in the 80s.

Just a great misfit
in high school story,

which I totally related to.

All right, so "Trick or Treat".

You had Ozzy Osborne,
Gene Simmons,

and Skippy from Family Ties.

One of these things
is not like the other.

Rockstar Sammi Curr,

victim of a hotel fire.

Dead at age 38.

A rockstar dies, and then
this evil something or other

comes back as a rockstar.

I knew that "Trick or
Treat" was just candy.

It tastes sweet and
then it goes away.

It's a story of Ragman.

He is picked on, he's bullied

by pretty much everybody.

I wanna nail every
one of those bastards!

I don't know how,
I don't know when,

but I'm gonna nail them.

His hero is Sammi Curr,

who is demonic,
dark, in your face.

He ends up killing
himself in a ritual,

setting himself on fire.

His soul gets trapped
in the acetate demo

that Gene Simmons has.

This is very cool.

And then when you
play it backwards,

he comes back from the dead.

You.

Great cameos by Gene,

and then Ozzy as the Bible
thumping PMRC minister.

These evil people have
just got to be stopped.

And it's just so off the hook.

They were looking at a
lot of different rock stars

to play Sammi Curr.

Eddie.

We had a deal.

I didn't wanna be this
guy with leather studs.

I was much more
interested in the DJ.

It's party time, yeah!

This is the old
Nooser coming at ya

right here on this fine,
fine Rocktober morning.

It's the sweeping sensation,

like patterned
after Wolfman Jack,

who was a DJ at the time.

I just had two or three
weeks off between a tour,

and wound up doing it.

Eh, Ragman!

I remember I was so
excited to meet him.

I said to him, hey Gene Simmons,

can you do the thing
with the tongue?

And he said no, I only
do that for girls.

Tony Fields was genuinely scary

playing Sammi Curr.

Hiya, bud.

Boy, he got that
rockstar stuff down.

He could dance and sing
and move with the guitar

and jump off the stage,

and capable of so much,

and we lost him way too young.

The film script was
funnier and darker.

I think what we ended up with
was something in the middle.

Charlie Martin Smith was
directing for the first time,

"Trick or Treat", that
was his first time.

We had a kinship, a
nerd-like kinship,

that other directors
might not have picked me.

I have to be honest with you.

Keanu Reeves was up for it.

The gore is great,
the kills are great.

When he yanks the old
lady through the TV,

and she just immediately
turns to dust.

Uh, what the shit
just happened, dude?

This is insane.

We were blessed
to get Kevin Yagher

to do the special effects
and the makeup in the film.

It was the first time that
I had acted in a movie

with an imaginary monster, and
things happening, and stuff.

Oh.

Of course, the amazing
soundtrack by Fastway.

♪ Rock and roll

♪ Rockin' on a midnight

♪ Steal your soul

Just such a killer
collection of great tunes

that I still listen to
to this day.

♪ On a midnight

♪ Steal your soul

We were giddy, it was so good.

We were like, this is good.

If the film was successful
when it came out,

it wasn't successful enough
for them to do the sequel,

and I'm not still
living off of it.

If you think about all the
movies that are out there,

it's unimaginable that people
still care about this movie.

Un-fucking real.

Heavy metal fans stayed true.

Marty Rantzen is still a dork,

but tonight he's getting even.

Vestron Pictures presents
"Slaughter High".

April fool's!

"Slaughter High" is about a kid

that gets bullied, and
years later at a reunion,

he comes back.

Starts killing.

It's a revenge film.

It's a horrible prank,
and a prank that went

horribly wrong for
everybody else.

I'm sorry, Marty.

We didn't mean to!

First of all, it was
called "April Fool's Day",

and of course, that's like the
American "April Fool's Day",

so we had to change the title.

It was meant to be
shot in the States,

and there was no budget, so
it was all shot in England.

Three directors.

George Dugdale, my husband.

Peter Mackenzie
Litten, and Mark Ezra.

They all took different roles.

Peter Litten did
the special effects,

so he'd step in and
do those scenes.

Mark was more the writer,
and George would be

very hands-on as the
physical director,

which worked really well.

Good friends.

I've never had that before,
but it was interesting.

Carol, my character.

Come on.

She wasn't a very
nice person at all.

She was a bit of a tease,

and she thought she
was the bees knees.

And she was meant to
be an 18-year-old.

I'm sorry.

I was in my 30s at that point.

They were clever in the casting,

because they got people in
their late 20s and stuff,

so it didn't look
too out of place.

You filthy stinking
bastard, Marty!

What do you want from us?

There was a mix of Brit actors,

and then we had about
four, five Americans,

so that made it credible.

Simon Scuddamore.

Very intense, and he
did a brilliant job.

He made Marty
totally come to life.

It was wonderful.

How do you want it?

Please, stop!

No!

And what they did, I
don't know why they did it,

it was just like a
pack of hyenas, really.

The scene with
the Bunsen burner.

They did such a
good job with that.

No CGI.

All practically done
in front of your eyes.

It all sets on fire.

I think it's a
fabulous sequence.

It's a kind of
tongue-in-cheek play

upon other films that
were maybe more serious.

Given the budget, I think
it stands up quite well.

People seem to like it,
especially in the States

when I go there.

They say, we love it.

I say, what do
you like about it?

They say it's so cheesy,
we just love it.

Maybe it is a bit cheesy,

but it's cheesy and fun,

and the effects were
really well done,

and hopefully the acting's okay.

Look, Manny.

The guy's weird, the
story's weird, and-

And what?

And you're weird.

"Class of Nuke 'Em High",
like all Troma movies,

was a movie ripped
from today's headlines.

There was a nuclear
power plant being built

about a quarter of a mile
away from the United States'

most populous city,
namely New York City.

And right next to where I lived,

so that gave me the idea
of let's talk about that.

But sir, if we could just
shut down for 48 hours-

Shut down?

They'll investigate us.

The EPA, the NRC.

"Class of Nuke 'Em High" is
like a Cuisinart of genres.

People really enjoyed the
mixture of humor and horror,

and social satire, and
politics, and violence.

It's an excellent film.

It's very entertaining.

It's got something to say
about pollution and radiation.

We have found no connection

between that unfortunate student

and this facility.

I almost killed
one of my kids in it.

That was kinda fun.

We had to have a motorcycle
run into a bake sale

with a lot of women with cakes,

and I put my wife and kid
right in the center of it,

so that if anybody got
hurt, you know, my fault.

Nothing happened, but
they came pretty close.

Well, the whole idea of
blowing up your school,

I always loved that.

And I think that was
one of the reasons

it was successful.

We literally destroyed a school.

Once it got into theaters,

we made over 100 prints.

A video cassette company called
Media Home Entertainment,

they sold over 500,000
video cassettes

around 200 bucks for
a video cassette.

You know, "Class
of Nuke 'Em High"

is still very popular with fans.

Nostalgic, too.

We've got all these young people

who are now in their 50s

who still like "Class
of Nuke 'Em High".

They want to see
the future, but now.

It's a good movie.

It's so good that there's
"Subhumanoid Meltdown:

"Class of Nuke 'Em High Part 2",

"The Good the Bad
and the Subhumanoid:

"Class of Nuke 'Em High Part 3".

There are five of them.

Tromaville High School will be

temporarily closed
for remodeling.

All right!

This is actually
based on a true story.

"The Zero Boys".

Dawn of a new breed of heroes.

This really did happen
upstate California.

There was a group of people
that would go paintballing,

and there was a maniac
that would kill them.

Somebody said I'm gonna write
a movie about this, and did.

In the movie, there's a
group, and they're called

the Zero Boys, because they
never, ever, ever, ever win.

But this one time, they won.

Do it.

The Zero Boys are the best!

Fucking assholes.

And they won my character.

And so she's very
unhappy about that.

I am so thrilled to
be with the champions.

Go on.

Show me what makes
the Zero Boys tick.

So they get up there,
and all of a sudden

something is wrong.

Jamie.

It was kind of more getting
into the torture thing,

like really kind
of sick and weird.

Directed by Nico Mastorakis,

who was this Greek guy who loved
action exploitation horror.

And Nico just delivers this
powerhouse of action movie

mixed with horror.

The running and the
hanging by our feet

and all that other
kind of stuff,

a lot of inventiveness with
weapons, and crossbows,

and things like that.

And this movie is
brilliantly photographed

by Steve Shaw.

Every shot of that movie
is almost like a painting,

especially when they're
out in the wilderness.

It was a lot of running
around in the woods,

that's for sure.

Everybody camped
together and went

we have a serious problem here.

What are we going to do?

And did it as a group.

You have to get engaged
with the characters,

and care about them,
or relate to them,

or have an opinion about them.

If you don't know
who these people are

on an intimate level,
then you don't care.

We wanna care.

My favorite kill
in "The Zero Boys",

he falls into this
pit of spikes,

and then you can't get out.

But it was a good kill.

Joe Estevez played the killer,

and he looks exactly
like Martin Sheen.

Probably scarier, because
he has more experience

doing these kinds of things.

It was Hans Zimmer's
first American score.

Frank Darabont was on the crew.

I remember he was
telling us all about

how he had a story
that he bought

from Stephen King for a dollar,

and it was "Shawshank
Redemption".

"The Zero Boys" is under the
radar because it always was.

It was always an
underground thing.

What's scary about
"The Zero Boys"

is you could be doing
something that you love to do,

and be in mortal danger.

There's no place safe.

My real name is George Tani.

Growing up, I was very impressed

with Ray Harry Haroldon movies.

"Jason and the Argonauts".

My dad took me to the theater.

He said it's gonna be fun,
it's gonna be a fighting movie.

It's like a skeleton, you
know, you're gonna like it.

And I said oh, that's great.

I have been watching
"Godzilla", and all those,

Tojo and kaiju films.

When I saw "Howling".

The first time I saw the man
turned into the werewolf,

changing right in
front of my eye,

I was like, this is it.

And then you see more coming up

from Rick Baker, and Rob Bottin.

And then Dick Smith's
"Altered States".

The images of that
really made me decide

this is the way to go.

When I went to New
York studying in school

of visual arts, right in the
beginning of punk movement.

♪ God save the queen

I saw the art side of it.

Punk music really
gave me the art,

okay, we can do a
lot more on edge.

I can perform something
shocking to the people.

"Nightmare 4", my effect
was Debbie's roach,

the girl that hates
the cockroach,

and then she
becomes a cockroach,

and then crushed by Freddie.

That's like Kafka, you know?

And this is a surreal sequence.

The fake body, we take it off

so she can put her head out,

and fake arm, it breaks.

It's old trick, but the images,

and what happening,
really creep them out.

Everybody is like really, ugh!

That's gross!

I succeeded the illusion.

I'm very proud of that show.

It was Brian Yuzna.

We were really creating
the scene together.

Especially the
chanting sequence.

It's a real grotesque orgy.

I love Dali.

Dali is the one that
made me really into art.

My crew was all
inside, you know?

Inside of that creature.

They can move.

That's why you don't
have to have expensive

mechanical movement, you know?

And the people can
move organically.

I put in my 200, 300% on it.

So my sleeping time is
really maybe average

of two hours a
day, or something,

during the show.

There was not much
budget, so I just have to

sculpt everything
myself, pretty much.

And fast.

Making things for
"Bride of Re-Animator",

we didn't have enough
time to shoot everything

that we wanted to do.

It was very rushed.

Herbert West, he does
a bunch of experiments,

so I can do so many
different idea.

The design comes in as
outrageous as possible.

You stupid biped!

Vietnam veteran,
Noble Craig, is an actor

who is amputee.

I've been working with him
since "Poltergeist II".

The vomit creature,
crawl across the room,

that is Craig.

And then "Big Trouble
in Little China",

sewer creature, the creature
comes out from a tunnel,

eats the guy, and then
comes back, right?

That's it.

It took three months to make it.

That too, Noble
Craig is inside there

in special makeup effects.

I think that is one of
the evolutional happenings

happened in film industry.

When I was in Japan, first
I call myself Toshusi Mad,

and then I wanted
to have something

that is really crazy.

Mad is something that is
much more crazier than crazy,

I think, you know what I mean?

More power with it.

And then I remember
the blues singer

named Screaming Jay Hawkins.

If I use Screaming Mad George.

That sounds good.

Screaming Mad George
is my artist name.

"Witchboard".

"Witchboard" is the
reason I will not allow

a Ouija board in my
house to this day.

Don't come into my house
with a Ouija board.

All I ever wanted
to do was figure out

where I could get a Ouija board.

I wanna try this thing out.

Can you hear me?

That movie came out
right at the right time

for my puberty.

Tawny Kitaen, the
quintessential wow.

I had already seen her
in "Bachelor Party".

I'd seen her in all the
fucking Whitesnake videos

at that point.

♪ Well here I go
again on my own ♪

Doing flips on the cars,
and splits and things.

It was very impressive.

I'd really like to try this.

"Witchboard" is about somebody

who becomes obsessed
with the Ouija board.

David, do you remember me?

A Ouija board that then
opens the portal of hell

to a demon.

Ooh, that's a little spooky.

It's a little stupid.

It's a lot stupid.

The visceral horror and
gore that starts to happen

once the horror is
unleashed in "Witchboard".

It really scared
the crap out of me

in a really fun way.

It's the very first
film that we got

from Kevin Tenney.

This was a precursor to
"Night of the Demons".

He starts to frighten
and terrorize her,

gradually breaking
down her resistance.

And once that's done,
he's able to possess her.

The thing that Kevin
Tenney brought to the table

that set him apart from other
directors I've worked with

was his sense of humor and
his passion for horror.

Ouija board was copyrighted

so that he couldn't call
his movie "Ouija Board",

so he changed it
to "Witchboard".

It's pronounced
Ouija, not Ouij-i.

It comes from the French
and German words for yes.

Oui and ja.

Ouija.

It was great working with
the late great Tawny Kitaen.

You must be Linda.

She was fun to act with.

She had a little brown dog

that she brought on
the set all the time.

Jim, this is Zarabeth.

The best medium in
northern California.

When we did that seance scene,

every time they'd say action,

and I'd go like, whoo.

Pretend like the
boy was in my body.

I'd look over at her and
she'd be like,

she'd start laughing, and
then we all start laughing.

And nobody could ever
pull it together.

And I was like, I can't do this!

It was so goofy.

But with the scary music,
when we finally got a take,

it worked, you know
they put a weird effect

on my voice or
something like that.

She hurt me.

She won't talk to me anymore.

Zarabeth to me is definitely
a highlight of "Witchboard".

Just some more psychic humor.

Come on Brandy, let's
hit the musky dusk.

Her death is so gnarly, too.

They'd say action,
and then I'd get to

pretend like I land
on the sundial,

and I had got one of those
blood pills in my mouth,

and I did get to go like,

and like split out blood,

which I adored.

They had taped the top
of the sundial to my back

so I ran down the set,

pretending like I was a shark.

I see danger ahead.

For Linda?

For you.

If you miss my house.

On "Witchboard", I had
so much fun laughing.

It's coming up on the right!

A little more
psychic humor, huh?

With tears and
belly laughs everyday.

Tawny Kitaen.

When I saw that she died,

I felt loss, and sadness.

She was a blast, and
funny, and smart,

and lovely, and it's
weird for me to even think

that she's not around.

It's bizarre to me.

"Blood Rage", also
known as "Slasher",

and "Nightmare at Shadow Woods".

I mean it's like,
make up your minds,

will you people?

There's so few
Thanksgiving horror movies,

that I feel like this has
kind of had a resurgence

in recent years,
because everybody wants

a horror movie to
watch on the holidays.

Twin boys, one crazy, one not.

There's a mix-up.

One gets put in an asylum.

One's out loose.

Nobody in the movie knows.

Everyone in the audience knows.

Here's to the new family.

"Blood Rage" is about
a Thanksgiving meal

that just goes completely
awash in blood.

I'm not a fan of horror.

When I got "Blood
Rage", it was a new

genre for me completely.

I went to the video store, and
went to the horror section.

I literally had to go
and investigate it.

What, are you gonna try
and shoot me again, Todd?

It's twins.

You know?

So I'm going, are they kidding?

Do they know what they're
getting involved with?

That's a chore for most
people in any film,

let alone on a low budget.

I broke it down, Stanislavski,
building a character.

The psychopath, you know?

And then the other guy was
closer to what I usually played,

the sort of hate
yourself, low esteem,

I'd played a couple
of prisoners,

and stuff like that,
and mixed up kids.

Very intense.

"Blood Rage" operates in a world

where it's the family
Thanksgiving and murder.

Looks like you're
gonna get a chance

to meet the rest of the family.

My psychotic brother
just escaped.

It's the turkey
and killing people.

It's rich.

I'd say that this big
bird is ready for carving.

Why does this make me so crazy?

Time to eat, let's all sit down.

It's time for dinner.

Look what the cat brought in!

Louise Lasser gives
110% in that movie.

She's incredible.

She was, god bless
her, a force of nature.

Mary Hartman was
seminal TV, man.

That was hot stuff.

You know, murder with
no reason, or no motive,

I mean really senseless,
when you think about it.

Do you think this is too
spicy, or not spicy enough?

She set the tone
for "Nightmare Mom".

She creates the
world for the film

Oh please.

Please don't do this to me.

She had that
voice, she would just

get into these states.

She was transformed.

Come give mommy a kiss.

That scene around
the refrigerator?

I mean, come on.

This is a woman who's
freaking out over food.

And it's so over the top.

I've been calling
you and calling you!

Why didn't you answer the phone?

Todd's here!

And he's killing again!

She was bringing it.

She got an applause on the set,

and I've only been
around that a few times.

It's bananas.

It's a movie where
no one in the movie

is making the same movie as
anyone else in the movie.

They're all singing
in their own key,

and the movie's all
the better for it.

It's unhinged, it's delightful.

Shooting a melodrama
like "Blood Rage"

is a whole different thing.

You can tear up the furniture.

You can do crazy stuff you
just don't normally get to do.

It's horror, low budget horror.

But this had a building audience

and a genre that had legs.

It was like heavy metal, man.

This ain't going away.

This is gonna be a
decades long thing.

Get used to it.

It's not cranberry sauce, Artie.

It's not cranberry sauce.

They have opened "The Gate".

Pray it's not too late.

One of the greatest
things about "The Gate"

is that for a lot of
kids at that time,

it became their
gateway horror movie,

because it felt
like a kids movie

that didn't play by
the kids movies rules.

Already filled it in.

Whoa, whoa!

"The Gate" is
about a group of kids

that dig a hole
in their backyard,

and find demons.

Hi.

Hey.

It's a PG-13 horror film.

I always saw it as a film

that the whole
family could watch,

that adults could
be sort of nostalgic

about growing up, and kids
could find an adventure in it.

Sacrifices.

We had so much fun
making that movie,

even though it was
very difficult.

You know, money was short.

All those people put
their heart into it.

The actors, the writers,
the special effects people.

We were able to pull the
most out of everybody.

The album, backwards!

Tells you how to close the gate.

It's like the first heavy
metal horror movie for kids.

They got their
lyrics from this thing

called the Dark Book.

It's like the Bible for demons.

So you have somebody like Tibor,

who had a background working

in heavy metal music videos

coming in and being
able to infuse that

into this kids movie
is pretty astounding.

It's always much
scarier when horror

comes into the normal world.

Stephen Dorff was
just so cool to me

when I was a kid.

It seemed like something
that could happen to me.

I could look down in my backyard

and I was always sure
there was the potential

for a portal, monsters.

I always feel kids
can make great actors

if you can key into them,
you treat them like adults.

When they're in the
right frame of mind,

you can do amazing things,

and get very real performances.

We have to close the gate.

We have to go to the
hole and do it right.

You mean you guys were
serious about that demon stuff?

The main theme
of "The Gate" to me

is sibling relationships
and friendship

to overcome insurmountable odds.

You need your friends.

I think of all the
effects that they were

able to do in that movie
courtesy of Randall William Cook.

I was already reading Fangoria

and I was into the
effect part of it,

like the technical part
of horror filmmaking.

I knew that we would have to
use an encyclopedia of effects.

There was no one solution
to all that stuff.

And thank goodness
that Randy was so good

at all of those things.

When the workman falls over
and breaks into the minions,

that to me is like a
seminal important moment

in the movie where you go wow.

Even I go wow.

But it is still cool as
hell to watch that sequence,

and I wish we got more movies

that tried to do stuff
like that more these days.

Like, I don't care if
it looks a little dated.

I don't.

Because it's still magic to me.

It's like a bespoke movie.

It's handmade.

It's kind of rough around
the edges that way.

That's what draws people to it.

They can see the love
that went into it.

"Rock 'n' Roll
Nightmare" is the story

of a band called The
Tritons, led by Thor,

who was a very popular
wrestler, rock and roller.

He was very popular
up in Canada.

So this band comes to
this tiny little farmhouse

on the outskirts of Toronto

to record their new album.

It's kind of like a vacation.

I like it.

You would.

Come on you two.

Don't start.

It turns out that
they are in a house

that had been possessed.

And one by one, they
start being killed off

by these demos.

Kind of this quirky movie

directed by John Fasano.

It's hard to call
these things demons.

They're puppets.

I can destroy and destruct-

Demons that are rejects
from Fraggle Rock.

We talked so much
about the glorious age

of practical effects of the 80s,

but sometimes, they
were not so glorious.

My favorite monster effect

in "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare"
is one that I did.

The chicken monster.

That was a really fun
project to work on.

And then I got to puppeteer it.

Jon Thor is a sweetheart.

He's always so positive.

He was up for anything.

♪ You get me any day

♪ Energy

It was November,
and we had that wind

coming off of Lake Ontario,

hitting you like a brick wall.

This house that we
were shooting in,

which had no electricity,
had no hot water,

and they're in a shower,
buck naked in this shower,

freezing to death.

I mean, that water was ice cold.

But the ending is
not to be missed.

I walked onto set, and
I saw Jon standing there

in this little gold
Speedo, and codpiece,

and this gold lame cape.

And at one point, I looked over,

and I could see his
cape was starting

to spark and catch fire.

Oh my god, that would have been

just the icing on
the cake for sure.

Of course, you gotta love
the big devil at the end.

It was a disaster.

Nice effect, Randy.

It weighed 50 pounds at least.

And it was so unwieldy.

It was just a mess.

But of course that's
the scene that everybody

loves the most in that movie,
because it's so outrageous.

Like you have to see
this to believe it.

"Jaws" follows in a
line of horror films

where nature is out to kill you.

"Jaws: The Revenge".

It's just the idea
that meeting a shark

face to face in the water

is more likely than finding
Jason Voorhees in the water.

The Jaws sequels were
never like the first movie,

and so anytime they
sequelize something,

it was like, oh god,
what are they gonna do?

Lorraine Gary,
who once again stars

as Chief Brody's
wife, now a widow,

she travels to the Bahamas,

and what do you know?

That goddam shark
is still after her.

And she's convinced
that the shark

is following her family,

and she seems to have
some telepathic link

with the shark.

It's such a far cry from
Spielberg's original.

Just like the idea of a
shark being a slasher movie

villain that's gonna
follow these people

from Amity Island
to the Bahamas.

It has a grudge against
the Brody family.

It's just absolutely ridiculous.

- Their family-
- What shark is this?

A friend of the other shark.

Is this like a cousin, a nephew?

You got it.

They just

put that movie
together, really quick.

They cast all of us
before they even made

the arrangements with
the special effects guys.

They kind of did them
almost at the last minute,

and they were like,
wait a minute.

We can't do this, what
you wrote in the script.

We can do something like this,

but we can't do that.

So they had to
rewrite the scripts.

I got a script that I thought

oh, this is a pretty
good script, you know?

I believe it, I play this guy.

Everything this guy
does makes sense.

This is not gonna be stupid.

It's gonna be great.

About three days before
we started shooting,

I get a new script

that accommodates all
the technical stuff

that can be done.

For me, was like, oh god.

I couldn't make sense of it,

so I was pissed
off all the time.

We were like that, you just
try not to make it unbelievable

and it's hard.

I didn't know sharks
sound like that.

Jesus Christ!

What's great about
it is Christmas.

Who saw that coming?

Like, "Jaws 4: The
Revenge", Christmas Jaws.

♪ The first noel

♪ The angels

We blew through
most of the acting

in three weeks in that movie.

I was on that movie
for five months.

So there was a lot of
sitting out in the ocean.

We spent months
sitting doing nothing

because the shark didn't work.

We were shooting this one scene,

and it was in a little,
little tiny rowboat.

The whole boat goes down.

The battery pack that
powers the camera

is encased in plastic,
but it might leak.

So as soon as that
becomes submerged,

this hand grabs me by the shirt

with one hand, yanks
me out of the boat.

It was Michael Caine.

Get the fuck out of that boat!

I mean, I don't know that I
would have been electrocuted,

but that's what he was thinking.

So he just acted like that.

Hang onto your socks, lads.

Michael Caine saved my life.

Oh shit!

Even if you kill them,

they're still deadly.

"Creepozoids".

Fun movie, little TNA

with a wonderful
director, David DeCoteau,

who remains one of
my closest friends.

"Creepozoids" is a very,
very, very low budget alien.

It was really fun,
because we did it in,

which then, was really
quick, seven days.

This place may not have all
the comforts of civilization.

Civilization doesn't
have all the comforts

of civilization anymore.

That's just my point.

There's this horrible thing

out after us that was
not from this earth,

and it's killing us one by one.

When you are doing
low budget things,

the monsters are
usually very fragile.

You had to be very
careful of these monsters.

So you're battling,
but holding back too,

because you could break them.

My mom came to set,

and both of us are
afraid of rats.

So what do they have?

These huge rats.

It didn't look bad,
that baby mutant,

but it was kind of silly.

It was a fun adventure,
because that was the first time

I really got to fight,
and be like, no makeup,

and a soldier.

I did, in "Creepozoids",
had to battle a stunt person,

which was interesting,
because they go all out

I'm like oh, I'm
gonna get killed.

I'm gonna get hurt.

Linnea and I go
back to a movie I made

1000 years before that,
which is hard to believe,

called "Fairytales",
and before that,

a movie called "Auditions".

It became apparent that most

of the female applicants
were non-professionals.

The whole idea was
they would come in,

sign a release, get
paid I think $10,

because we made it clear
that their audition

was gonna be used in the movie.

And the girls had to
take their tops off,

because they had
to be kind of sexy

fairy godmother, Cinderella.

I forget the story.

Many years later,
suddenly she's back

as a more mature
still very young woman

in the lead of "Creepozoids".

When I did "Creepozoids",
this one girl

would not do a topless scene.

She was such a prude, I thought.

And she was doing all
this backstory on herself,

like who is my mother,
who is my father.

On a $60,000 film.

But she went on to big things.

She became a porn star.

And I was like, wait a minute.

You wouldn't take off your top.

Now you're a porn star.

Let's not turn this into
a slumber party, okay?

"Zombie Nightmare" is
the story of a young man

who is murdered,
run over with a car

by these bunch of teenagers.

His mother goes
to a voodoo woman

to bring him back to life

to take revenge on these kids,

these spoiled brats.

See look, I told you.

There's nobody here.

At the same time,
there are two detectives

working to try to figure out

who's killing these kids.

Let's not have any
more high school kids

turn up dead.

Understand?

The script was
actually much better

than the final film, that
John Fasano wrote, by the way.

It was about racial
tensions, also.

Pretty young thing
has just walked

into the wrong neighborhood.

I do believe you're
right, Mr. Barnes.

Hey, don't be so uptight-

I went to Montreal
with Adam West.

It was surreal.

It was like, I
can't believe this.

I'm acting in a monster movie

with my childhood hero.

Come on, Frank.

I'll buy you a drink.

Jon Thor, he actually replaced

the original zombie actor
in "Zombie Nightmare".

We actually filmed the
end of the movie first

so the zombie was still played
by Peewee, the stuntman.

And he's big guy.

I'm the young detective,
and I arrive at this garage,

and I get there
just in time to see

the zombie kill Tia Carrere.

Right?

Police!

Hands in the air!

He knocks the gun aside,

and picks me up by the throat,

and then throws me onto a car.

It's my first movie.

I'm fighting a monster.

This is what I wanted
my whole life, right?

Mystery Science Theater
discovering "Zombie Nightmare"

definitely saved that movie
from disappearing forever.

It's called "Zombie Nightmare",

and it stars Adam West and...

There's a scene when one
of the zombie characters

is essentially dying.

His mouth is open, and
his eyes have sunken back,

and there's all of this
mist coming out of him.

At the time I thought, oh wow.

That really looks good.

Maybe this is gonna be good.

I had hope, anyway.

Kill me!

Kill me, Frank!

Frank!

"The Video Dead".

I love "Video Dead", because
it does something different

with the zombie genre.

We're given this weird
nightmarish suburbia,

where these zombies
are killing people,

but they all have a story.

They try to live.

Like, they try to adapt.

You have this haunted
TV that gets delivered.

And initially it
goes to a writer

in the opening of the film,

who's played by
Michael St. Michaels,

who would eventually
go on to become

the Greasy Strangler.

The TV somehow is a portal
for this zombie movie,

but also real zombies as well.

That's the first movie
I've ever died twice in,

and one time I killed me.

When I shot it, I was the
first 20 minutes of the film.

The distributor
didn't want that,

so they took out a
bunch of my scenes.

The hardest thing I
did in "The Video Dead"

was being dead.

That scene where
they open the door.

We had to do that
two or three times

because I could
not stop shivering.

Holy shit!

A few days later,
they called me up

and said would I be interested

in being in the movie some more?

I came back as Jack the Zombie.

The actor who originally played
Jack the Zombie had died.

I don't know how or why,

so they had a vacancy, and I was

the right height and weight.

All those zombies
had personality.

They weren't just eating brains

for the sake of eating brains.

They were going places.

They were doing things.

Those are some of the
best zombies we have

of the entire 1980s decade.

The bride zombie, she's doing
all these domestic things.

And then you have the rockabilly
Flock of Seagulls zombie,

who's kind of like the
ladies man of the zombies.

My favorite scene is when
I'm the way too cool zombie.

Yes, I like you, you know?

I could tell I really
creeped her out.

I really enjoyed working
with Robert Scott.

He really didn't
want anybody to know

that that film had
only cost $35,000.

It was shot on video,
transferred to film,

and then transferred back
to video again.

It was generating a nice
amount of money here and there,

prior to Avco Embassy
going bankrupt.

People were impressed
that I was in it.

I didn't have to pay
for video rentals

in a couple video stores.

This bar I hung out
at kept me drunk

for about six months,
because I brought in

a copy of the thing and showed
it at the bar.

People look at that
film, and they wonder

whatever happened to that guy.

And now they get their answer
in "The Greasy Strangler".

"Slumber Party Massacre II".

If you go, don't go all the way.

Oh god, anybody got any tranqs?

A lot of us straight boys

used to wonder in deep thought

about what must be going on

when girls are having
a slumber party.

You look like a big chicken.

Bawk, bawk, bawk!

I love the "Slumber
Party Massacre" series.

They're all written
and directed by women,

and that shows in the
content of the film.

One of the cool things about
"Slumber Party Massacre 1"

is that it's really
satirizing the slasher genre

at a time when the
conversation around

whether or not slasher
films were feminist.

But "Slumber Party Massacre 2"
takes that and runs with it.

Come on baby!

We gonna rock and roll!

"Slumber Party Massacre
2" is actually a meta film.

A comment on those
kinds of slasher movies,

at the same time that it is one.

Plus, it's a musical.

♪ I love to jam
it to the floor ♪

♪ Let its wild parts roar

I was working for Roger Corman,

and I said Roger, I'd really
like to direct something,

and he said, okay.

I have something you
can direct immediately.

He said "Slumber
Party Massacre II".

We have to make it, because
I've sold all the rights to it.

"Slumber Party Massacre
II" is about some girls

who get away for a slumber
party at a cottage,

and it's interrupted by a
musical icon serial killer,

who is going to
sing and kill them

with his crazy guitar.

Yoo-hoo!

I'm home!

What could be more evil

than a weaponized
electric guitar?

To drill poor innocent
victims' heads in?

I couldn't think of
anything that represented

the phallic nature of rock music

any better than a guitar
that had a drill on the end.

Atanas Ilitch plays
the driller killer.

And this is Atanas
Ilitch's only album.

If you look, he's holding
a cat on the back.

He was full of lots
of enthusiasm and ideas,

and I didn't have
a choreographer,

so he and I had to make up his
"Let's Buzz" dance together,

and the chorus was

♪ Let's buzz

He's out there.

♪ Let's buzz

It was a sexy song.

My favorite two things
is the dead chicken

that jumps out of
the refrigerator

onto Crystal Bernard's chest,

and spews weird liquid
out of its cut neck.

The other one is
they're driving away,

and the Driller Killer, of
course, is in the backseat,

and he drills the kid who's
driving through the seat.

It sold a tremendous
amount of video cassettes

which was what Roger wanted
to sell at that point.

He said it made over $6 million

on a $390,000 budget.

It actually got
banned in the UK.

They wrote a letter to Roger

saying you can't show
this film in the UK

because it's a particularly
virulent combination

of sex and violence.

I wish I had a copy
of that letter.

They sounded extremely offended.

The way she broken my heart,

it made me cry,

so don't you know
she had to die.

The 80s, like any
other film decade,

was about transition.

I think that there was forward
motion in a lot of fronts,

and there was backward
motion in a lot of fronts.

Move lady, or I'm gonna blow off

your old man's 'acho bizeezhiis!

The 80s was before we were PC.

Gay people, black
people, Asian people,

in the 80s movies were
always the butt of the joke.

And we just dealt with it.

We were just used to it.

Urban stereotypes of black
people, Asian stereotypes.

And yes, they were harmful,

but we weren't as aware
that they were harmful,

because we just had not
awakened ourselves yet.

No!

I think stereotypes are
stereotypes for a reason,

because there's a
lot of truth in them.

But I also think that the
80s is more complicated

and messier than
just a reductive,

the black guy dies first rule.

I look back at Romero,
"Night of the Living Dead",

a black leading man.

Very bold move on his part.

He wasn't there as a
symbol of a black man.

He was there just as a man.

What people don't give
Romero enough credit for

is that in his zombie
trilogy, Romero's always

putting the underdog
at the front.

Get out of the way, bitch,

or I'll go right
through you with this.

We're getting to
make this a habit, man.

"Night of the Comet",
we had a Mexican man

as the male lead, which,
because it's Los Angeles,

we didn't think
anything of that,

but everybody else
was like, whoa!

Jeez!

There goes the neighborhood!

In those days, it was
defiant to cast a Latino.

I would be very happy
when I would watch

a horror movie
back then, and see

the kind of diversity
that did show up.

Want one?

Because representation
is such a new idea,

because sometimes you don't
know what you don't have,

until you start to get it,

and then you're like, oh.

We didn't have this before.

Oh, look at that face.

Okay do the other one.

I'm from a Filipino family,

and our culture was never
represented.

Unfortunately, even
today, we're very limited.

Looking back on the way
casting was in the 80s,

I know it can be easy
to be upset at the past,

but it was of its time,

and it was kind of rough.

No!

In the rare instances
where you do see yourself

represented onscreen, or
something that is even

closely akin to you, and
it's shown in a negative way,

or there's violence being
done to this person,

it weighs on you.

I feel like we can
learn from our mistakes,

but not beat
ourselves up about it,

and not feel like we
have to change the edit.

I don't think we
need to throw away

representation
that isn't perfect,

and in the 1980s,
representation was not perfect.

It's important to remember
what the social context is

when something's made.

We should be talking
about our history.

There's a reason why
this isn't okay now,

and was happening then.

Context, context, context
is what's important

when it comes to these films.

Doesn't it bother
you that he's a fag?

Come on-

Tell me, Billy.

Are you a fag?

We need to talk about
more than just the word.

We need to talk about what
the word was doing there,

and who put it on that page.

Every filmmaker,
their upbringing

influences their storytelling.

With that in mind, I began
to make my own films,

and I began to
write my own films,

and I began to
create opportunity,

not only for myself,
but for everyone else.

What do you make of it, Mark?

Beats me, Chief.

Seems like the work of
pathological weirdos.

Representation being
a double-edged sword.

I'm really getting scared.

I can't take back
any movies I did,

and I don't want to.

I represent as far as
I can what I look like

in the group of
people I come from,

but I never pretended,
and I don't say

I'm speaking for everybody.

I just have my little lane,

and I try to stick to my lane.

When you look at
horror of the late 1970s,

early 1980s, we start to see

actual queer
representation trickle in.

We see gay guys kicking
ass in films like "Siege",

and "Savage Weekend".

That was getting way
more normalized in the 70s,

and then when AIDS hit,
they all got shoved

back in the closet pretty hard.

Suddenly, there is very
much no longer an interest

in having queer characters
normalized in those films.

It was a big
elephant in the room,

and I think a lot
of horror filmmakers

didn't want to bother
navigating that.

It's part of the
evolutionary process of horror.

For me, like it was such
an educational process

to be able to go
back and look at how

we've changed, and
how our dialogue,

and how our discussion of
these movies has changed.

Oh god, she's a boy.

It's hard to compare the 1980s

and representation in horror
to what we have today.

Because what we have is
a conversation happening

that's asking for what we
want our future to look like.

I look at everything
that happens in the past

as opportunities to do much,
much better in the future.

It was once said to me that
representation is a journey,

not a destination.

So to me, representation
in the 80s

is a work in progress.

Representation now is
a work in progress.

There's forward movement, and
there's backward movement,

but you can't snapshot it
and say this is what it was.

Because I think it's
a more complicated

messier picture than that.

"Return of
the Living Dead: Part II".

Just when you thought
it was safe to be dead.

I love a good zany horror movie.

Zombie content right
now is very serious.

It's all about
society and humanity,

and what does humanity mean.

This movie, it's
fun to watch zombies

just be ridiculous.

"Return of the
Living Dead: Part 1"

is truly a dark comedy.

You're laughing
at the situations

the kids get themselves into,

and "Part II" kind of
went for the jokes.

It's less of a sequel,
and more just kind of

a goofier remake
of the first one.

"Return of the Living
Dead II" shows that

even if you die in
the first movie,

you can still come
back for the sequel.

Not bad.

Nice bit of rump
in her time, huh?

James Karen and Tom
Matthews from the first movie

come back for this one.

They're kind of
filling the same role,

and basically have the
same arc as the first one,

so they sort of are playing
the same characters.

We've been here before!

It's like a dream,
this whole thing!

You, me!

"Return of the Living Dead"
was a huge hit in Japan,

and they said if you
can have Jimmy Karen

and Tom Matthews come
back, we'd give you

a little bit more money.

So that's how Jimmy
and I got involved

back in it again, was
because of the Japanese.

Jimmy Karen, lot of
people on the East Coast

call him the Pathmark man.

March rolls in with
hundreds of price reductions

in this new Pathmark circular.

So he would give weekly
specials every week

for 30 years.

24 hours a day, you'll save

with one stop
shopping at Pathmark.

He was so infectious on the set.

Raised everybody's game up.

You laugh at the situations
we get ourselves into.

You can't believe the
shit that's going on.

Are you fucking kidding?

That's insane.

That's what you're
responding to.

We're acting it for real, man.

It's the dead!

They've come back to life!

The dead?

Dead, dead what?

People!

We need your car!

Well it sounds to me
like you need a hearse.

I had an issue with Jimmy Karen

eating brains, actually,

because the director wanted
me to eat frickin' brains,

and I was like, that was just
so over the line, I thought.

I got really upset
about that on the set.

I had issues with
him, Ken Wiederhorn.

It's like he lost a bet
and had to do the movie.

Hemdale made him do
it to do other movies

that he wanted to do.

It's a sad story of Ken
Wiederhorn and his career.

He came right out of the
gate with "Shock Waves",

he had "Dark Tower"
that he wrote

that was completely butchered.

"Meatballs II" was never
a "Meatballs" movie.

It was a movie that he made,

and the company was
like, we need a sequel.

And they retitled it.

And this happens again.

I mean, Ken has the script,

and it's not really
a zombie comedy,

but they want to make a
"Return of the Living Dead II".

He just really wasn't interested

in doing the movie,
but he did it

Oh, fuck this!

The strengths of "Part II"
that people really enjoy,

I think the fact that the
main character was a kid,

so they have an emotional
connection to the movie.

Brains!

I've never heard anyone say

that they've hated "Part II",

except for me.

This is big fucking trouble!

I've changed my mind since then.

You've got
to give the devil his due!

"Sorority Babes".

"Sorority Babes in the
Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama"

is about these kids
that think, okay,

we're gonna break into a
mall, in the bowling alley,

and steal a trophy.

Come on, man!

I'm working on it.

Will you cool your jets?

Things turn out really bad,

because they awaken this imp.

Such a sour face!

Stop it, you little prick!

Very funny imp,
but very menacing,

and does bad things.

Have a nice trip!

See you next fall!

I crack me up!

It's that story
of the monkey's paw.

Be careful what you wish for.

Gold!

Lots of it!

Then gold it is!

This isn't gold!

These people make these wishes,

and they go so bad,
it's not even funny.

Oh perfect form!

Lovely form!

Now I come along, and
my name is Spider in it,

and I save the day.

When I got the script,
it wasn't called

"Sorority Babes in the
Slimeball Bowl O' Rama",

it was called "The Imp".

We had no idea what
the imp would be like.

We didn't know what
it would sound like,

we didn't know what
it would look like,

because no one was there.

We just had to pretend we
were looking at something.

We had no idea it
would be a funny voice.

Uncle Imp is gonna get ya!

Fun, fun, fun!

Dukey Flyswatter was in a band

called The Haunted Garage.

He was a great guy and
everything, to work with.

No, that's his real name.

I don't know what
his real name is.

It's probably Howard,
or something like that.

Would I lie to you?

"The Serpent and the Rainbow".

When I think of the movies
that Wes Craven created

that really moved me and
challenged me as a viewer,

"Serpent and the Rainbow"
is definitely at the top

of that list.

I love "The Serpent
and the Rainbow".

They have this dust that you
can put into people's faces

and they become a zombie.

So you could bury them,
they could come alive again.

It is Wes Craven's
take on the zombie film.

Everybody was kind
of trying to chase

what George Romero did with
"Night of the Living Dead".

It wasn't until "Night
of the Living Dead"

that people even started
talking about ghouls as zombies.

Zombies were Caribbean.

Zombies were in "I
Walked With a Zombie",

you know, "White Zombie".

That was kind of zombies.

But now, zombie became
synonymous with living dead people.

The whole meaning of
the word got screwed up.

Wes Craven is inviting us

to learn the history
of these monsters

that we're fascinated with.

This comes from him
being an academic.

He goes back to the
root of the zombie,

and he goes back to
Haitian folklore.

It's very much about the
idea of wealthy white people

trying to steal
cultural heritage

away from Haitians.

Now, if you don't
like the word zombie,

you can choose another word,

but the fact is,
somebody brought him

back from the grave,
and I want to know

how they did it.

They send Bill
Pullman's character there

to find out what is the secret

to immortality, essentially.

He thinks that he
understands these rituals,

and that he is above them,
he is a man of science,

but then he discovers
that he doesn't really

know it at all.

Whatever happens,
death is not the end.

Wes Craven is a
great, great director,

and comes up with great ideas.

Really fantastic
effects in that movie.

Some of the camera tricks
that they're able to do,

especially in the
sequences with the coffin,

when it fills with blood.

It's just phenomenal.

The dream sequence
with the zombie bride,

a snake comes out of her skull.

I mean, that is
incredible imagery.

You dreamt of me
and of the grave.

I know because I was there.

Zakes Mokae in that movie
is absolutely terrifying.

Bill Pullman really,
he had to put up

with a lot for that movie.

I want to hear you scream.

Where he's basically
in a chair, nude,

and a nine inch nail
that changes a lot.

You see it once, you're never
gonna forget that moment.

And get out!

"The Serpent and the
Rainbow" feels the most

like who Wes Craven
was as a person to me,

because he is
interrogating the way

that our society functions,
and our fear of death,

because I think
ultimately, a fear of death

in this film is a fear of
losing power and influence.

He has always reinvented horror

as a means to teach us
either about ourselves,

broader society, or about
the sins of America,

the way we extort other
cultures for our own gain.

Don't let them bury me.

I'm not dead!

When I really think
about all of my memories

on the set of "Sleepaway Camp",

we were just one big family.

One of the most magical
times of my life.

I was a 13-year-old
making this fun movie.

Spoiler alert, I mean
the first penis I saw

was my own penis, you know?

It was like, this was a
movie like none other.

Once you find out
what the ending is,

you start to understand
the deeper meaning.

And there's a lot going on.

Your gender identification,
your sexual orientation.

It was never intended to have

any kind of negative connotation

on any aspect of life.

Goodnight, campers.

"Sleepaway Camp 2".

Michael Simpson called
about portraying Angela

possibly in Parts 2 and 3.

It was the late 80s.

We were seeing more comedy.

And I just didn't take very
well to that character.

Wake up, everybody!

Breakfast in half an hour!

I put it on hold.

I'm young, let me go to school.

Robert Hiltzik made this
movie, and it was great.

So when Robert wrote the sequel,

he continued that dark
movie that was made,

and the producers
were like, nah.

We want to really
play into Angela.

Fritz Gordon is actually
Michael Hitchcock,

who wrote Glee.

He was brought in to
write the horror comedy.

There's lots of good kids.

We just have to
weed out the bad.

But it's mainly one liners,

and just kind of
Pamela Springsteen

taking this Angela character,

and just amplifying it so much.

Say no to drugs.

She brought so much energy.

That was an Angela that was fun.

You talk too much.

Also, them playing with
the transgender character,

fully a woman, has completely
undergone everything.

A surgery and all.

You're Angela Baker,
the angel of death!

They should have
called you Peter!

My name is Angela Johnson.

A Bruce Springsteen sister.

She kept it secret.

She wanted to be an actress,

but I guess it wasn't for her.

She ended up doing
photography instead.

Some of Bruce
Springsteen's album covers

is Pamela Springsteen's
photographs.

I was once a camper myself.

She's the boss' sister.

She was born cool.

Angela is killing
because she's bullied.

She's weeding out
all the bad kids,

and she's on top of it,

and she doesn't care
what anyone thinks.

Please, don't!

Sorry!

Once I start a task,
I always finish.

It has some kind
of cruel deaths,

like shoving somebody
down a Porta Potty.

What's down there?

The leeches
attached to her face,

she's obviously covered
in poop and pee,

and it's just like, ugh.

What a horrible way to die.

I love that outhouse scene.

That was disgusting!

It's a perfect,
perfect, perfect blend

of horror and comedy.

A lot of people say
"Part 2" 's my favorite,

and I think that's fantastic.

I do wish I had
played those roles.

I do.

I always say I have
no regrets in life.

None.

But I do regret that.

Even if you're
sad, you gotta eat.

Isn't that right, Leah?

Just would have been super cool

to feel like I had done
the entire franchise.

I think the series
is empowering.

I've watched it over 40 years

grow into this, you know,

it has a life of its own.

"Sleepaway Camp" is
so interesting to me.

I still have so many questions.

I'm completely cured.

If I wasn't, they
wouldn't have let me out.

"Don't Panic" really
feels like it was

made by a fan for fans.

One!

Two!

Three!

This 17-year-old boy has a party

where his friends surprise
him with the Ouija board.

And if you thought this movie
was about the Ouija board,

oh you thought wrong.

In Spanish, "Don't
Panic" was called

"Dimensiones Ocultas", which
means occult dimensions.

At that time, the only way
was to shoot in English,

sell it in the
international markets.

We tried to hire actors
that were English fluent,

and that had an
international look.

Let's look at the
character Michael.

That's what I call a pullet.

You have a perm on your mullet.

And you're wearing dinosaur
pajamas at 17 years old.

They're after me.

They're gonna get me.

Don't worry, baby.

I won't let anybody hurt you.

I always get questions
about those pajamas.

They seem to be the
most memorable aspect

of "Don't Panic".

Michael.

This time you have to stop him.

Don't fail.

What the fuck?

It almost felt like a
medically induced dream fever.

It was just so out there.

Hurry!

Do you believe in Satan?

Roberto Palazuelos is playing

the character of
a tough bully guy.

He goes inside the car,
sticks his head out

from the window.

What Screaming Mad
George did for us,

he made a piece of prosthetic,

like a retractable
knife inside the mouth.

And then when he
opened his mouth,

you could see the blade pop,

and the blood come
out of the mouth.

I think it was a very good kill.

It really became a success

when video came out.

And then we started
getting requests

from all the world.

We sold it in United Kingdom,
Japan, China, Germany.

I've gotta save Christie!

Please listen to me!

It scared the shit out
of the audience.

You want to play games?

Good.

I like games.

Say your prayers.

"Lady in White".

"Lady in White" is a
particularly strong example

of gateway horror.

That was one of the scariest
movies I saw as a kid,

because it's dealing with
very, very dark material,

and it's stuff that could
happen in real life.

The titular lady in
white is a ghost,

but what this movie
is really about

is a child killer.

It was seven years
between "Fear No Evil"

and "Lady in White"
before I got back

behind the camera again.

It was a remarkable experience,

such a far cry from
"Fear No Evil".

What I wanted to do this time

was really try to make something

that was personal on an
autobiographical level.

A beautiful story
about what it was like

growing up in that era,

and combine it with
this ghost story,

that drives it thematically,

and perhaps more
so commercially.

It's like the most
cinematic version of Halloween

that you can have.

It smells like Halloween,

like you watch that movie,
and it tastes like candy corn.

The seasonal feel.

We began during the fall,

and the moved into
the winter months.

I wanted a contrast
between the darkness

that was going to
happen in the film,

and these beautiful
bucolic moments.

Hey!

The first image
that came to mind

for "Lady in White" was
this image of Frankie

being locked in the cloakroom.

Comforted
by their ancient voices,

and I began to dream.

Lukas Haas plays
Frankie in this.

I'd seen him in "Witness",

I'd seen him in "Testament",

and I knew that this
kid was extraordinary.

He had an innate ability
to express his feelings.

That's what acting's all about.

Mom used to say sometimes
when someone dies violent,

they can't rest in peace.

The story is as much
about a time and place

as anything else.

A key character is a black man

who gets caught in the
madness of what's happening,

what's going on in that town.

Dealing with issues of race,

particular as it
relates to the lady,

what was going on in that era,

and being truthful as
to how people spoke,

how they reacted, how they dealt

with each other between races.

I wanted nothing but the truth.

Harold Williams is
a perfect scapegoat.

He's black.

When it comes to pure
cinematic drive and force,

I think the climax
works beautifully.

I think that theme of loss

and coming to terms with loss

and dealing with
loss is universal.

My mommy's lost
and I can't find her.

The "Lady in White",
it fucked me up.

Seeing it as a kid, in a
way that it just becomes

like embedded in you,
and become a core memory.

10-year-old
Melissa N. Montgomery

was the first victim believed
to have been murdered.

I'm glad that people
are still discovering

"Lady in White".

It continues to remain
somewhat hidden.

It's fun for me.

I already told him.

Her mother is the lady in white.

I'm awake!

"Dream Demon".

The movie was
about the fine line

between dreams and reality.

I think I'm awake, and
then I keep waking up.

This is crazy.

You better call that
doctor friend of yours.

My character was
like a punk rock chick

connected to this English girl.

Wake up, Diana!

Come on!

Wake up!

Diana, please!

Ultimately we realized
that through our dreams

and in our ability to
crawl into our dreams,

I think that we
ended up bonding.

Cheers.

Now wake up!

Come on, wake up!

Wake up!

Stop!

I loved working
with Gemma Redgrave.

She was like my best friend.

No that's, no that's,
that's very good.

That's really very good.

Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail.

I remember having
good laughs with them.

Hey come on, leave her alone.

What do you think
she is, dog meat?

Piss off, darling.

We're the press!

Oh yeah, well
print this, dickhead!

It was an adventure,

some groundbreaking
special effects.

All of these art director types

that got to really stretch
out their creativity

and just be as
gross as possible.

So I'd be like, huh.

She's crawling
through slime today.

The script was peculiar.

They had so many rewrites,

and the director
was kind of a nut.

They wanted me to stand in front

of these six foot flames.

It's hot, right?

The director was like
okay, you're gonna come in

in front of that
flame, and I'm like,

how about this, fuck
no I'm not gonna stand

in front of, and then
he got really mad at me,

and I was like, I'm not
standing in front of that.

That is dangerous.

Forget you.

You stand in front of it.

He's like, all right fine!

He stands in front of it,

and he singes the
back of his hair.

I have not worked with
Harley Cokeliss since.

I don't think I was his
favorite actress.

Diana!

The most challenging aspect

of working on horror films,

it's me screaming and crying.

It's me bringing to life my
own personal freaking fear,

so I guess bringing your
own reality to the screen

is the trickiest bit.

But what a blast.

I'll do it any day of the week.

Pay me.

Where's my mark?

Anybody who thinks
it's a good idea

to get shaved by a monkey

needs to reassess
their life plan.

You're not gonna hurt me.

I'm part of you.

"Monkey Shines".

A leap into terror.

"Monkey Shines"
is about a mind meld

between a man, who
suffered a horrible injury,

and this monkey.

You're giving me a monkey?

How am I supposed to
take care of it, Jeff?

The idea is that it's
gonna take care of you.

He ends up becoming telepathic

with this monkey, and
the monkey ends up

becoming kind of
jealous of the people

that are close to our main dude.

Allan-

And the monkey starts to enact

a lot of the rage that the
quadriplegic is experiencing,

and people start to be killed.

It sounds all very far-fetched,

but the way that
Romero handles it

is completely expert,
and a perfect example

of what a great
filmmaker Romero was,

even out of the zone of zombies.

Yeah, yeah.

I made up a formulation
based on human memory cells.

I've been injecting
one of my monkeys.

George sets the tone.

Come on, give it right here.

Now, now.

- Thank you.
- Good girl.

It was a fun set to be on.

Jason Beghe.

I liked Jason a lot.

He was a very intense guy.

Don't.

Do not.

Don't do it!

Goddam you, you-

I think it was a lot
more pressure for him.

He was carrying
that film, really.

I love monkeys!

Monkeys are awesome!

Well, not so much.

Kind of scary, really.

I really wanted to
love the monkeys,

but truthfully, I
had to really fake

not being scared.

Hey, company's here.

Come on.

They're very strong.

In the pivotal scene,
monkey's trying to drug me

with this hypodermic needle.

I had to wrestle
with the monkey.

And a lot of that was a puppet.

But there was one short time

where I was actually holding on

to a real monkey.

Ella, no!

I can't say I had a lot
of affection for them.

But I faked it really well.

And we had that love scene

that was one of the
more challenging scenes

I've ever had to do.

As a young boy,
watching that sequence

and wondering about how this guy

was going to have an
encounter with this woman

that we knew he liked,

and the way that happened,

the harness thing for his bed,

and this monkey's watching,
like getting angry.

That movie's messed up, man.

We were in it together,

and we got through it.

I do believe we
drank a little bit

of champagne during it to relax,

because it's so hard, these
intimate scenes, you know?

With a crew.

It's a scene I'm
actually pretty proud of.

"Monkey Shines"
is George Romero's

first studio movie.

The movie was taken
away from him and recut,

after he added things
that they asked for.

The original ending
was much darker,

and they hated that.

I wish we could see
George's original vision.

It's what happens when
you work for a studio.

The movie's not yours.

Even if it wasn't
appreciated at the time,

I think anybody who
appreciates George

is gonna take another
look at any of his work.

It's an interesting story.

It has survived better
than I would have thought

at the time, that's for sure.

"Black Roses".

The hottest band
this side of hell.

A big heavy metal band is coming

to do a series of concerts,

and the parents in the town
are very much against it,

because you know, rock and
roll leads to the devil.

The fact that we had
Julie Adams in the movie

was a thrill for all
of us monster kids,

because she was in "The
Creature from the Black Lagoon".

Their satanic music
and subversive lyrics

threaten to undermine the
very fabric of our society.

John Fasano.

We did four movies
in four years.

John and I had known each
other since elementary school.

And so now, here
comes the biggest thing

to hit Mill Basin ever,
and they try to stop it?

You call that good?

When the investors saw
the first cut of the film,

they were like,
it's a little short.

It needs more monsters,
and more boobs.

So we shot these
additional sequences.

I did do some special
effects for the reshoot.

John wanted her hand
to be starting to look

like it was changing, so
I sculpted an appliance.

She's there, and she's sort of
caressing herself like this,

and I'm just going like,
nobody's looking at that hand.

Mike Maddi designed
this creature.

It was like bald, and
had these huge fangs,

and these long, sinewy
arms, and talons.

And it took five of us
to work that puppet.

It's definitely a major leap

from "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare"
in terms of the effects.

The record starts bubbling up.

What the fuck?

And then it becomes this
creature that attacks him.

Probably the best
effect in the movie,

listening to metal, and metal
inviting in this monster.

It's clearly playing
on satanic panic.

Maybe the parents in
the PTA have a point,

and this is Satan music.

So that's kind of funny.

Let's make blood city!

"Black Roses", yeah the
band actually are from hell.

What do you know?

We are the Black Roses.

The flowers of evil!

You have been chosen.

"The Brain".

What I love about that title

is that nobody
would second guess

that a movie called "The Brain"

is about a brain
that kills people.

The plot revolves around
this evil scientist

played by David Gale,
who you might remember

as the professor
in "Re-Animator".

I will be famous!

He runs this TV show
that brainwashes people,

and gains control of their minds

with the help of this
weird brain monster,

and then there's this
rebel high school student,

who's the only one who
can resist the brain's

mind controlling power,
and save the day.

You can go now.

What the hell happened to me?

But not without some
horrific hallucinations.

The protagonist,
he's driving the car,

and the brain is sort
of taking over his mind.

I mean, could you imagine that?

If you're driving a car,

and then you just see
a video wipe transition

turn into a brain?

Holy shit.

Look at that brain.

You can't tell how
it moves around.

All you see is
this enormous face

coming after people.

It's kind of scary, but
it's also really funny.

That's food for thought.

I mean, you just
look at that thing,

and you gotta love it.

So there's this toy and
a cartoon in the 80s

called Madballs.

Madballs, Madballs!

Gross for one, gross for all!

We play with a Madball!

They're gross!

That's what the
brain looks like.

It's a giant Madball attacking.

I worked in Madrid
on a wonderful film

called "Howl of the Devil".

I love Spain.

I've done quite a
bit of work in Spain

with Sinbad, and various things.

Paul Naschy, both
directing and as an actor

in his own right.

He had such presence on camera.

Menacing presence, but
he was very charismatic.

And I'd be speaking
English to him,

and in post, they'd dub him.

The plot basically was this man,

by day, he was quite
normal, head of the house,

and he had his
lovely son, Sergio.

And I was the maid
that came to clean up,

and look after the
son, basically.

But then by night,
he would change

into these wonderful characters.

He became Frankenstein,
he became the wolf man.

These very strange characters.

Some of the sequences
we had to do

the man with a
great big chainsaw

that came running after us.

No!

Carmen.

I liked her, because
she was very proud.

Quite a holy Catholic lady.

And then the priest,
who was a lovely

sweet, sweet actor.

Was trying to molest
her, to attack her.

It was quite an emotional
scene, actually, for me.

And for him, because
he was so upset.

He spoke English, he
said I'm so sorry,

he says, so sorry.

Paul want me to do this,
and I don't want to do it.

I said, we'll make it
look as good as we can,

but I might push you
and punch you a bit.

He said, that's okay.

He said, I don't mind.

You do what you do.

So then we went for it,

and I managed to get
away from him, basically.

It felt like one of
my better scenes,

because she was in a really
state of distress before it,

and this exacerbated it,

made it far worse for her.

Paul was, to me, the
king of Spanish cinema.

He absolutely was.

People loved him.

When we talk about genre,
and we try to put things

in boxes, one of the ways
we got in trouble very early

was we conflated a
setting with a feeling.

Horror is an emotion.

So you can have a
horror in space.

You can horror in the old west.

You can have horror in a comedy.

It looked like this!

Horror is about a
feeling that you evoke

in your audience.

Lollipops!

And all free today!

Horror is a more flexible genre

than people realize, and
oftentimes it can be found

hiding within other
genres, nested in there,

waiting to strike at any moment.

Fear is always there.

It's just one decision,
or one thought,

or one perspective away from
being right in your face.

Any movie could suddenly
become a horror movie.

You're dead.

Horror is catching
you off guard,

and taking you off
your axis somewhat.

No!

The horror has been
a part of our lives,

new just didn't know it.

It was dressed up
in fairy tales.

But it's always
been a part of us,

because fear and darkness

is always a part of your life.

It's part of life.

Disney goes very dark.

"Pinocchio", for instance.

The Pleasure Island scene.

Bad little boys doing
bad little things,

smoking cigars, gambling,

until they turn into donkeys,

because it's a cautionary tale.

They're doing the shit they're
not supposed to be doing,

and they just
start transforming.

What do I do?

"Willy Wonka".

Not a horror movie, per se.

Does it have horror elements?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

Round the world and home again!

That's the sailor's way!

The horrific
nightmare boat sequence,

where he's just staring deadpan,

and starts singing
that weird song.

♪ There's no earthly
way of knowing ♪

He's singing.

And there's like,
these horrible projection

that are happening.

As a child, I was sitting
there watching this

thinking what the
fuck is happening?

Now I am gonna be sick!

Never mind the fact
that these children

are just getting
offed, one by one.

It's kind of like
a slasher movie.

She was a bad egg.

I seem to find horror
in every film I see

at some point.

Any time you're writing
interesting characters,

they're gonna have a dark side,

and so if you get some
people with problems,

and issues, and
anger, and stuff,

then you have a
dangerous situation,

and that's scary.

We might not call
"Blue Velvet" horror,

but I do know it was
covered in Fangoria.

David Lynch is bouncing
in and out of horror

throughout all of his films,

and I think horror fans,

our antenna perked up.

It delivers horror
probably more effectively

than half the movies sitting
in the horror section

at the video store.

The severed ear moment.

The camera moves in.

There's ants on it.

It's incredibly graphic.

That's a pure horror moment.

Don't you fucking look at me!

Frank Booth is one of
the great horror villains.

He was terrifying, because
he was unpredictable.

He was a madman,
and it felt unsafe

in a way that by, say, 1986,

a lot of our movie
slashers didn't.

Does horror even
need to be scary?

It just has to disturb
you in some kind of way.

What's cool about the 1980s

is horror was so
big, that it actually

infiltrated other genres.

Ow!

I'm glad to see
you finally made it

to the suburbs, bitch!

My first horror
film, "Return to Oz".

It's like mombie
taking her heads off,

screaming, the wheelers.

Come here!

It can be a character,

like one person in that
film brings the horror.

The judge in "Roger
Rabbit", right?

When I killed your brother,

I talked just like this!

"Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom",

looking as a human hand
plunged into the chest

of a sacrificial victim,
and the beating heart

was ripped out.

This horrifying
ritual really held

all the elements of horror.

A movie that scared
the crap out of me

when I was little was "The Wiz".

My favorite movie of all
time was "Wizard of Oz",

which is also pretty scary.

You know, you get to
those winged monkeys,

and it's like, terror.

Help, help!

Help!

"The Dark Crystal",
"The Black Cauldron",

like animation, horror.

The field.

It's covered with blood.

These movies have
elements of horror,

and that's what we grew up on.

The psyche can do crazy
things to you, as well.

Your thoughts can
turn dark on you,

and that's also scary,
and a person that you know

can change on you,
and that's scary.

Aging is scary.

Dreams are scary.

The dark is scary.

There's dark every day.

It's gonna get dark every day.

It's gonna get scary.

Wait!

Ow!

Get away!

Horror is everywhere.

It's everywhere.

"Things" a horrifying sensation

that'll rip apart your soul.

A lot of people know
that Canadian horror movies

are Canadian just because
they're in English,

so they get lumped in
with American ones,

but don't be fooled.

Just because Canadians
have a reputation

for being polite doesn't
mean our horror movies are.

Canada actually made a
lot of slasher movies

in the 80s, which
is appropriate,

because we helped
start the genre

with the original "Black
Christmas" back in the 70s.

Why should America
have all the fun?

In addition to all those
great slasher movies,

Canada was also responsible
for making this movie

called "Things",
which has been called

one of the worst
movies ever made.

Oh no!

What did I do?

These two idiots sit
around and drink beer

for a little bit, and
then all of a sudden,

these weird ant thingies
invade their home.

Oh my god!

Susan!

It's not a horror comedy,

but I'd be hard pressed
to find something funnier,

because it's fucking terrible.

The whole thing has a very
home movie quality to it.

Everything looks homemade,
like the little ants

looks like they're made
out of paper mache,

the blood looks like
they mixed food coloring

and corn syrup.

Mm, that's human
blood, all right.

"Things" might just
be the most Canadian

movie ever made, and
I don't just mean

most Canadian horror movie,

I mean the most
Canadian movie, period.

Oh thanks, man.

You can practically smell

the half empty Molson bottles,

watching this movie.

Blood is just dripping
like maple syrup!

The big selling
point for "Things"

is that Ginger Lynn is in
it, the famous porn star.

But when you see the
movie, she's not doing

anything porn related.

She's like a newscaster
for, I don't know,

30 seconds at the
beginning of the movie.

They probably took
whatever budget they had

and gave her half of it,

so what, two grand maybe.

At the end of the
movie, they start killing

these weird ant things
with a chainsaw,

and spraying fake
blood everywhere.

I really hope the
guys who made it

got their damage deposit
back on the place

they were staying.

But now that everyone seems

to be talking about it again,

do I dare subject myself to
the ridiculosity of "Things"?

I'll be okay!

The situation in
Venice is now critical.

A giant toxic cloud has
settled over the city,

and is slowly destroying
every form of life.

I'm in an infamous movie

that has several
different titles.

"Shocking Dark",
AKA "Terminator",

or da-da-da-da-da.

The movie originally was
called "Shocking Magenta".

How are you gonna
translate that?

That doesn't work
in any language.

That's not the only name

it's called "Contaminator".

"The Killers of Venice Beach".

It has lots of names,
and that has something

to do with distribution.

Venice before the year 2000.

"Shocking Dark" is a
movie where the filmmakers

attempt to warn
people of the hazards

of industrial pollution.

Fear fighting
against the unknown.

Hurry!

They're coming, they're coming!

My character in "Shocking Dark"

is Lieutenant Koster,

and I'm telling all
these guys what to do.

All right, you bunch of pussies!

I'm back, and I'm kicking ass!

And I'm not politically
correct about it,

and I don't care,
but it's because

they're my guys.

Careful, baby.

That thing just might go off!

They're sending us into
the depths of Venice.

My impression is
they're gonna find out

it's a creature
from another planet.

I can't say that
was exactly the plot

when I started the movie.

And they're waiting for you!

Who are they?

What are you talking about?

It's a sandwich
that didn't even have

a whole loaf of bread.

So it starts out pumpernickel,

and then it ends up a brioche,

and then it's a slice of pizza.

Can't you smell
that stink of shit?

The creatures in
"Shocking Dark".

I have been told
they remind people

of the creature from "Alien",

but when I was in the movie,

and as the movie was told to me,

by the director, Bruno Mattei,

he intended it to be more

of "The Creature From
the Black Lagoon".

We're chemically dumping in
the waters around Venice,

so originally the
concept was this thing,

maybe it got radiated,

because that's what they
were kind of thinking.

Something wraps around my neck.

Go back and watch carefully.

So this hand is going oh, oh,

and this hand from
below is wrapping around

my own neck, and
I'm going like that.

So every time
somebody says to me

it's a ripoff of "Alien"
and "Terminator",

I go not if you're
holding the rubber mask

with your own hand

"Shocking Dark" is
such a shameless ripoff

of so many other things
that it was legally not

able to be released in
the States for many years.

This is the end of the line.

You look at movies by guys

like Bruno Mattei,
and you think it was

probably a pretty
good party onset.

End of the line.

Maybe as long as the
filmmakers are having

a great time, you
hope it bleeds through

to the screen.

Bruno Mattei was by
no means kidding himself

of where he was in
the film industry.

And he's in on the joke.

I worked on two movies with him,

and he was always
up against a budget,

and he never took it badly,

he was never in a bad mood,

and he was a lot of fun.

I miss him.

I miss him a great deal.

A new film
by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

"Santa Sangre".

"Santa Sangre" is a
Felini-esque kind of nightmare

from the perverted mind
of Alejandro Jodorowsky.

It's just saturated with blood,

circus carnage, crazy
cults, skin, surrealism,

and enough symbolism to
send you to a shrink.

Now you're a man.

It is an absolute masterpiece.

Jodorowsky, he was approached
by Dario Argento's brother,

Claudio, to make a movie.

It was essentially,
I need you to make

a Dario Argento movie, but
by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

Well, he ended up
taking it way further

into the direction
of Jodorowsky,

and making something
entirely unique.

Sure, it's painted
in a horror movie,

but it's a coming of age story

about a boy growing up in
a circus freak setting,

that really shows the
streets of Mexico City

in a different light.

There's something so special
about all these characters,

being in makeup, being
in their costumes,

and that's how they are
every day of their lives,

and actually also
something very sad

about that, too.

That that is the identity
of these characters.

That is the way that
people see them as,

as clowns, as
performers, as freaks.

It just shows such a truth,

not just in Mexico,
but it shows a truth

of how easy we are judgmental.

There's so many
scenes in that film

I did not expect to
continue to escalate,

to go oh my god!

Oh my god!

Ugh!

The dad, the owner
of this circus,

just has an affair,
spoiler alert,

cuts this woman's arms off,

and it's like what the!

It's insane!

The wonderful
character of Conchita,

and you just see how her arms

get completely cut off,

blood pouring out of her arms,

and how she's just
looking at the sky, at us.

The one-two punch
of attacking them

during sex and
throwing acid on them,

and then getting both
of her arms chopped off,

with beautiful
Simon Boswell music

playing in the background.

That's hard to equal in cinema,

let alone in this movie.

And from that point on,

to see our main character

trying to find acceptance,
love, and freedom

of his own demons,
how he now is trapped

to be his own mother's arms,

speaks to such a sadness,

and such a truth
of manipulation.

It just completely
breaks my heart,

and grosses me out

"Santa Sangre" was
not afraid to talk

about the problems of machismo,

the class system, and just
the difference in cultures

with the Americanos
and the Mexicans,

and all from the point of view

of an innocent child.

That corruption,
that manipulation,

how sex and violence can
really, really change

a child's life, that
movie is true horror.

For "Fright Night",
I had no sense

of what is was going to become.

I thought it was a fun movie,

it was creative,
and it was gonna be

a little bitty horror
movie for that summer.

Really special experience, and
the longer I'm away from it,

the more I realize that.

"Fright Night 2".

♪ Take me baby

"Fright Night 2",
Tommy Lee Wallace

did a terrific job.

I wasn't available.

Instead I did "Fatal Beauty"
with Whoopi Goldberg.

I should have done
"Fright Night 2".

Johnny.

Peter.

It's happening again.

"Fright Night 2" was
really more about the modern

80s age, when people
were really starting

to experiment and to be curious
about cultures and people.

I give you the new host
of Fright Night, Regine!

From Regine's point of view,

my only brother, the love
of my life, was murdered.

And I am 2000 years old.

Uh, come in.

Thanks.

I find Charlie Brewster,

and I play with him like a
cat playing with a mouse.

Julie as Regine was breaking
the glass ceiling in a way.

This is not a dream.

"Fright Night Part 2"
is a lot about inverting

the sexual and
gender stereotypes

that had traditionally been
part of the vampire genre.

She was taking ownership
of lust and power

and hunger and
all of that stuff,

and she feminized it.

I think Regine is empowering
for women in general,

and for Latinas.

There's an eroticism that is
beyond gender identification.

Regine Dandridge, it was very
open to love and sensuality.

She's not just a stark,
startling character.

She's cushy, and
warm, and you know.

Is it hot in here?

You'll have to get
closer than that.

Peter Vincent was Roddy
McDowall's love letter

to the vampire
hunters of the past.

Peter Cushing, Vincent Price.

Roddy was a photographer,

so he was always
taking pictures.

He was into documenting stuff.

Encyclopedia of movie history.

He knew where the
bodies were buried.

I kill vampires.

It was a different movie,

it was like an army
of ghouls and vampires

and creatures that we
were up against this time.

Russel Clark played Belle,

a wraith-like vampire
on roller skates.

Those three characters,
Jonathan Gries,

Brian Thompson, and Russel,

they're all so
distinctive and unique

in the characters that
they came up with.

I have an entourage
of fabulous men.

Russel Clarke, he had
choreographed Michael Jackson,

and Brian Thompson
came up with the naming

all of these bugs with
their Latin names.

There's just a scholarliness
to this foursome.

Are you thirsty, Charlie?

Once I started
transitioning into a vampire,

I enjoyed getting to fang up

and get pasty, and
all that stuff.

I had my Christmas
cards that year

were me in a vampire, sort
of holiday vampire theme.

"Fright Night 2"
resonates with people,

there's something
for everyone in it.

And everyone's kind of
represented, especially today.

You notice if someone's
not represented now.

It shocked people that somebody

would break the rules
as much as we did,

even though it made more
money at the box office

than anything else that
opened that weekend,

I think the whole distribution
went into a tailspin,

and then you could
hardly find it on VHS,

but people have unearthed it,

literally dug it
up from the grave,

so I'm very grateful
to the people

who've done that, because
Regine was really fun.

Welcome to Fright Night.

I have such a specific memory

of begging my dad to take
me to see "Relentless"

when I was too young to see it.

I was probably 12.

Judd Nelson is Buck Taylor.

And Buck Taylor is "Relentless".

This was a Hollywood
maniac slasher,

so it was a well-produced film.

Cops chasing a serial
killer in Los Angeles.

Well, who the fuck killed him?

Well how the fuck do I know?

It's my first day.

Judd Nelson is the product

of an abusive relationship
with his father,

who was a police officer, who
he both feared and idolized,

when he couldn't live
up to his father's ideal

to also become a police officer,

he decides he's going to
go out and kill people

with his father's name.

Leo Rossi and Robert Loggia,

they are investigating it.

Read this.

No clues, no nothing.

What is it?

The asshole left it.

John had seen "Maniac",
and really liked it,

and came aboard wanting
to play the role.

For me stylistically,

it was my Dario Argento
film in daylight.

What really messed me
up too with that film

is there's a pretty brutal

piano wire
strangulation sequence.

It was intense for
me to watch as a kid.

Isn't that better?

I like the scene
where Judd is running

on the rooftop.

We did a little trick there.

We used a Louma crane,

and when he's
hidden, the stunt guy

comes out the other end,

and we tried to make it
as seamless as possible.

There was a moment that
was cut from the script

that I really wish I had shot.

The scene that I had stolen
from a Japanese movie

called "Vengeance is Mine".

Coming down the street
was a patrol car,

and Judd looks
down at his hands,

and there's blood on his hands,

so he goes in the bushes,
and pees on his hands

to wash the blood off of them.

And I thought, wow.

That would really say a
lot about a character.

It might have been
a bit too much

for mainstream audience.

It's all right.

I had a great time
with Judd Nelson.

Always joking around.

All the actors, all sweethearts.

It was a wonderful
experience on that film.

Yo brothers, what's up?

I had no interference.

Everything that's in
"Relentless" is mine,

for better or worse,
it was the way

I made the film, and
I'm quite proud of it.

I think it came out okay.

Please.

Don't hurt my son.

But it feels dated to me.

First is "Maniac Cop",
which was made before that

doesn't feel dated to me.

Go figure.

Oh my god!

William Hickey as

"The Puppet Master".

One of my favorite franchises
is "The Puppet Master".

And the first one was
just so perfect to me.

And now they have 80 of them.

Every single one, I want.

It had Blade, Tunneler, Jester,

with his weird face
stuff, and Leech Girl,

and lots, and lots, and
lots of creepy ass puppets.

I have all those
puppets as action figures.

They're some of my favorite
collectibles to this day.

I just wanted to see the
puppets fucking kill people.

You pair that with just
this weird fucking story

about an undead dude who
just wanted to get his,

gets his rivals together to
kill them off one by one.

And using the old techniques
of the old Puppet Master,

I brought myself back to life.

Why?

I want to live forever.

That is a piece of art
that came to life as a movie.

Yeah, I'm a stop motion freak.

Dave Allen helped shape
shift those characters

into what they are
now, and gave them some

historical context, because
it takes place in the 40s.

And next thing you know,
we morph into a script,

and David Schmoeller did a
great job with the script.

Charlie Band, he would give
me a lot of creative freedom.

It's real easy to
write these things.

You hope that this
is gonna work.

It goes from effect to effect.

I mean, some of them work great,

and some of them are
really stretches, you know.

You fucker!

I thought I could create magic,

and these really great
things would happen.

These little dolls,
they would find

all these sadistic ways
to murder human beings.

It was diabolical.

Leech Woman, Lord
she looks so cute

and pretty but then

and this nasty ass leech,

and it's just, no, why?

We actually used leeches.

The puppet with the
tiniest little head,

and massive baby hands, just
beating the crap out of people.

You're taking inanimate objects

and turning them
into real things.

We would talk about
it, and he would go off

and execute whatever
I needed to have

these puppets doing.

There would always
be some surprise

that was better than
what we had talked about.

Low budget filmmaking
is an art in itself.

It's such a crapshoot.

What's happening, Alice?

You're making
movies for no money,

and then you're expecting
a studio to pick it up.

The fact that
Paramount released it

gave it a lot of cache.

Gave it a lot of credibility.

What the hell
are you looking at?

The original idea
of these characters

that all start off a
little differently,

helped my business, my
life, and my creativity.

We're about to shoot
our 13th Puppet Master

32 years later.

"The Black Cat".

The last word in terror.

"The Black Cat", Luigi Cozzi,

or Lewis Coates, as
he's known in America.

Black Cat, 1A, take one.

My lovely Luigi, who directed

and kind of created
"Stellar Star Star Crash".

It was his baby.

He wanted to do this
one for quite some time.

Well, we've already got
the storyline blocked out,

but before we get down to
writing the screenplay,

we'd like some pointers
about reincarnation.

I read the script, and I
thought yeah, it's interesting.

It's different.

Don't use that name.

Change it at once.

What name, Levana?

Yes.

Don't take the risk
of summoning her.

Dario Argento had a hand in it.

Dario Argento
directed it, "Suspiria",

and I must admit, it
was very, very good.

Luigi worked very
closely with Dario.

It was shot in Italy.

Not a lot of plot, but
beautiful to look at.

Great performances
from the actors.

They were all European.

I think I was the only
English person in it.

We had a wonderful prince
called Urbano Barberini

who was in it, and then
you had Florence Guerin,

who was wonderful in the film.

She was fantastic.

You can never leave!

You'll never be
Levana the witch!

Never, never!

She was an actress,
I was an actress.

Cut.

Florence was the nice one.

I was just a bitch, I would
say, really, basically.

Sorry.

So I have your
permission to, uh,

put it to him?

But it was good
character for me.

I liked it.

Quite dark, and she was
all out for herself.

Everything was
about her, really.

She was very jealous of
Florence and the husband.

Why in god's name did you do it?

The same reason I took
Mark away from you, Anne.

For Levana.

My character was capable
of anything, really.

I liked that concept.

What is your command?

I ordered you to stop Anne.

It rolled along nicely.

Maybe not the best dialogue.

And you know
what you must do with it.

The baby's in the other room.

Some of the scenes
were quite heavy

with the special effects.

Very bloody.

It is a bit weird, isn't it?

They're quite gruesome effects.

Looking back on it, they
were really, really good.

The Spanish title
for "Grave Robbers"

is "Ladrones De Tumbas".

There's a lot of
satanic rituals,

and a lot of killings.

A guy is persecuted
by the Inquisition,

and he's tortured, and murdered,

and he promises to
return for vengeance.

Our main characters, they
go to the cemeteries,

dig up the graves,
extract the bodies,

look for gold and
valuable things,

and they sell them
in the black market.

They go through a
tunnel into the dungeons

of this old hacienda.

And strange things
start happening.

By the time we shot
"Grave Robbers",

I was a big expert
in prosthetics

and special effects,
cinematography.

I had learned a lot.

We didn't shoot it in English.

We shot it in Spanish.

We shot that film
in Valle de Bravo.

It's about an hour and
a half from Mexico City.

It's in the mountains.

There's woods all over.

One girl is kidnapped.

And the policemen go
inside the dungeons,

and he finds his daughter
tied up to the floor.

The demon walks in

and they engage in a fight.

When our hero comes in
and saves the policeman

and saves the girl.

That's a memorable scene.

It had known actors for
the domestic market.

It was aimed for
the right target,

and it was a very big
success in Mexico,

and then a big success
when the video clubs

started renting it out.

No!

I wasn't aware
how this film became

part of the cult
1980s horror films,

because my career has gone on.

I'm mostly known
in Mexico for being

a reality show producer.

I'm proud of them
because they were done

with no money, with no time,

with no technical resources.

I was in the process of learning

how to become a filmmaker.

We were just kids having fun.

I have no idea why
people romanticize films

simply because they
were made in the 80s.

Hi.

But because they
were made in the 80s,

they develop a cult reputation.

I'm really thrilled
that audiences now

really appreciate this stuff,

that back in the 80s,
people were just like,

nah, you know, whatever.

Now there's a whole
new renaissance,

if you will, and people are
really getting into them,

and really loving
them, and giving them

the kudos that they deserve.

They have a life today
that's not the same

as their life in the 80s,

but let's get real
about, you know

Orson Welles didn't
make any of these films.

We need to reframe
the way that we look

at good and bad movies.

Bad movies can be enjoyable.

You can find a different
way to look at it.

I mean, no one's setting
out to make a bad movie.

It doesn't really
matter how great

or not great these movies were,

it's important to remember

how the cast, the
crew, the producers,

the director, put all
their love and energy

and money into
these various films,

and really made them
into something unique

that there was an audience for.

I think it's
important for us to keep

these films in conversation.

Especially the ones
that people think

maybe are not so great, because
there's the obvious ones,

like "The Shining", "The Thing".

Those extend beyond
horror audiences.

But then there's kind of like,

we have these in danger
of being forgotten

or going extinct gems.

As we move from
this media format

to this media format,

there's things that kind of
get pushed to the wayside,

and we're leaving them behind.

Hide the body, and come back,

and clean up the blood.

People should champion
anything that they enjoy,

because that's how
you keep things alive.

Streaming is great.

I love that it makes
things easily accessible

to the masses, but
also it doesn't compare

to browsing and
picking something up

and feeling it, smelling it,

holding it in your hands

is a special kind of experience.

Home video and cable
meant that movies

didn't go away, and
that meant that movies

found their audience.

And then word of mouth kicks in.

And to no small extent,
creates horror fandom,

which has become this tidal wave

over the 30, 40 years since
that technology arrived.

Of course it's not ideal
to see a movie on tape

as opposed to seeing
it on the big screen,

but as we see that
the way that the world

has currently gone, many
more people see movies

on their devices
than they ever see

on a theater screen,
and the trade off

is it isn't gonna be seen

by very many people
in the theater.

It's mostly gonna
be seen at home.

Today, there's a kind
of casualness to it.

I'm still a child of the cinema.

I'm not crazy about
people being introduced

to horror through digital.

The upside is that
the screens are better,

they're bigger, the
sound is better.

People are very
serious about the way

they present their films,

and so it's a
theater-like experience,

but it's not a
theater experience,

because a theater
experience is with a large

audience of people,
who make the difference

between what you're watching,
and what you're experiencing.

An experienced horror
film with a big audience

that's enjoying it is a
completely different

and more fun experience
than watching it

at home with two friends.

That's just night and day.

Part of the problem
is our technology

is so magnificent now.

People think anything
old is clunky.

This desire just to see the new,

the new, the new, the
next, the next, the next,

sometimes prevents us
from taking some time

out of our very busy lives

and realizing that
there's some great stuff

from the past.

Maybe the movie itself
isn't necessarily great,

but it's the experience
of watching it

that makes it great,
and then 20 years later,

you're telling people, no you
have to watch "Motel Hell".

This is one of the
greatest movies ever made.

They hold it near
and dear to their heart

because they've seen it with
their father who's passed,

or cousin made them
watch it to scare them,

or whatever,
however they saw it.

It holds good
memories for people.

Horror is personal.

We can all agree on
a good horror film.

It's like, ah "Psycho".

But nobody's defending
"Psycho" to the death.

I think we have it all wrong
when we talk about horror.

We're like, this is
good, or this is bad.

No.

Something is entertaining
or it's not entertaining,

and by putting everything
on a good and bad dichotomy,

we ruin our experience
of being able

to talk about a movie,
like "Sleepaway Camp II",

that's just like a
fucking good time.

"Sleepaway Camp II" doesn't
have to be high art,

to be a social satire.

Howdy partner!

I actually think
that you can find

more in our culture and history

and even just social context

in films that are labeled trash.

There's more there to
actually pick from,

and shine a light on
who we were as people.

Like, a popcorn film?

That's loaded with identity,
and society, and culture.

I'm way more interested in
the history I'm gonna get

from a movie that
people cast aside

than the history I'm gonna get

and what I learn in
a film school class.

Let's not get insanely
academic about these films.

The people who watch
these movies in the 80s

weren't watching them from
an ironic point of view.

They were watching them because
they enjoyed the mayhem.

The people who watch
those same movies today

are watching them from
an academic standpoint,

as though they're analyzing
every little detail

of the film.

These films were made by guys

who wanted to make a fast buck.

These films were made for money.

They were not concerned with
trying to impress anybody.

They were concerned with the
largest audience possible.

They were filmmakers, but
they were also businessmen.

These aren't big
extravagant productions.

You crazy bastard.

Horror lets you be creative.

You can go outside the box.

You can go outside the scope.

Horror, it can look
cheesy and bad,

and it's fun.

We love to be scared,

and we love to think
we're in peril.

And we love to be at
odds with each other.

Movies are so powerful,
because it reminds us

of a simpler, more
innocent time.

And that's where
we all want to be.

God knows in this day and age.

That's where we all want to be.

So, before watching
"In Search of Darkness",

I was definitely
one of those guys

who was like, yeah
man, I know 80s horror.

Freddie and Jason!

Sweet!

And then I watched "In
Search of Darkness",

and I realized,
you naive bastard,

you know nothing
about 80s horror.

So now I actually know things,

and like, how had
I lived my life

and missed "Sleepaway Camp"?

That is a fantastic movie.

So thank you for awakening me.

80s horror is
very important to me

as I grew up in the early 80s,

and horror was embedded
in our culture.

It was in our toys,
in our cartoons.

It was everywhere.

We used to draw
monsters in art class,

like the Monster Squad,

and that was
acceptable back then.

You wouldn't get locked
up for stuff like that.

I miss going into a video store

and grabbing a random VHS

and saying hey, this
box art, it looks good.

Is it a curse, or is it great?

You never know.

And you watch it
with your friends

in the middle of the
night, enjoying it,

and it brings you back
to a simpler time.

80s horror is so important to me

because it's an
escape from reality.

Takes me back to a simpler time.

Gives me that nostalgia.

And these documentaries,

they help nail the fact home

that horror can
be a cathartic way

to deal with fear and
all the BS this world

has to throw at us.

80s horror, and all
horror in general,

and I love that.

These documentaries
are amazing for that.

Favorite movie of all time?

"Silver Bullet", 1985.

It is incredible.

Rock on.

Hey.

I just wanted to say
thank you so, so much

to everybody involved with
"In Search of Darkness".

It's been absolutely fantastic.

I've really, really enjoyed.

It's flooded back
memories of going down

the video shop, the video store,

in the 80s, looking at
the best horror films

that were released.

Absolutely fantastic.

And it's also introduced me

to some of the
classics that I missed,

down the video shop, going
back all those years.

80s horror happened to coincide

with the VHS era,
and in my opinion,

the 80s horror was
the prime attraction

of the VHS.

I mean, look at that.

How could you walk by that
and not want to rent it?

Oh, hi.

I'm AJ Danna.

I played Tapehead at
"Slashback Video".

The "In Search of
Darkness" trilogy

has meant so much to
dust off these old

classic horror tapes, and
make sure each and every

actor and filmmaker involved
in these movie making gems

did not pour their
blood, sweat, and tears

into movies in vain.

So anyways, thanks.

I decided to back the "In
Search of Darkness" series

for the tireless people
behind Creator BC,

because you learn something
interesting and significant

about the films from the
people who worked on the films

that you can't
find anywhere else.

To me, horror movies
were a safe haven

growing up in the 80s.

I spent so many hours
in the video store

browsing for titles to watch.

When "In Search of
Darkness: Part One" ended,

the covers shown up with a key,

and a dark room, the
TV, the characters.

It was like I was that same boy.

This documentary has
been a door to go back

and complete that journey.

80s horror movies
are important to me

because I was raised
the right way,

and grew up watching them

ever since I was
a wee little one,

despite not growing
up in that generation.

But it was cool people
from that generation

who showed me those
movies, and gave us

something to bond over.

But my favorite
horror movie has to be

John Carpenter's "The Thing".

The most amazing
practical effects

to the gore, and
of course starring

the absolute hunks Kurt
Russel and Keith David,

what is there not to love?

So 80s horror rules,

and thanks to "In
Search of Darkness"

for bringing it all back.

You know, growing up as a
kid with not many friends,

actually I had none
until I was 10.

Single father, worked
nights, and slept all day.

Horror movies were my go-to,

and the monsters
were my friends,

and it was just awesome.

With the "In Search
of Darkness" trilogy,

I got to relive that
past as a child,

and it just, it's perfect.

80s horror was the best.

It was imagination.

It was entertainment.

It was fun, it was
gory, it was crazy,

it was the best.

80 horror rules!

I'm Matt Weinhold,
and I love 80s horror

because it's scary,
sexy, innovative,

indecent, unapologetic, and fun!

It's the punk rock of horror!

Having been a
teenager in the 1980s,

I was able to experience
most of these films

in a theatrical setting.

The 80s gave us the
best of John Landis,

and John Carpenter,
and David Cronenberg,

and we got to see the
birth of franchises

of "Friday the 13th" and
"Nightmare on Elm Street",

and "Poltergeist", "Evil Dead",

and what "In Search of
Darkness" has allowed me to do

is revisit those memories,
and love these films

all over again.

In the 1980s, we
gazed into the abyss,

and we smiled,

because it was filled with
visceral practical effects,

intrepid heroes, garish demons,

and synth-laden
nightmare schemes.

Thanks to "In
Search of Darkness",

the abyss can finally gaze
back at us, and smile.

My love of 80s horror films

started back when
I was 11 years old.

I stayed up one night
and watched "A Nightmare

"on Elm Street" with my mum.

Halfway through the
film, I got so scared

that I went up to bed,
and five minutes later,

I was back downstairs
watching the rest

of the film with her.

That's where it started, and
it's never stopped since.

Watching "In Search of
Darkness" documentaries

takes me back to the best
part of my childhood,

and also knowing that I'm
watching these documentaries

with a community of people

that also share my
love of 80s horror,

it is the best feeling.

The immense popularity
of these movies

showed so many of
us that we were part

of a global community,
and so in a way,

the darkness became
a place of comfort,

because we knew
we weren't alone.

In a sense, it's more
like it's our story,

and what these
movies mean to us,

and I can't thank these
documentaries enough for that.

Everything about
it is so beautiful.

It's one of the
best times of horror

and it makes me feel
better about me and myself.

There's something
for everyone in there,

whether you like
slashers, comedies,

my personal favorite
horror movie from the 1980s

is "Killer Klowns
from Outer Space".

I saw that movie the first time

when I was maybe 10 years old,

and that's one of the
movies that made me

fall in love with horror,
and the reason I'm as big

of a horror fan as I am today.

When I wanted to
get into horror,

and I was too scared
to watch it by myself,

my friends would sit with
me in my dark basement,

and we would watch 80s
horror movies together.

And we started
with the classics,

and slowly moved our way out
to totally obscure titles,

but for me, those were really
special times in my life.

And it really made horror,
especially 80s horror,

something that brought
people together in my life.

80s horror movies really
had a style of their own

that make this
particular decade of work

always so unique
to look back on.

It was also a decade where
it felt like special effects

were perfected in such a way,
you could almost smell them

through your screen,
something like "The Thing",

and speaking of "The
Thing", you could have

hard horror subject like that,

but you could have also
sillier stuff like "Vamp",

which makes this particular
decade always so fun

to go back and
discover new gems,

and I really am glad that
these documentaries exist

to highlight all of that.

Best thing about 80s horror
were the comedy movies,

like "The Burbs",
and "Gremlins 2",

"House", "House 2",
the "Ghostbusters",

all those movies made
it so much easier

as a kid to then turn
around and be able to watch

movies with this
scary bastard in it,

and scare the shit out of
you when you're a little kid.

John Carpenter, Wes
Craven, Tobe Hooper,

Tom Holland, Peter
Jackson, Sam Raimi,

Stewart Gordon, Don Coscarelli.

I just need an
indestructible boogeyman

carving up annoying teenagers.

I don't need to know how or why.

It just has to show
up every few years,

and do it again
in creative ways.

Give me a monster
with sharp teeth,

and gooey tentacles.

What I don't want
is found footage,

and shaky cam and
possessed dolls,

and cheesy ghosts, and
spare me all the CGI blood.

I want Tom Savini,
Screaming Mad George.

I want a Kurtzman
Nicotero hamburger.

Hey guys.

My name is Jason.

And no surprise, my
favorite horror franchise

of all time is
"Friday the 13th".

I did a book report on
Part 3 in grade six.

Yes, I was in grade six
watching these movies,

and I absolutely loved them.

I think the 80s is
absolutely the greatest decade

of horror films, and
I grew up in the 90s.

There were so many great
horror films made back then.

I can't even decide
which one's my favorite.

I also think "In Search of
Darkness" is the greatest

documentary ever made.

It introduced me to
several horror films

I had never heard of,
including "Sleepaway Camp",

"Fade to Black", "Motel Hell",

"American Werewolf in London",

"Society", "Scanners",
"The Changeling",

"The Ghost Story",
and so many more.

I don't think there
will ever be anything

like 80s horror ever again

Hello, everyone.

What I've enjoyed most about
the "In Search of Darkness"

documentary series
would have to be

the behind the scenes
information about the movies

I know and love, but also,
and probably more importantly,

the vast amount of hidden gems

it has introduced me to.

It is mind-blowing how many
entertaining horror movies

there are from that decade.

So thank you.

One of my favorite
1980s horror movies

would have to be
"Night of the Demons".

Reason being, I was pretty young

when the movie first came out.

My older sister
introduced me to the film

because she wanted to scare me.

It scared me pretty good.

I remember having a hard time
going to sleep that night,

scared that the monster
was gonna get me.

So I have a lot of nostalgic
feelings about the movie.

That's why I like it so much.

My first and absolute
favorite 80s horror movie

is "American Werewolf in London"

by John Landis.

Watching that movie sent
me down a rabbit hole

of 80s horror movies that
I'd never seen before,

and through that
movie, I got introduced

to "In Search of Darkness",

and ever since, things
have never been the same,

and it's been an
amazing journey.

I thank you for it.

80s horror is incredibly
important to me.

Horror slashed its
way into my life

when I was a kid.

Myself and my buddies
would stay up all night

watching horror movies,
from horror icons

like Freddie, to "Killer
Klowns from Outer Space".

The greatest times of my life

is due to the horror genre.

80s horror strapped
me into my adult life

where I now collect
80s horror memorabilia,

plus I'm always on the
hunt for 80s horror

that I'm yet to discover.

I have an insatiable
thirst for blood in film.

Tom Savini's work in the genre

has my jaw dropped to the floor.

The realism of his
work is something

that's gonna be admired
long after I'm gone.

For me, he sets the bar for
practical effects within horror.

I love "In Search of
Darkness", as it's

a time capsule of
horror, for us, the fans.

"In Search of Darkness"
is also a love letter

to everyone that
holds a special place

in their heart for horror.

I love how they use
all practical effects,

for these, all the
blood and guts,

all the rubber monsters
that they used,

all the costume work
is all hand made,

and all practically done.

It makes it look great.

The 80s was an era of DIY.

If you didn't have a
passion for your craft,

or you didn't want
your story to be told,

it simply wouldn't
make it out there.

This is what showed in
the films growing up,

which was hard.

It's difficult to
articulate this feeling.

However, every fan or
person contributing

to this series, will have
moments which resonated

and impacted into
their adult life.

What I love most about the 80s,

especially 80s horror movies,

is just how ridiculous
the concepts are,

and just how well
they're executed.

"In Search of Darkness"
meant a lot to me

because it introduced
me to a whole field,

a whole group of people,

that are so dedicated,
and so motivated,

on trying to find a
lot of 80s horror films

that not a lot of younger
horror film fans even heard of.

Sometimes y'all have
heard of "Halloween"

or "Friday the 13th", or
"Nightmare on Elm Street",

but it's these
small classic films

that really hold
deep to my heart,

knowing that a lot of
people have seen it

really brings joy to me.

That's why it meant a lot to me.

Hey, I'm Twisted Todd.

I'm a big fan of
80s horror films,

mainly because as a kid
growing up in the 80s,

didn't get to watch a
lot of horror movies,

but my parents
rented a lot of them,

and I got to hear
them from my bedroom,

which fed my curiosity,

so about the time I
was in middle school

in the late 80s, finally
got to watch horror films,

fell in love with
the slasher genre,

love films like "Creepshow",

and then later on
in my college days,

I really fell in love
with the cinematic genius

of directors like
John Carpenter,

and of course Sam Raimi,

because I'm a huge
"Evil Dead" fan.

I grew up mesmerized
by horror movies,

primarily throughout the 80s.

They were such an important part

of many of my formative years,

and contribute to so many
of my young memories.

I've since come to
embrace and enjoy

all cinema, having
learned so much more

about all genres over the years,

but you never forget
your first love.

Horror films of the 80s

were so imaginative,
and so ambitious,

but they pull it off,
and there's a real

charm to them, a levity
that we didn't have

in the 70s, when
everything was very real,

and very gritty,
and then we lost it

somewhere in the 90s,

and then things
got very cynical.

But there's a fun
factor to the 80s,

and it's no surprise
that it takes a project

three, four plus
hour documentaries

to really do that
decade justice.

Growing up in the
80s, horror movies

were a big part of my life.

Thanks to a video rentals shop,

I was able to watch
as many as I want

when I wanted without
issue on my edge,

that helped me get through
the trauma of school,

and everything
that came with it,

and this is why I'm
passionate about them,

and in particular,
"Nightmare on Elm Street"

is one I'm really
passionate about.

80s horror movies were a
big part of my childhood,

having grown up in the 80s,

I watched them all.

My favorite 80s horror
movie of all time

is "A Nightmare on Elm Street".

It was the first horror
movie I ever saw,

and it planted the seed
for my love of horror.

These "Search for
Darkness" documentaries

have been nostalgic,
and brought back

all those happy memories
of visiting video stores.

I was born in 1980,

so being a child of the 80s,

some of my best memories

were hanging out with my mom

on a Friday or Saturday night,

going down to the
local video store,

getting some 80s
horror on VHS tape,

and just making those memories

and being scared, laughing,

and getting all cringed up.

And the "In Search
of Darkness" series

has brought those
memories back to me,

and helped me discover
all the horror films

I never knew existed!

Thank you for that.

Hi there.

I love watching horror
movie documentaries

and anything regarding horror,

but one series I really love

is the "In Search
of Darkness" series.

I love how all these
people just show

how much they love and
care for these movies,

especially for the movies
I've never even heard before,

and I love this series,
because it shows me

all different kinds of horror

that I haven't
even heard before,

or even seen, or
anything like that.

So I'm sad that it's ending,

but hey, gotta end
sometimes, right?

I think most horror
fans would agree

that the absolute
best decade for horror

was the 1980s.

We got the best of the best,

the worst of the worst,

the best of the worst,

and everything in between.

I can't even pick a favorite,

because there's far too
many to choose from,

but having something like
the "In Search of Darkness"

trilogy has been an
absolute dream come true.

Getting to sit there for
hours and hours on end,

and watch my favorite filmmakers

talk about my favorite
films has been great,

but it's also been great
to be able to discover

new movies that I may not
have even heard of before.

"Evil Dead II", "Re-Animator",

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2",

all of these great horror films,

with comedic timing,
comedy inserted into it,

really affect me, shape me,

to such a degree that
today I write about horror

and horror comedy for
Pace Magazine and Vulture.

80s horror for me
signifies complete nostalgia.

I clearly remember
being a young boy

and seeing these wonderful
and iconic 80s posters,

and being simultaneously
scared and intrigued.

But now as an academic
that writes about horror,

documentaries like "In
Search of Darkness"

are highly important as
they raise the profile

of horrors in that form.

These films are not
only fun and super cool,

but they are significant
cultural products,

well-deserving of academic
analysis and study.

The 80s was a time when
the horror genre exploded.

Big name horror icons
like Jason, Freddie,

Chuckie, Pinhead, all got
their start in the 80s.

And being a late 90s
kid, these were names

that I grew up knowing to fear.

My girlfriend and I searched out

a lot of these films,
and it was something

that we could always bond over.

And I think that "In
Search of Darkness"

did something really great,

cataloging and celebrating
all of these films.

They have inspired
me to go to college

and learn how to
write horror films.

I'm a future filmmaker

because of all the
movies I've watched.

And I'm thankful that I was able

to be a part of this community.

Watching horror movies
as a kid in the 80s

inspired me to get
into the film industry,

especially to make
horror movies of my own,

and so "In Search of
Darkness" continues

to be that inspiration,

and I hope it does the same

for, you know, the next wave
of horror creators,

for generations to come.

80s horror means a lot to me,

takes me back to
when I was a kid

hanging out with my
brothers and my friends,

staying up late, watching
movies I know I should not

have been watching at the time,

and falling in love with
stories and characters

created by Wes Craven,
John Carpenter,

George Romero, and Charles Band.

I will always be in their debt

for providing me with
hours of entertainment,

and with "In Search
of Darkness",

it has provided me
with even more hours

of 80s horror entertainment

that I will continue
to watch to this day.

Long live 80s horror and
"In Search of Darkness".

As an 80s kid, one
of my favorite memories

are from video stores Friday
night selecting movies.

The horror section always
had the best films,

and the most amazing cover art.

The 80s horror
basically has it all,

a great story, a good cast,

amazing special effects,
and a cool soundtrack.

These documentaries have
been life-changing for me.

They were films that
I had forgotten about,

films that I had never seen,

and a love for a distinct period

of my early life that I oftentimes
feel disconnected from,

and I'm so thankful to
have found these projects,

and been able to
back all of them.

Thank you.

All the best parts of nostalgia

in a pool of blood.

Love it.

Hey, this is Jacob.

And Angelica.

We're both fans of
80s horror movies.

That's why we own
all three volumes

of "In Search of Darkness".

It's a dictionary, basically,
of all the greatest

horror movies made from the 80s

that we've all grown to love.

"In Search of
Darkness", you rock.

The "In Search of
Darkness" documentaries

have allowed me to
relive, year by year,

a truly golden age
in horror cinema.

In the 80s, we had
directors like Carpenter,

Romero, and Cronenberg in
the peak of their career.

We had a new generation of
practical special effects

in horror cinema, and
video stores coming out

with a new horror
title every week.

The fact that we're still
talking about all these films

over 30 years later
just shows how durable

the horror genre is.

So please, keep those
documentaries coming.

Hi.

First of all, I
want to thank you

for including us
fans in so many ways,

and for the journey
you've been taking us

for the three "In Search
of Darkness" documentaries.

I love 80s horror so much
because of the style,

the creativity, and the
passion for each of the films.

But the most important
part for me is

that every single film
from this horror decade,

the good and the bad,

are so great because
of the fun they make.

David, Robin.

You've created a monster.

A timeless milestone
for every horror fan.

And I'm extremely thankful
for being featured

in part one of the ultimate
horror documentary experience.

It made me feel
like I'm 15 again.

So for anyone who's "In
Search of Darkness",

stop searching,
because we found it.

80s horror is so important to me

because it gave me ideas
to draw when I was younger,

and as my drawing
ability progressed,

today I'm a tattoo artist,

so I guess you could say 80s
horror helped shape my life.

Plus being Canadian,
I want to give

a special thanks
to David Cronenberg

for all the
inspiration he gave me.

"In Search of
Darkness", honestly,

greatest documentary
I have ever watched.

It brought me straight
back to some of the most

special times of my life.

As a kid in the
80s, I was constantly

in and out of hospitals.

Watching horror movies
and playing video games

was a release for me.

Basically, I'm the
kid on the box art,

and on the posters.

I'm so proud to be part
of this incredible journey

through 80s horror that is
the "In Search of Darkness"

trilogy, and I just had to
immortalize it on my body.

I love it, that we're done.

I love it.

Love it.

Enough is never enough

Of the Stuff.

Mmh.