September 23rd, 2018

Scary Movies!

by Bannerman, Gradisher, Konar, Lawton, Epstein & Piro

I grew up going to Drive-ins and matinees of scary movie double features, not to mention all the great movies I saw on TV plus Famous Monsters Magazine (which really did change my life!)! Another thing, or person, that changed my life was Joe Bob Briggs (real name: John Bloom!) the Drive-In Movie Critic and brilliant, smart and funny host of Monstervision, as well as numerous books and creator of the terrific We Are the Weird newsletter through which he started the VHS Film Review Committees, of which I was one! I was on a couple of different ones over the years we reviewed movies, of which Joe Bob got so many he didn’t have time to watch them all, hence the Committees. We’d get a movie in the mail, watch it, review it according to a secret (not so secret) form, and then pass it on to the next Committee Member, like a chain letter. It was one of the best and most fun and interesting things I’ve ever done.
I still have my Official Joe Bob Drive-In jacket. The great news is Joe Bob is touring (PLEASE NH, make this happen! Music Hall, I’m talking to YOU!) plus, he is back on TV, in a new format, on Shudder ( I now have faster internet, so, this is a possibility even for me!). This summer, Shudder held a 24 hour Joe Bob hosted horror movie marathon that was so popular it shut down the site! So, if you haven’t heard of Joe Bob, before, you’ll be able to catch the magic of his TV Host charm on that channel.