The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs: Folk Horror 4th of July
The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs continues with its diverse movie selections as well as the informative, and sometimes on-topic, rants Joe Bob is prone to deliver during breaks in the films on Folk Horror Night. His co-host, the intelligent and beautiful Darcy the Mailgirl, does her best to keep him under control but he is one hard to wrangle cowboy. It can be watched on AMC+ and Shudder.
Folk Horror Night
As Joe Bob Briggs himself says in the most recent episode of The Last Drive-In, “we are in a folk horror era.” The subgenre has enjoyed a resurgence, and viewers are taken back to its past with Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981) and Beyond The Door III (1989) during Folk Horror Night.
The Hiding Game
Before viewers wander the fields in Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Joe Bob doles out seasonally-appropriate, though not medically sound, information on tick removal. I cheer for the return of Joe Bob’s ridiculous visual aids, although the content leaves me squirming in my chair. Darcy thankfully guides the conversation back to film and I no longer smell the sulfur of matches past.
Made for the Drive In
Made-for-TV movies are not common on The Drive-In, but the last two weeks have both featured one. Dark Night of the Scarecrow, directed by Frank De Felitta and released on CBS, ranks perhaps the highest among made-for-TV horror films. Without the hosts interjecting and reminding you of the network limitations, it is hard to differentiate this movie from a cinematic release.
The overall plot is a familiar tale of an ill-gotten execution and supernatural revenge, wrapped in burlap. Joe Bob warns viewers before watching that the character of Otis Hazelrigg, played by Charles Durning, is “one of the most hated characters in horror history.” By the end of the movie, it is very hard to disagree with him. He also credits the role of Bubba Ritter, played by Larry Drake, in defining Drake’s career.
The Drive-In Totals include but are not limited to: 1 vigilante round up, a killpit of the corn, a pitchfork through the gizzards, and brush machine fu. This movie earns another coveted four stars from Joe Bob, and Darcy describes herself as a superfan.
The First Scarecrow
According to Joe Bob, this is the first scarecrow movie. There are some things you trust him on enough that you don’t bother fact-checking. This is one of those times.
While the folk horror plays out, Joe Bob breaks in to break down the movie. An important story includes the editing Ray Bradbury did to help J.D Feigelson, the writer, with the script.
In the Dirt
As he breaks down casting information and the history of production, Joe Bob is intentional with the stories he chooses to highlight.
It’s often hard to catch the threads of Joe Bob’s rambles and weave them together. However, a simmering discomfort runs throughout the presentation of Dark Night of the Scarecrow. He highlights the tragic story of civil rights icon Booker Wright following his involvement in De Felitta’s Mississippi: a Self Portrait. He’s also certain to mention Durning’s history as a veteran of Normandy in WWII. “All his heroes were in those graves in Normandy.” My great-uncle is included in those numbers. He died while killing Nazis.
Mail Call!
The fan mail segment gives Joe Bob a chance to talk about working in movies as an actor. I find comfort in knowing that even the all-mighty Joe Bob gets nervous during auditions and cringes at past experiences. When he reveals he once learned a Cockney accent for a Mel Brooks role (he didn’t end up landing), Darcy enthusiastically asks to hear it. He sadly refuses, but this is the 4th of July / Folk Horror Night, so I forgive him.
Darcy believes this movie proves that a made-for-TV movie can be just as frightening as a theatrical release, and I wholeheartedly agree. This presentation is a treasure-trove of trivia and proves to any newcomers that Joe Bob certainly knows film.
My rating for Dark Night of the Scarecrow:
(4.5 / 5)
It’s the Folking Fourth!
Despite declining to do his 4th of July speech at the start of the episode, Joe Bob is unable to hold back in the second half of the night. He quickly introduces Beyond the Door III, and Darcy reveals she is over the current folk horror era.
I cannot do the speech justice in summation, so I very much recommend you watch it for yourself. The most important piece is his belief we should be able to debate with those we disagree with the most and still be able to say, “I sincerely wish for you to have a long life, to be happy, and to live the way you want to live without government interference.”
This is an idealistic notion, and requires good faith on both sides. Just take a look at Shiny Happy People, and tell me if you think everyone should be able to live without government interference. I understand his meaning though, as even those trapped in the IBLP cult are victims themselves.
Watching Joe Bob get choked up as he recommends “moving on without” those who can’t accurately define what being an American means triggers my own emotional response. Living in this country is difficult right now, for a multitude of reasons. But I believe, like Joe Bob, we have to keep working towards something better.
Trope City Central Station
Moving back to the Jeff Kwitney directed Beyond the Door III, Joe Bob describes it as: “The old story of the high school field trip to a dark forest in Serbia where inbred Satanists live.” The film is full of tropes and is also known as Train Amok.
The Drive-In Totals include but are not limited to: 1 ghost woman with bad teeth giving birth to a jackal, high-school-student-crispy-critter immolation, 1 ancient tattered warlock book, the devil as a rail-travel tourism enthusiast, and folk horror fu. “Three and a half stars. Joe Bob says check it out.”
Can You Show Me the Door?
As the American students die their way through Yugoslavia on a train, Joe Bob manages to stay mostly on track as he drops off information about the movie. Beyond the Door III is part of a wholly-unrelated trilogy produced by Ovidio Assonitis, and a possible prequel is currently in pre-production. The series of films are popular in international markets, and the use of the name is intended as a marketing draw.
While discussing the film Joe Bob asks, “Haven’t there been several opportunities to simply jump off of the fucking train?” When I recommend the characters do just that on Twitter during my account takeover, I promptly get our account suspended for encouraging self-harm. Sorry boss!
Sex-Appeal for Satan
Another criticism includes the main character Beverly not passing Joe Bob’s vibe check to fuck Satan. “I would expect Beelzebub, he’s got to be a freak, right?” Darcy enthusiastically agrees. She would know after her Walpurgisnacht dance with the devil.
Viewers are also treated with Darcy’s very simple principles of screenwriting: “It must be fun. Heads must roll.” Oh, and there must be breasts and “byu-tocks.” I think the movie meets these standards even if Darcy believes parts of it are too slow.
My rating for Beyond the Door III:
(3.5 / 5)
Home Is Where The Haunt Is
The final mail reading from author Kris Rose delivers a copy of her book, How Horror Movies Made Me a Better Feminist as well as a plea for a hagsploitation centered episode.
Joe Bob talks about Bette Davis and I almost wish instead that we’d get a conversation about the inclusive nature of horror to those who are othered by society. It’s not needed though, as Joe Bob has made it clear The Drive In is home to whatever mutant claims it. We’re all at Camp Joe Bob and can laugh together around the fire at the end of the night.
My rating for the episode:
(4.5 / 5)
We’ve now reached the end of Fallout, season one. As I mentioned during the last review, I was heartily concerned that this show, like so many others, was going to drop the ball at the finale and ruin an entire season.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. This episode was everything it needed to be and more.
Let’s discuss.
The story
We begin our story with Maximus returning to the Brotherhood of Steel compound. He has a head, which he is claiming is the real head of Wilzig.
I don’t know why he thought that was going to work.
Of course, it doesn’t. The elder cleric is about to kill Maximus until Dane says that they hurt their foot.
Because of this, the Brotherhood is sent out to get the head. Or rather, what’s inside of it. They head to the city run by Moldaver. This happens to be the same place Lucy and The Ghoul are headed.
There, Lucy does manage to find her father. What she ends up finding is so much more than she wanted to find.
What worked
The first thing I have to discuss is how seamlessly the storylines of the series combined.
Each of our four main characters has been on their own journey. Lucy is trying to save her father. Maximus wants to become a knight. The Ghoul wants to find his family. Norm wants to know what’s going on in Vault 31.
I sure wasn’t expecting all of these stories to come together in the way that they did. And to preserve the ending, I don’t dare say more. I will only say that yes, all four stories tie in perfectly with one another. By the end, two characters end up having the very same goal.
As I hinted before, I did not see the twist ending coming.
Yes, we might have guessed some things from the last episode. We of course guessed that Lucy’s dad was involved in some nefarious and probably sci-fi way. But the way this story twists at the end is nothing short of serpent-like. Which is why I cannot go into too much detail here. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to experience it blind.
Finally, I can give the Fallout season finale the most important praise I can ever give a finale. It did its number one job, getting us excited for season two. We have answers, but now we have new and more exciting questions. And even better, we have a desire to see vengeance done.
What didn’t work
Now that the season is done, though, I can bring up something that bothered me through all eight episodes.
I don’t buy Lucy and Maximus’s relationship.
Maybe because it’s rushed. Maybe because the two actors don’t have a lot of chemistry. Maybe it’s because I’m not sure even now either character could tell you a single thing about the other. There is just no spark between the two. So their love story feels tacked on. I honestly feel like their love story could have been removed from the show entirely and it would have no negative impact.
I also didn’t buy Dane’s confession. This is a minor spoiler, but it comes up early in the episode. Dane confesses that they hurt their foot so that they wouldn’t have to go into the wastelands.
And at first, I kept expecting Maximus to thank them later. I honestly thought that they were just lying to save Maximus’s life. But no, as it turns out, they were not.
But it just doesn’t make sense. The motivations don’t jive. I honestly think it would have been better for the story if they had lied to save Maximus’s life.
At least then there’d be one other Brother of Steel who had some nobility.
In the end, this first season of Fallout was everything I could ask for. So far as I can tell, it was everything fans of the Fallout franchise could ask for. There wasn’t a bad episode in the bunch. Honestly, the only real complaint I had was that the season was so short.
I’ll be counting down the days to season two, and I hope you’ll be joining me then. Because war, war never changes.
(5 / 5)
If you like my work, you can check out my latest science fiction/horror novel, Nova, launching on May 17th. Pre-orders are available now on Amazon.
Episode seven of Amazon’s Fallout is the penultimate episode. This is often when a series goes off the rails and starts to mess things up. After being burned so often recently, I was apprehensive when this episode began.
Thankfully, this was a fear that did not come to pass. And so far, Fallout’s finale is doing just fine.
The story
A lot happened in this episode, so we’re just going to skim over some of the more important storylines. We’ll start with Lucy and Maximus, in Vault 4. Lucy has discovered what she believes is a secret collection of monsters. But of course, it turns out that it’s simply people that the vault dwellers discovered and are trying to help heal. But her meddling around was enough for them to kick her out of the vault. With two weeks’ worth of food and water, of course.
But Maximus assumes they’re going to do something much worse. And so he steals their power coil to fight through the perfectly innocent people and save Lucy.
Meanwhile, we dive further into The Ghoul’s past, when he was still Western star Cooper.
After attending a Communist meeting, he’s approached by Lee Moldaver. She suggests that Vault Tech is hiding something, something terrible. And she tells Cooper that his wife Barbara knows more about this than she’s letting on. Moldaver gets Cooper to bug Barbara’s Pip Boy, and listen in on an important meeting.
Poor Cooper hears far more than he wants to.
War, war never changes.
What worked
I would like to first point out that this was one of the funniest episodes so far. I mean, it got incredibly tragic and sad by the end. But it also had some great laugh-out-loud moments. This should be a surprise to no one, with such an array of comedians guest starring. Chris Parnell was in the last episode as well but is now joined by the incredibly funny Fred Armisen as DJ Carl. This is of course not his first foray into the funny and spooky world, as he also played Uncle Fester in Wednesday.
Most of what makes this episode funny is the character’s understated and deadpan responses to wild situations. When Maximus returns the energy coil and is greeted by a simple thank you. When Thaddeus gets an arrow through his neck, and slowly realizes that hey, he might be a ghoul. These were hilarious because they could have been truly dark moments. But because this world is so dark, and the characters have already been through so much, they’re simply done. They take all of this in stride because of course that’s what’s happening. It’s par for the course for them.
On the other hand, we’ve finally seen the full extent of The Ghoul/Cooper’s past. And it’s so much worse than we could have imagined. I assumed that he’d lost his beloved wife and daughter in the atomic blasts two hundred years ago, somehow not dying with them and instead turning into a literal and figurative monster. The truth is so much worse. I’ll do my best not to spoil the ending. But I will say this. There is nothing more painful than mourning someone and hating them at the same time. And it’s easy to see how Cooper turned into The Ghoul. That sort of pain could drive anyone mad.
This balance between comedy and tragedy is one of the reasons why this episode worked so well. It’s one of the reasons why the series is working so well. It manages to combine the core tenets of theater in a way that never compromises the strengths of either. The eventual downfall of Thaddeus is a great example of this because it’s both tragic and funny. We’ve seen what happens to ghouls, and it’s a horrible end. But as he’s hardly been a sympathetic character, we can all get a good laugh at his predicament as well.
The sheer amount of good old-fashioned gore doesn’t hurt either, of course.
What didn’t work
All that being said, there was one thing that bothered me about this episode. And it was the reveal of Vault 4’s big secret.
Honestly, I was expecting the Vault 4 storyline to go way darker. I wanted it to go way darker. While I’ve never played these games myself, I know enough about the story to say that these vaults are not the bastions of safety and morality that they have so far been portrayed as. And while that has certainly been alluded to, we haven’t seen it.
We haven’t seen the depravity in these vaults. And it’s there. But maybe we just haven’t gotten to it yet.
In the end, The Radio did exactly what it needed to do. It set us up to have most of our questions answered in the season finale. And I can’t wait to see how it all ends.
(4 / 5)
If you like my work, you can check out my latest science fiction/horror novel, Nova, launching on May 17th. Pre-orders are available now on Amazon.
Amazon Prime’s Fallout has continued to be a suspenseful delight. And with the last episode’s dramatic cliffhanger, I was certainly looking forward to this one.
Thankfully, it did not disappoint.
The story
We start our story with Lucy and Maximus waking up in a decontamination room in Vault 4. They’re welcomed guests, once they’re done with decontamination.
Vault 4 at first seems very much like Vault 33 to Lucy. She’s surprised, however, to find that a lot of people who live there are actually from the surface. And the people who live in this vault are, well, a bit mutated. Their overseer, named Benjamin and played by the hilarious Chris Parnell, has just one eye in the middle of his face. Some people have extra limbs or missing ones. And yet it’s clear that everyone’s living together in peace and companionship.
At least, that’s what it’s supposed to look like. There is, after all, the matter of the weird cult the surface dwellers seem to have formed. And, the small matter of the vault level no one is supposed to go to. It should come as no surprise that, of course, that’s exactly where Lucy finds herself before the episode is over.
Of course, this episode wouldn’t be complete without checking in with the Ghoul. And his part of the story is, honestly, more compelling.
We see him apprehended by people referring to themselves as The Government. And while he appears to be a prisoner, it’s clear soon enough that he’s the one in charge.
Far more compelling are his flashbacks to his past. While his wife, Barb, is starting to be more secretive, he learns more than he wants to about Vault Tec. He also learns that the Communist party in Hollywood might know more about what Barb does for a living than he does. And it’s clear soon that she never wanted him to know.
For good reason.
What worked
I first want to draw attention to the excellent way we are learning about the Ghoul. As we learn more and more about his past, we can see how he’s become the monster he is today. It’s clear that once upon a time he had everything he could want. A lovely home, a family he lived for, and a successful career. And he lost all of that, even his dog. And with those losses, he lost his humanity in more ways than one.
But I also think we’re seeing signs that his humanity at least isn’t as lost as he thought it was.
On a lighter note, I loved Maximus’s response to the vault. While he’s apprehensive at first, he is swept away by the welcome basket. He’s lived his whole life hungry, barely surviving, and suddenly he has food. Good food. Caviar and oysters. He has a warm robe and TV and a safe place to exist. It must have been like stepping into a fairy tale for him. And while it wasn’t exactly helpful for Lucy, it’s completely relatable that he decided to sink into a chair and have a snack in front of the TV for a while.
What didn’t work
While this episode was mostly good, I do have one complaint. When Lucy is first meeting with Overseer Benjamin, we see him accidentally drinking a cup of coffee that has gotten moldy.
Now, this makes perfect sense in our world to convey someone too busy and forgetful to clean up old mugs. But it’s hard to fathom someone living in a Vault in which every resource is carefully monitored, letting something like coffee go bad. It’s a small detail, and it was funny. Also more relatable than I’d like to admit. But in this instance, in this world, it was jarring.
So far this season has been intense. There’s a lot of intrigue and mystery. There’s a lot of high emotions. And there’s a lot on the line for everyone. Maybe, for one character, more than we’ve ever realized before.
Good thing we still have two episodes to discover what’s happening.
(4 / 5)
If you like my work, you can check out my latest science fiction/horror novel, Nova, launching on May 17th. Pre-orders are available now on Amazon.
