242 – Twisted Dreams: The Beauty of B-Movies With Joe Bob Briggs

To those of us who are crazy about horror movies, there’s One Redneck To Rule Them All and that’s the host of MonsterVision , Joe Bob Briggs. To millions of impressionable teens, he was the voice who was able to find the best in cheesy horror movies. With his beer-drinkin’, nude scene-loving, onscreen violence-adorin’ attitude, he was the horror host that we all looked up to. A comic (real name John Bloom) who turned an encyclopedic knowledge of low-budget horror and sci-fi film into a full-time Hollywood job of commenting and writing about movies, and we couldn’t get enough.

Now it took me halfway through film school to get this, but the thing about movie lovers is that we love movies.

That’s a simple and seemingly obvious statement, but I want to clarify it because it means something. There are film snobs who can talk about the French New Wave and The Hollywood Renaissance and will pontificate on the power of Robert Bresson and Terence Malick and they are correct. Those movies are fantastic and while they take a cultured palate to appreciate, there is a passion that makes them rich and deserving of appreciation.

And if you were a film geek like me, you watched At The Movies with Siskel & Ebert, paid attention to the Academy Awards (before they gave a damn about “popular” films), and listened to your local overcompensating small town movie critic. We knew that there were “great films” and then we knew there were the movies that the rest of us watched for fun.

So there were brilliant and artistic films out there that could stir the cultured soul…

…and then there’s the lowest common denominator. Movies with simple plots that feature cheap grossout special effects to shock you, naked girls to tittilate you, and simple plots to so that even the lowest forehead Neanderthals among us can keep up. Guilty pleasures are what we call them. But why feel guilty?

Joe Bob Briggs is the guy that made those guilty pleasures not just okay, but something to be proud of. He could find ways to appreciate films made with affection and love, even if the budget is minimal, and even if they’re just about monsters killing teenagers. He knew when to call a movie out when they were lazy, but he knew how to craft film appreciation for the movies that the other critics left behind.

We met up in Austin during SXSW 2019 and discussed some of his favorite movies, his new show on Shudder, and even the movies that he’s never been able to get for his drive-in but wishes he could. Now, it’s a live interview in the restaurant in a crowded hotel where we were passing the microphone back and forth, so the audio isn’t like we’re at home in the studio, so please keep that in mind when you take a listen.

According to Joe Bob Briggs, there are three B’s every good B-movie needs:

And that sounds to me like a recipe for the kind of film that I want to watch. His new series is called The Last Drive-In and you can stream the show on the online service, Shudder. It’s got everything from Tourist Trap to Re-Animator and features the directorial talents of genre favorites like Clive Barker and (UW-Madison alumni) Stuart Gordon. When Shudder decided to run a horror movie marathon with Joe Bob in July of 2018 it got so much traffic that it broke downt he service for them, which some said was a sign of the sheer popularity of low budget horror presented by people who love it, but as Joe Bob said, “We worked hard on something and wanted people to actually see it!” So, they decided to bring it back as a full Shudder series.

While Joe Bob played to a rapturous and packed house in Austin during SXSW 2019, he’s also going to be appearing in Milwaukee for the Twisted Dreams Film Festival on April 6th. I also got a chance to talk to Chris House and Stephen Milek from the Twisted Dreams festival where Joe Bob will be doing his show How Rednecks Saved Hollywood where he shows hundreds of clips in a live show about how Tinseltown has relied on the same redneck stereotype to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in box office receipts.

And that Twisted Dreams Festival is something you’re not going to want to miss if you’re in the Midwest. From The Lake Michigan Monster to The Amazon Hotbox , Chris and Stephen tell us about the horror and exploitation movies made with love that are going to be showing at the festival. So not only do you get a chance to watch Joe Bob Briggs do his show live, you can support dozens of independent and Midwestern filmmakers.

Twisted Dreams is Milwaukee’s Horror Film Festival and Chris and Stephen tell me their original favorite gnere movies and what got them hooked on horror films, they also lay out some of the highlights of the film festival for not only splatter and scary movie fans, but for aspiring filmmakers as well. And c’mon, they’re giving a special achievement award to American Movie ‘s inspirational Mark Borchardt (the man behind Coven !) so you know it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Chris House is also a ghost hunter with the Paranormal Investigators of Milwaukee so you know that we have to talk a little bit on what film influenced his journey to study the other side and what films best represent paranormal investigation (and of course I asked Joe Bob if he’s ever seen a ghost himself!)

Twisted Dreams Film Festival runs April 4th through 7th at the Times Cinema in Milwaukee. Click here to learn more and get tickets to this awesome event!

For the song this week, we were inspired by Joe Bob’s Three B’s. After all, when it comes to a horror film what else do you need? Here’s our latest track inspired by Joe Bob himself, “Blood, Breasts, and Beasts”!

There’s a creature in the wilderness
there’s a babysitter in a skintight dress
pretty soon they’re gonna meet and it won’t be pretty

I’m not worried about the misc en scene
of horny adolescents
All I know is someone is gonna die tonight.

Monsters in rubber suits
Killers in hot pursuit
Gut-wrenching violence
and a gruesome murder scene
You know I love that
gratuitous nudity
So give me
Blood
Breasts
and Beasts

There’s something underneath the floor,
There’s a sadist behind the closet door,
waiting for that couple to get it on.

I’m not worried about the misc en scene,
my interest is the prurient,
All I know is someone is gonna die tonight.

Monsters in rubber suits
Killers in hot pursuit
Gut-wrenching violence
and a gruesome murder scene
You know I love that
gratuitous nudity
So give me
Blood
Breasts
and Beasts

gimme blood
the stain’s getting redder
gimme breasts
the faker the better
gimme beasts
attacking some scream queens

gimme blood
the floor’s getting wetter
gimme breasts
the tighter the sweater
gimme beasts
to rip apart some teens

I want some…

Monsters in rubber suits
Killers in hot pursuit
Gut-wrenching violence
and a gruesome murder scene
You know I love that
gratuitous nudity
So give me
Blood
Breasts
and Beasts

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