Welcome to the first Halloween entry of the month! Today, we’re taking a look at and honouring one of my all-time favourite people in the industry. He’s brought a lot of people into the fandom of horror, b-movies, exploitation films, and what he refers to as “Drive-in Films.” I’m talking, of course, about Joe Bob Briggs. I mentioned him last year in the celebratory Friday the 13th and Me entry, and now we get to dive in and celebrate the man himself.
Born in Texas, Joe Bob Briggs got his start early on as a columnist for Texas Monthly and Dallas Times Herald where he would review exploitation films that no other critic would watch. He was actually born under a different name, but created “Joe Bob Briggs” as a stage name/persona that has stuck with him throughout the years.
This book gathers many of his reviews and is a beloved fan-favourite. It’s no longer in print, so used copies can be a bit pricey. Definitely keep an eye out for it at used book stores, it’s great! His written reviews of b-movies and exploitative cinema are unique in that he finds things to appreciate while bringing his vast knowledge and unique sense of humor to the table. He’s also an excellent storyteller and excels at talking about the people behind the movies. To say he’s passionate about everyone and everything involved would be an understatement. He lives and breathes drive-in cinema.
These kinds of films aren’t for everybody, as many critics and moviegoers are quick to dismiss them as being “low-grade trash,” but not Joe Bob. He brings attention, honesty, and heart to things people would probably not consider when they think of these films. He’s like a comedian in that sense, and he takes notice of certain things he keeps track of with what he calls “Drive-in Totals.”
What kind of things? He’ll keep track of how many limbs are dismembered, the amount of times a female character shows her breasts, other gratuitous moments, fights, body counts, you name it. This tradition would keep going when he made the leap to TV appearances, starting with guest spots on Drive-in Theatre, and then eventually getting his own show, Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater on TMC (The Movie Channel).
All of this sounds fun, and the more I read about it, the more it makes me wish my parents had gotten cable TV earlier. And maybe I could’ve been born earlier, heh. But anyway, we did get sattelite TV during the mid-90’s and it blew my freakin’ mind. With many movie channels now available, I started looking for things to watch. This was around the time when I started searching for horror movies. Not long after this, I discovered TNT’s Monstervision.
MonsterVision had actually been on TNT for a while before Joe Bob came in. Initially, it was hosted by Penn & Teller in the early 90’s before moving on to just having a voice-over actor introduce the movies. In 1996, though, after TMC changed its format and got rid of Joe Bob’s previous show, he became the new host of MonsterVision. He brought back his use of the drive-in totals and covered a wide variety of films. The focus was mostly on horror and b-movies, but in the later years, he would host sci-fi, martial arts, comedies, and other genres.
During host segments, he would often bring in a woman with him to act as a sidekick, helping him go through fan mail and providing additional commentary. They would have amusing conversations about the movie and anything relevant, even going into little tangents that always added to the fun. Another entertaining thing he would do is that whenever he would say, “Now, back to the movie!” they wouldn’t go right to the movie. The crew would continue filming and he would just talk about anything that would come to mind. He’d even randomly share jokes to make the crew members laugh.
Unfortunately, TNT changed its format once again and MonsterVision started to shift around. The schedule started to change to accommodate other programs, they changed aspects of the show to reach a wider audience, and it struggled to maintain its audience because of this. Then, in the middle of 2000, Joe Bob was let go. MonsterVision would continue for a short period without a host before eventually going away completely.
This wasn’t the end for Joe Bob, however. He continued writing columns, has done other books, and is working on another one that goes into the history of exploitation movies. He’s also contributed commentary tracks for DVDs of various movies including Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter, I Spit On Your Grave, The Double-D Avenger, and many more.
As if that weren’t enough, he’s back to movie hosting! During this July, he hosted a dusk-to-dawn Friday the 13th marathon for Shudder. It had been 17 years since he last hosted something, but he’s still got it and it feels like he never stopped. He hosted 13 movies, including Tourist Trap, Sleepaway Camp, Pieces, Hellraiser, and many more. The drive-in totals are back, the monologues are back, the trivia is back, and just as before, he still does the thing where they’re ready to go back to the movie only to continue filming him speak randomly about stuff. Watching the marathon felt like going home again.
Fans were so excited, that as the site got more traffic, there were… crazy server issues. Everyone at Shudder greatly underestimated the amount of people who would be tuning in to watch the livestream, and a lot of people started tweeting about how they had a hard time loading the page and getting the marathon going. Many people posted to the Facebook page, saying that they had planned large parties with friends and got very frustrated with the time it took for the folks at Shudder to fix everything. In all the time I’ve been online, I had never seen anything like that happen.
Fortunately, things got stable later into the show and I was able to watch enough of it. And now, the marathon is on-demand for everyone to watch at this link. As a response to the huge success, Shudder and Joe Bob are coming back again later this year for two specials; one for Thanksgiving, and the other during Christmas. Because when you think of the holiday season, you think of crazy horror and exploitation films where people are likely to get dismembered. After that, there will be a new on-going series that Joe Bob will host in 2019. Check out his site at joebobbriggs.net for updates and merchandise!
Simply put, Joe Bob Briggs made watching movies feel like a big event never to be forgotten. That’s certainly the vibe I got when I saw him for the first time back on TNT. Not only does he have the natural charisma to do it all, he makes it feel as though he’s hanging out with you while watching movies.
It’s great that he’s able to continue doing this thanks to the fans. In addition to being entertaining and full of knowledge about drive-in cinema, he is always deeply grateful to everyone who has enjoyed and supported his work over the years. His fun easy-going nature is incredibly contagious. You can’t help but feel like you’re good friends when he gets on-screen and does his thing. The way he hosts movie marathons has left a big impression on me and, with him being back on Shudder, I couldn’t be any happier.
This was mostly something I wanted to write for fun where I could share my memories and admiration for what he does. If he somehow finds this blog post, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for all that you’ve done for horror fans, thank you for introducing me to these films, thank you for being an all-around cool guy, and thank you for making me and other fans feel like we’re not alone.
Until next time, always remember that the drive-in will never die. See you next time everybody!
Kasey Lewis - Actor, Writer, Creator 