User Reviews

There was so much hype surrounding this with those brilliant crowd fund trailers. It would truly be hard for it live up to its promise. What stands is a decent effort but fails to offer anything really new and doesn't spend nearly enough time on any of the films and skips so many amazing gems of the decade. That being said it's decently entertaining but I would have preferred a ten hour cut instead of the four and a half one this is.

Complete list of films as discussed in order.

1980 1.) The Fog 2.) The Changling 3.) Friday the 13th 4.) The Shining 5.) Dressed to Kill 6.) Fade to Black 7.) Motel Hell 8.) Maniac

1981 1.) Scanners 2.) My Bloody Valentine 3.) The Howling 4.) The Burning 5.) American Werewolf in London 6.) Full Moon High 7.) The Evil Dead 8.) Halloween II 9.) Ghost Story

1982 1.) Cat People 2.) Basket Case 3.) Poltergeist 4.) The Thing 5.) Halloween III 6.) Q - The Winged Serpent 7.) Creepshow

1983 1.) Videodrome 2.) The Hunger 3.) Psycho II 4.) Cujo 5.) Sleepaway Camp 6.) Christine

3-d sub-section 1.) Friday the 13th III (3-d) 2.) Parasite (3-d) 3.) Rottweiler (3-d) 4.) Amityville 3 (3-d) 5.) Jaws 3 (3-d)

1984 1.) Children of the Corn 2.) Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter 3.) Firestarter 4.) Gremlins 5.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 6.) Night of the Comet

1985 1.) The Company of Wolves 2.) The Stuff 3.) Day of the Dead 4.) Fright Night 5.) Return of the Living Dead 6.) Howling II 7.) Silver Bullet 8.) Re-animator

1986 1.) Chopping Mall 2.) The Toxic Avenger 3.) Poltergeist II: The Other Side 4.) Psycho III 5.) Maximum Overdrive 6.) Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives 7.) The Fly 8.) Night of the Creeps 9.) The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 10.) From Beyond

1987 1.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors 2.) Dolls 3.) Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn 4.) It's Alive III: Island of the Alive 5.) The Lost Boys 6.) The Monster Squad 7.) Hellraiser 8.) Near Dark

1988 1.) Critters 2 2.) Friday the 13th VII: The New Blood 3.) Killer Klowns from Outer Space 4.) Phantasm II 5.) The Blob 6.) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master 7.) The Lair of the White Worm 8.) Elvira: Mistress of the Dark 9.) Pumpkinhead 10.) Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Meyers 11.) The Live 12.) Child's Play 13.) Hellbound: Hellraiser II

1989 1.) The Burbs 2.) 976-Evil 3.) Pet Sematary 4.) Friday the 13th VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan 5.) Stepfather 2 6.) Society

Count me amongst those who were ecstatic at the prospect of a four and a half hour documentary on my favourite decade of horror, the 1980s. I felt disappointment set in pretty early however, as the obvious budget limitations had the film feeling like a slightly better produced YouTube video. That feeling may have also stemmed from a number of the talking heads being actual YouTube video bloggers. These people can be entertaining at times, but are ultimately little more than fans themselves. I would have preferred their time given to other folks actually involved in the making of these films. Then again, if Joe Bob Briggs was simply allowed to talk for four and half hours we would have gleaned much more than we did from the ensemble.

The best moments of In Search of Darkness were the sections in which the cultural and historical relevance of 80s horror was analyzed. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the doc is comprised of simple and brief commentary on classics of the decade. The decision to structure the discussion year-by-year (marked by title cards) made the project feel laborious at times.

I'm glad I watched the film, in the sense that it felt like talking about horror movies for an afternoon with fellow fanatics. Don't expect a deeply thorough examination though.

Sign me up!

I'm so happy to see so many familiar faces of horror while also learning new things about the beloved genre that is 80s horror.

This is a perfect documentary for ANY horror fan!

I started this movie and just lost track of time completely, I am not sure i even blinked i was so enthralled. The pacing, the content and the stories from all the greats of horror history just kept all of my attention. If you are a horror fan you HAVE TO WATCH THIS!

This brings 2 of my favorite types of movies together horror and documentary's!! The way in brings in actors writers and talking heads to talk about tons of different ways these 80 horror movies touched a lot of our lives. Very fun watch even tho it is pretty long but no 1 time did i feel bored there's so much great info about some of the most popular and some of the cult classics i really think any fan of 80 horror should give this doc a try

Great mix of horror clips and interviews. The only person who I found annoying due to his fake weather man/newscaster voice was the overly-animated host of Dead Meat on Youtube. I don't mean to single him out but the guy should consider toning it down as it smacks of phoniness. The rest of the interviews seemed great and authentic and it was a fun throw back to see all the clips of 80's films. Awesome watch for horror fans.

Way over hyped and over priced. I've heard the same things from the same directors for years. Nothing really new other than a few annoying personalities. The Dead Meat podcast guy is kind of overbearing in this. It was ok. Not worth $60.

I have watched this documentary every night for the last 4 nights. I love it. It is very interesting to hear some of the stories from the movies and the thoughts stars have on that era. The only down side to this documentary is that they focus on all the well known horror movies of the 80s and dont talk much about the lesser know films. We have all heard about friday the 13th, a nightmare on elm street and halloween. Other then the fact that they skip over so many films this is a great documentary. I enjoyed it so much. Maybe do a sequel and show some of the lesser films.

Well This sure wasn't anything special at all , I watch stuff like this all the time on youtube in online shows like Cinemassacre's Monster Madness and Trailers From Hell to name but a few, only difference is it doesn't cost fifty quid to see! This was cute and amusing enough though, I liked hearing what some of the actors like Barbra Crampton, Kelly Maroney and particularly the hilarious Tom Atkins had to say, but this was way too longer than it needed to be, I get much more out of the reasonably long documentaries on a lot of my blu rays, they talk about horrible nothing movies like Lair of the White Worm Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and The Stepfather 2, only the length of it is exhaustive, the rest of it is quite shallow and soon becomes horribly repetitive and that made it a considerable endurance test for me to sit through, in my opinion it's definitely not worth the time to watch it, not nearly deep enough and I feel sorry for those who believed the hype and rushed out to buy this AVERAGE bloated monster of a documentary, so glad I managed to watch it online for free!

Just tons and tons of horror thrown at me. I loved it. Interviews with directors, actors, practical FX artists, horror hosts, and lovers of the genre. I liked the format as well. They showcased several films per year as well as topics such as exploitation in horror.

I've only really been into the horror scene the last few years and have mainly stuck to the more well known movies so there were a number of films highlighted that I've yet to see. That alone was a treasure to me. I now have a checklist. :) For a 4 1/2 hour documentary, time flew by.

As for negatives, I thought they spent a little too much time on certain series, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, but they are talking 80s horror. Also, it would have been great to see more key actors and crew. For example, a lot was said about Tom Savini's work yet he's not an interviewee. Budget, scheduling, and the willingness of the individuals could have all played a part in who participated though.

As they go year by year there are some entertaining interviews and a bunch of duds as well. It's more of a spotlight on people's favourite horror film rather than a documentary that digs deep into the history or cultural impact of 80's horror. There's some fun footage but very little behind the scenes stuff. It's like a polished YouTube video that is over three hours. Finally my biggest issue is how they don't mention Aliens once. They even have a section talking about the "final girl" in horror but they don't talk out Sigourney Weaver... I don't know if they had the rights to show clips from that film so they just forgot it. It may seem trivial to one people but Aliens was far more significant than the majority of the film's on this documentary. Kinda weird

I was expecting an insightful documentary... what I got was 4 hours 20 minutes of talking heads. This is literally just a year-by-year picking of random horror movies, and having a random selection of the talking heads say what they thought about it.

There's no commentary to tie the whole thing together. It doesn't start anywhere interesting, do anything interesting in the middle, or end with any kind of conclusion. It's extremely shallow, dull and repetitive. After watching for 30 minutes, a title card came up saying "1981", and my heart sank as I thought of how relatively expensive this Blu-ray was to import from the USA... (and, incidentally, how the back of the case says "Stereo Surround", yet it's actually just 2.0 Stereo).

There are far more interesting documentaries on horror films available on YouTube for free... seriously, go seek those out instead. I recommend "Good Bad Flicks", "Oliver Harper"... even "Dead Meat" (whose presenter appears in this movie) as better examples of movie analysis that "In Search of Darkness".

If you're already a horror aficionado, you'll learn nothing. If you already seen every movie presented here, you'll learn nothing. For any movies that weren't on your radar, you'll get spoilers. I can't see who this is aimed at except the sort of people who like to veg out on the TV equivalent of methadone.

In Search Of Darkness is a perfect in depth dive into all that is 80's horror. It has so many incredible interviews with the casts and crews of the movies that make up all of the classic films of the era. It is definitely a documentary made by someone who has a genuine love of every one of the movies that is covered in it.

Exceptional, remarkable and impressive. The only thing that needed was, maybe, 4 more hours and more deep insight about the movies . This documentary is a must for any horror fan/nerd.

Hopefully we'll have a part 2.

What a great documentary this is. I see some people saying it's "boring" and not what they expected but this gives a fair chance to all the movies they can fit in in over 4 hours. It's a total nostalgic trip and there were a few movies that I haven't actually seen so they've been added to my watch list. Love seeing John Carpenter and Tom Atkins involved and the little tributes to our "horror-hounds" lovers, Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper and George Romero.

Highly recommended!

You cannot watch this documentary and not have something to write with. Many great horror movies and hidden gems are exposed with pros, cons, and personal opinions which will either make it to your have-to-watch-list or not.

Indeed one of the best of the genre documentaries out there worth watching based on the 80's.

If you're new to the genre, I couldn't think of anything better to get your feet wet. If you're a lifelong fan, there's not much of interest here that you haven't heard before. It's still entertaining enough and feels like one of those VH1 I Love The 80's documentaries with a bunch of talking heads giving their opinions on mostly mainstream films from that era. Don't expect many surprises and you should be fine.

This is not just documentary about horror movies its also about eighties culture. The eighties had the most positive vibe in the film industry. And I'm sure not just in the film industry. The most fun period. Lots of adventurous movies, fantasies, comedies, actions that always carry a sense of fun more than seriousness.

To be honest, the golden era of horror film is the seventies. The most classic, cult and most scariest films were made in the seventies. The Exorcist , The Omen , Dont Look Now , Suspiria , Jaws , Alien , Helloween , Carrie etc. A much darker period, so the films were very dark, atmospheric, psychological with some of the best and scariest scenes, endings and twists. To be more precise, from 1968 to 1980 was a golden era of horror movies. From Rosemary Baby (1968) and Night of the Living Dead(1968) to The Shining (1980). Lets face it The Shining is classical 70 'horror movies But the eighties were a lot more fun and there were a lot of original movies. A lot of cult slashers. A period of lot of cult figure and monsters wich we will remember. Documentary is so detailed about 80' horror movies. You can find out a lot of things from first hand. There are a lot actors, directors , writers who were so passionate while talking about directing, special effects , interesting things while they filming etc.

I would like that they had Alice Cooper in documentary talking about "Prince of Darkness" one of my favorite horror movies of 80'. :-)

Also when they talked about best heroes of horror movies, for sure they should mention Dr. Samuel Loomis from Helloween. If Michael Myers is most famous villain in horror movies then Dr. Loomis is best hero.

Everything is perfect and these 4 hours and 20 minutes of documentary will be shorter 4 hours ever. So fun to watch, recomend to every horror fun and every fun of documentaries also.

Lots of juicy clips from films, not much substance otherwise. No big names among the talking heads. They are pleasant enough but don't bring anything new to the table. Its nice to see how some of those 80's femme fatales have aged-Barbara Crampton is still impressive while Heather Langenkamp doesn't seem to care much about her appearance.

It is really disappointing that this documentary spends too much time on well known franchises such as Halloween/Friday 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street while other much better films are not mentioned.

A couple of UK releases are mentioned, but nothing from Europe or Australia.

The guys behind this video need to expand their horror horizons.

I remember hearing about this one & to finally get access after all this time it was worth the wait. 4 hours of complete passion & love for the greatest genre in film! Not that I had alot of hype going in it is just interviews & opinions but for some one that wasn't born till the late 80s it was great to see such a passion for these early trend setting films. Also a great selection of guests from people that were there to some far more modern voices in horror. A ton of classic films featured but also a ton I hadn't seen or heard to be held in such high regard.

It is plainly made. did not go deep,did not offer many behind scenes.it is just interview after movie clip after interview.

but it is very entertaining, I did not get tired at all after 4 hours watching.it was the golden era of making movies.to see those pioneers making magic happen form zero,and all those nasty bloody movies which will not be allowed today,practical visional effects,those are fascinating!

I was looking forward to this documentary, but after slogging through almost four and half hours, I'm disappointed. There are too many titles missing, too much time spent on the usual Freddy and Jason series, and the titles they do include are given short shrift.

It seems like the creators were going for quantity over quality. And some of the talking heads are a little tough to take, especially the obnoxious James Janisse from the Dead Meat channel. He's obviously reading his lines, and trying to sell them like a used car salesman.

Seeing John Carpenter was cool, but we learn almost nothing new from him here.

While this is an ambitious attempt to document 80's horror, it misses the mark.

If you absolutely love horror films from the 1980's, then this documentary is made for you. They cover a lot in 4 hours, but there was still a lot left out. Hopefully the sequel will cover the rest. This doc. starts in 1980, and works its way up to 1989, from Friday the 13th, to Halloween, to Q: The Winged Serpent, to The Stuff, The Fog, The Thing, Child's Play, Nightmare on Elm Street, holiday horror like Silent Night Deadly Night, Black Christmas, My Bloody Valentine, Prom Night, Happy Birthday to Me, New Year's Evil, Maniac, Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Hellraiser, Evil Dead, Killer Klowns From Outer Space, Phantasm, and much more with actors and directors such as Tom Atkins from Halloween 3 and Creepshow, Joe Bob Briggs, John Carpenter who directed Halloween, The Fog, The Thing and Christine, Kane Hodder who played Jason in Friday the 13th Parts 7-10, Lloyd Kaufman, Bill Moseley from The Devil's Rejects and Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, Don Mancini who created Chucky, Caroline Williams, Greg Nictotero and much more. I highly recommend IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS!!!

A great retrospective of this golden genre through the best years of filmmaking. The story is told by actors and producers/directors combined, which gives a special professional tone and vibe. The great soundtrack in the 80s vibes covers this great documentary.