80’s horror doc – In Search of Darkness (2019) – Review

I was absolutely gutted to have missed the first limited release of In Search of Darkness – 80’s horror doc when they released it to Blu-ray last year. Long story short; the week I intended on making my purchase, I fell ill with appendicitis and ended up out of action for 4 weeks!

Thankfully when a second run was announced this year, I had another opportunity to own this 4 hour nostalgia trip and encyclopedic look into 80’s Horror.

”If one horror film hits, everyone says, ‘Let’s go make a horror film.’ It’s the genre that never dies.” – George A. Romero

This comprehensive look into the golden era of Horror flicks, was made reality through a Kickstarter campaign and it really does feel like a treat for fans. David Weiner (former journalist and executive editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland from 2015 to 2016) directs an eclectic mix of interviews with filmmakers such as John Carpenter, special effects legend’s Greg Nicotero, and super fans like Slipknot’s Corey Taylor.

The doc kicks off by listing the all-star casts’ memorable flicks of the decade; The Shining, Pet Sematary, Halloween II-5, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, Childs Play, Elvira, Xtro, Company of Wolves, Cujo, Jaws 3D, The Howling, The Hunger, Basket Case, Maniac, Lost Boys, Near Dark, Friday the 13th I & II, Evil Dead I & II, The return of the Living Dead, Day of the Dead, Poltergeist, American Werewolf in London, Monster Squad, The Fly, Hellraiser, The Changeling, Re-Animator, Sleepaway Camp, Pumkinhead – just scratching the surface of this epic decade of horror.

The doc then takes a walk chronologically from The Shining (1980) up to Friday The 13th Part VIII (1989) – It’s jammed packed full of anecdotes and amazing insights from how some of the bloodiest kills were made by the likes of Tom Savini to Joe Dante’s opinion on The Howling’s sequel.

In Search of Darkness left me yearning for those long gone video store years, every Friday night grabbing the goriest, scariest looking horror movie I could see in the bargain bin. The 4 hours 30 minutes runtime breezed by, and felt there could of easily of been hours more to dive into.

Excitingly David and the CreatorVC team clearly felt the same way as In Search of Darkness Part 2 is coming in October 2020 – Look out for an announcement next month for how we are celebrating its release at this years festival!