In Search of Darkness

The idea of a four hour documentary on 80’s horror sounds daunting even for horror fans. If you’re into horror enough to be interested in such a movie (and you HAVE to love horror to be interested in this, it is not up for debate), then what could it possibly give you that you likely don’t already know? The answer: not much beyond the warm fuzzies of nostalgia. With a cast of dozens (actors like Heather Langenkamp, Barbara Crampton, and Kane Hodder, special effects people like Greg Nicotero, directors like Lloyd Kaufman and Larry Cohen, horror community names like James A. Janiease, Elvira, and James Rolfe, and so, so, so many more), you get four hours of people talking about, perhaps, the golden era of modern horror, the 1980’a. The doc is broken up into two kinds of revolving sections: a discussion topic, and then a review of movies from one specific year. It starts with a topic about the burgeoning slasher movie craze and how horror was a reaction to the fundamentalist, puritanical Reagan 80’s, and then it goes into major horror movies released in 1980. Then another topic, then the next year, and so on. Acting, how the special effects were all done practically, the franchising of horror, sound and music, sex and nudity; the genre are dissected and analyzed in every possible way. And alongside it, you get a dive into some of the more notable movies (and some beloved B movies). Any horror fan will enjoy it. So why do I only give it ***? This documentary is woefully unbalanced in its presentation. They spend 15-20 minutes talking about music and sounds, but only 5 on the far more complicated issue of sex, nudity and gender roles? Little more than lip service is given to the rather peculiar trend of how slasher villains became marketing icons to kids. They mention the tropes horror movies use, but never analyze why they became tropes, or how some movies could use them to their advantage, but some felt robotic and lazy. And that brings up the other side: the year by year dives. Some of the movies make sense to discuss. But — and I say this as a huge Friday The 13th fan — did we need to discuss five of the eight movies released in the decade? And if so, why was 6’s self-referential, meta humor not discussed? Why was 8’s broken promise only glanced at, and not mentioned as the thing that killed the franchise at Paramount? Why talk about Stepfather 2 but not the original? Why Dressed To Kill, which was a lazy slasher clone disguised as a Hitchcock ripoff, but not Aliens, which has deep horror roots? Why not Terminator or Predator, both of which use the slasher formula in a totally new way? Why spend 30 minutes talking about horror movies from 1988, but five minutes on the Final Girl trope? If you want a walk down memory lane, and maybe a shopping list of movies you may have missed, it’s fine. Too long by half, but it’s fine. But as a real dissection of the horror movie craze in the 80’s, it misses the point. It’s too into talking about how much it loves horror movies to talk ABOUT horror movies.