Home Entertainment: ‘In Search of Darkness’ Digital Review

In Search of Darkness is a new documentary that takes an in-depth dive into the horror films that were released during the eighties. The eighties was an important moment in the evolution of the horror genre, and director David A. Weiner has rounded up a lot of familiar faces to reminisce and discuss just what made films during that period so special. The film moves through the decade year-by-year, discussing pretty much every genre film released within each year. It also branches out to look at a variety of themes and tropes of the time, and the relevance that they had. Interviewees include, amongst others, genre icons Barbara Crampton, Kane Hodder, and Alex Winter, along with filmmakers, Joe Dante, Tom Holland, and the late Larry Cohen. This is just the tip of the iceberg though, and if you’re a fan of horror from that era, you’re sure to recognise a whole heap of people.

The inclusion of so many people and movies means that the project boasts a rather lengthy runtime. In fact, In Search of Darkness clocks in at a weighty four hours and twenty-three minutes. Getting through a run time this long in one sitting is almost an endurance challenge in itself. It feels much easier to break it into a couple of sittings; there’s a lot of information to take in and trying to cram it all into one sitting is a lot to process. The format runs as follows: film poster, chat about film, next film, and repeat year-by-year. This format gets rather repetitive after a while and maintaining attention proves to be difficult. There’s also a significant disparity between the times given to each film. Some get a lot of discussion, whereas others simply feature one person remarking that they loved it. It’s a shame that they can’t all be looked at in the same detail, although that would bloat the run time even further. Which brings us to the notion that, rather than one single film, this would perhaps work much better as a mini series. Maybe an episode on each year. This would make it more manageable to watch, and would also allow the opportunity for each film to be explored in more detail, and potentially enable an even more varied amount of films to be covered.

The vastness and pedigree of the people interviewed is something that should be commended. It must have taken the team years to collect all of these soundbites from all of these people. It really helps to make the film though. The easier route would have been to collect only a handful of people, but by casting the net so wide, there will be someone to draw everybody in. The mixture of actors, directors, effects artists, producers and film critics, gives a fair balance. No matter whether you’re more interested in the actors, filmmakers, or the insights of a critical mind, there’s plenty of knowledge and opinion to consume. There’s even the inclusion of Slipknot and Stone Sour front-man, Corey Taylor. Of everyone on the list he’s easily the most curious choice, but that being said, he’s clearly a fan of the genre and demonstrates his passion in spades.

Outside of the rigidly structured format, the amount of information and anecdotes on offer makes passing the time rather easily. With so many representatives of the films featured, it really does offer the viewer an intimate and insightful peak behind-the-scenes. Alex Winter recounts a rather painful experience on the set of The Lost Boys that will have you watching his character’s death scene with fresh eyes. Joe Dante airs his opinion on The Howling 2, and Don Mancini shares the inspiration for Chucky. Doug Bradley gives wonderful insight into Clive Barker’s mission to make Julia the first female villain of horror, and we even get to find out which of his many projects is Tom Atkin’s favourite, and it might not be the one you think. As fun and entertaining as all these moments are, it is when the film shifts to the adjacent features that the documentary comes alive. These segments pop up throughout and see everyone weigh in on such topics as 3D horrors, franchise popularity, and the final girl. The latter is particularly interesting as there are actually several final girls providing their thoughts, the most notable being Heather Lagenkamp. It’s fascinating hearing their perspective. Barbara Crampton also makes some very interesting comments regarding the decade’s use of gratuitous nudity, and how she feels now looking back on her own nude roles.

A documentary for the die-hard horror fans, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more thorough and complete study of the genre films of the eighties. The runtime will no doubt daunt many, but thankfully, with it being available on a platform such as Shudder and not on show at the cinemas, it means you can cut it down into more manageable portions. In Search of Darkness is indeed worth the time, just maybe not all at once.

In Search of Darkness arrives on Shudder on 30th July 2020.