Howdy there, Scream Freaks! When the drive-in’s favorite critic Joe Bob Briggs gave his final goodbye at the end of a 24+ hour marathon on Shudder this past summer, he left such an impression that it literally wrecked the internet for a bunch of folks fightin’ to tune into a streamin’ service that was nowhere near prepared for an onslaught of server crashin’ fandom. Recognizin’ success when it assaults their customer service, Shudder quickly went back on their promos advertisin’ this as Joe Bob’s Last Drive-In and booked him for two more holiday themed marathons, the first scheduled for Thanksgiving.
Titled Dinners of Death, Shudder learned its lesson from all the technical hiccups and couch potato feedback the first time ’round, and made sure this mini-marathon ran smooth as a Vegas stripper’s thighs. We could hop on and off the live stream without a problem, the different movie segments were made available as on demand vids the very next day, and Joe Bob got waaay more screen time than he did the last marathon, givin’ him all the breathin’ room he needed for social rants and insider horror trivia from new corners of the set resemblin’ his old MonsterVision digs. The movies featured (in the order they appeared) were Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Dead or Alive, and Blood Rage.
Joe Bob brought his A-game like always and freely acknowledged and poked fun at all the technical misfires last marathon that gave so many viewers headaches while freely admitting he preferred a flawless broadcast to the popularity of crashin’ the internet. Kickin’ things off on the right foot, Joe Bob was over the moon to finally host his favorite movie for the first time, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which was always considered too violent for the networks he previously hosted on. Havin’ personally known director Tobe Hooper and even starrin’ in a cut scene from Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Joe Bob is a walkin’ wikipedia of Chainsaw trivia he couldn’t regurgitate fast enough from the ins and outs of the movie’s success to the influence it has over every horror since its premier. After an enlightenin’ summary of Toby’s roller coaster career, Joe Bob turned his attention to another late master of horror who recently passed away, Wes Craven.
To introduce The Hills Have Eyes, Joe Bob gave an insightful lecture on the gang of historical cannibals Wes based the movie’s villains on and even shared tales of Wes’s rocky rise to becomin’ a big shot filmmaker. Halfway through the movie, actor Michael Berryman dropped in and shared his own stories from behind the scenes of the movie. One of his funniest stories is a failed publicity stunt that involved Wes directin’ him from a van to spook a drive-in audience as his cannibal character while they were watchin’ The Hills Have Eyes. The best part of his visit was signing a doll of his THHE character to be auctioned for canine charities thanks to returnin’ mail girl Diana Prince.
The final two flicks of the night, Dead or Alive and Blood Rage, might have been my favorite moments watchin’ Joe Bob, ’cause these were movies he wasn’t as familiar with and brought him back down to our level as average movie goers versus horror aficionados with steel trap memories. ‘course this slight lack of trivia meant he needed somethin’ for filler here and there, and he recycled some older rants from his weekly Taki’s Magazine articles. This is where we first read his stories ’bout that theater in Greece and the incident with the explodin’ bottle of intestinal monsters. So, old news to us, but there’s plenty of Joe Bob fans out there we doubt are readin’ his online commentaries who it’s all new too.
All in all, Dinners of Death was the perfect dessert to end a belly bustin’ turkey day with. We especially enjoyed the moments between Joe Bob and Last Drive-In’s mail girl Diana Prince more this time ’round. It was nice to see them butt heads a little bit and argue over terms like elder millennial and just how many Thanksgivin’ horror movies are out there. For the record, we have only known three horror movies that actually take place on Thanksgivin’; Home Sweet Home, Blood Rage, and the first Thankskilling.
Congrats on a successful marathon Joe Bob. Can’t wait to see what ya got waitin’ for us come Christmas!
Other than that, be sure to catch up on all past Screaming Soup! Seasons, check out this week’s Howl’n Hottie, read recent reviews for the newer horror films and comics we’re checkin’ out in our blogs, R-Rated Reviews and Sequential Slime, and help us get the word out about the web’s #1 animated horror host show! Please use our social buttons in the upper right corner of the site and follow our tweets, subscribe to our video channels, like our Facebook, watch and share all our vids, and keep that fan mail comin’. You can also warm up some Screaming Soup! leftovers with reruns currently playin’ on Beta Max TV and Sluggo’s The Vortexx!
For all you fearmakers out there workin’ on your next scary feature, remember to shoot it our way as an entry in our Scream Freak Film Contest! Three winners will be reviewed in our 50th episode and promoted to all the Scream Freaks lookin’ for the next big thing Hollywood’s too scared to capitalize on. The deadline is open ’til we publish our 49th episode!
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See ya later, Scream Freaks!
Screaming Soup! 