{"id":28458,"date":"2018-07-12T11:28:36","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T15:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=28458"},"modified":"2018-07-12T11:28:36","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T15:28:36","slug":"an-interview-with-joe-bob-briggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2018\/07\/12\/an-interview-with-joe-bob-briggs\/","title":{"rendered":"An Interview with Joe Bob Briggs: Indie Film, Horror, and “The Last Drive In”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Art by Justin Osbourn.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you grew up in the nineties and had cable television, the odds are you were at one time introduced to Joe Bob Briggs and TNT’s Monstervision. With his assortment of movie trivia, gift of gab, and great jokes, “Monstervision” was a weekend treat that fans savored until its unceremonious end in 2000. Though Joe Bob has been a welcome presence in the horror and film world since then, fans have often clamored for his return to television. Wait no more. This Friday the 13th at 9pm ET, Joe Bob Briggs returns for one last hurrah, to bring his legions of fans a marathon of horror movies, exclusively to Shudder TV.<\/p>\n

It’s twenty four hours, thirteen uncut horror movies, Joe Bob’s Drive-In Totals, and a brand new mail girl to boot. Joe Bob took time out of his hectic press storm to answer some our questions and suffice to say it was a thrill.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hi Joe Bob, thanks for your time, you’re one of my personal heroes.<\/strong>
\nWell, thank you, Felix. Which of my many acts of heroism are you remembering? Was it that time I saved the endangered salamanders at the Akron Zoo, or the time I won the three-man pepper-eating contest in Bulgaria? Oh wait, yeah, you\u2019re talking about movies\u2014I\u2019ve never owned one, I just act like I own \u2018em all.<\/p>\n

With the accessibility of filmmaking equipment and technology, do you think this is a new golden age for movies?<\/strong>
\nIf cheap technology could bring about a golden age, we should have had one about fifteen years ago. Yes, all the traditional barriers to becoming a filmmaker have been eliminated, but do we have better films as a result? Unfortunately, no, and I\u2019m not sure why. We should have a hundred great indie films a year due to the fact that production and post-production equipment and software are now within reach of anyone with a script and a dream, but instead we just have more and more random YouTubeification of the film universe. The classic two-hour movie as a form may be in danger of going away entirely. Without going into the reasons for this, narratives are getting much longer (web-based miniseries) and much shorter (short-attention span content designed for the phone) and the traditional forms are stagnating. Fortunately the demand for film is incredibly high right now\u2014all those streaming services\u2014and so I think this will ultimately bring about collectives of filmmakers who use the cheap technology more efficiently and with more dramatic artistry than we have now.<\/p>\n

Beyond the community, do you think audiences missed out on anything with the drive-in experience?<\/strong>
\nThe drive-in is the most democratic moviegoing experience ever invented. The drive-in is usually located right at the city limits. The people from the country drive in, the people from the city drive out, everyone mixes together at the concession stand, and it remains the cheapest ticket, pound for pound, of any venue. It\u2019s like a pre-Internet chat room where you can watch the movie or not watch the movie or have it on in the background or jump into your car and deep-dive it, watch in a group, watch alone, although let\u2019s face it, nobody\u2019s alone at the drive-in. So yeah, if you haven\u2019t done it, it\u2019s like the state fair, you have to do it at least twice in your life. But there\u2019s no reason anyone should \u201cmiss out.\u201d There are 400 drive-ins and most of them are thriving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Are there any movies that you’d love to see get a re-release or be re-introduced to modern movie audiences?<\/strong>
\nYou can\u2019t really say there any \u201cforgotten\u201d movies anymore, since there are 10,000 Internet articles about any given title, no matter how obscure, but there are some movies that are under-appreciated. Tourist Trap, the opening movie in the Shudder marathon, is one of those. It flopped at the box office in 1979, nobody thought it was scary, but hardcore horror fans know it as one of the true originals, and the reason we picked it is so that we can rehabilitate its reputation. It also stars Chuck Connors in what I think is a great performance. Most of the older movies that are being discovered for the first time are the ones made in foreign countries that never had a theatrical or DVD release over here. Germany, Spain, Italy, England, Russia, Japan, Korea, China all have rich genre-film histories, and there are gems that are still being unearthed. If I were still hosting a weekly show, I would focus almost exclusively on neglected foreign imports\u2014that\u2019s where the gold is today.<\/p>\n

Is there a horror movie that’s especially nostalgic for you?<\/strong>
\nI can always find something new in Basket Case, and I\u2019ve watched it dozens of times. I don\u2019t think people realize how brilliant the acting is, because the style is over the top. One reason we programmed it for the Shudder marathon is so that I could tell some personal stories about the making of it and the moment in the early eighties when it was almost destroyed, but . . . saved by the drive-in!<\/p>\n

Elvira loved most horror movies but not slashers. Is there a specific kind of horror sub-genre you consciously avoid?<\/strong>
\nWell, I\u2019m not a big fan of torture porn or grossout porn where the sole purpose is to use special effects to make you vomit. Among other things, it gets to be really boring. I like all the sub-genres but my least favorite is probably dolls and puppets. Children\u2019s toys animated by supernatural evil has never seemed that convincing to me.<\/p>\n

Why do you think modern audiences, even horror audiences, still tend to be more thrown off by nudity and sex in film than gore and grue?<\/strong>
\nYou\u2019re absolutely right that, as a nation, the United States historically has been soft on violence and hard on sex when it comes to censorship battles. Other parts of the world, like Scandinavia, have always been tough on violence and easygoing about sex. If you\u2019d asked me this question a year ago, though, I would have said we\u2019re becoming more and more like Denmark, as Gen Xers and millennials become parents and start screeching about their children being exposed to macabre images, while remaining fairly unconcerned about bare skin. But lately I\u2019ve been asked to dial it back when I simply talk about nudity and sex, so I have no idea!<\/p>\n

A lot of those tired ideas from the eighties about slasher films targeting women have been revived lately. It\u2019s not true and has never been true, and in fact Carol Clover at Berkeley long ago demonstrated the essentially feminist principles at work in slasher films, but the Puritans amongst us never quite go away. By the way, just to make it clear, I am violently opposed to the random killing and mutilation of women, unless it\u2019s necessary to the plot.<\/p>\n

What advice can you offer to blossoming independent filmmakers hoping to create the next horror classic?<\/strong>
\nPlease stop imitating the eighties. Figure out what scares us in 2018 and dive into that. The reason most independent films fail is that the script lacks depth and is, in many cases, a clich\u00e9 based on some famous horror film of the past. I\u2019m tired of going to film festivals where all the directors say, \u201cMy film would have been better, Joe Bob, but I didn\u2019t have enough money.\u201d<\/p>\n

I no longer accept that as an excuse. The technology is cheap and available to all. You don\u2019t need a lot of money to make a great film. You do need a great story told by a talented team. Put that script into development, put that team together, and don\u2019t give jobs to your friends just because they\u2019re your friends. Find the best possible team of cast and crew in whatever town you live in, and then put your heart into it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What inspired you to host “The Last Drive In” on Shudder TV?<\/strong>
\nWhat inspired me was that two fans of MonsterVision\u2014Matt Manjourides and Austin Jennings\u2014came to me last fall and said, \u201cHey, we would like to produce some version of the old show. Will you let us pitch it to the industry?\u201d And so of course I said yes, and they went to Shudder and a few weeks later we got approval for it, and then when we were casting about for the format, I suggested a marathon. It\u2019s amazing to me that people would want to see a format that I last used seventeen years ago, but it\u2019s also gratifying, it kind of makes up for all the late nights and grueling production schedules and low pay and bad treatment surrounding the original show, which was kind of an afterthought at the network. I should probably be grateful that it was an afterthought, though, because that\u2019s what gave us the creative freedom\u2014no one at the home office was paying attention to us!<\/p>\n

Was there a specific process for selecting movies to screen on “The Last Drive In”?<\/strong>
\nNot really. Shudder has a library of several hundred horror flicks, and the director, Austin Jennings, went through the list and marked his favorites, and I went through the list and marked the ones that I had personal stories about or knew stuff that is not generally known, and then we tried to divide it up among classics, cult films, so-bad-they\u2019re-goodies, and films that have some historical importance, in order to get close to the bizarre mix of films we had on MonsterVision. You know what I always say? Anybody can die at any moment. And in the Shudder marathon, anybody can die at any moment in any sub-genre.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Was it a good experience working with new Mail Girl Diana Prince?<\/strong>
\nThe new Mail Girl<\/a> is an expert horror blogger, a low-budget film producer, and a hot model\/actress, so she\u2019s a little intimidating, she might know more about horror than I do. She\u2019s promising to dress up in cosplay outfits for all of the movies. Or at least I\u2019m encouraging her to do that and she thinks she can pull it off.<\/p>\n

You’ve promoted “The Last Drive In” as pretty much the final marathon go around, do you think there’s ever a chance you may re-consider returning again?<\/strong>
\nThis has been great, recreating the nineties, but would people really wanna watch me recreate the nineties on a continuing basis? I think it would have to be a new format.<\/p>\n

Finally, what’s next for Joe Bob Briggs and where can fans find you?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m gonna concentrate on my one-man multi-media show, \u201cHow Rednecks Saved Hollywood,\u201d which is being booked into several cities even as we speak, and I\u2019m thinking about producing some films of my own. Not writing or directing\u2014that\u2019s too much work\u2014but trying to influence the future of exploitation films. As to finding me, I\u2019m easy\u2014you can always email me directly at joebob@joebobbriggs.com or get in touch through Twitter or Facebook<\/p>\n

You’ve exposed me and thousands of other horror fans to a wide variety of genre films, and created an atmosphere that made them fun and accessible, thanks for that!<\/strong>
\nYes, I\u2019m the man who brought She\u2019s 19 and Ready, the immortal West German sex comedy, to the masses.<\/p>\n

Again, thanks so much for everything, and thanks for your time, it’s been an honor!<\/strong>
\nThe honor is all mine, Felix. You were interested in my piddly little stuff, that\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

Long Live Joe Bob.<\/strong><\/p>\n