From Slashers to Satanic Cults: Inside '70s Horror with David Weiner, Director "In Search of Darkness"
Horror Nerds Comedy PodcastJune 23, 2026x
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00:38:2326.39 MB

From Slashers to Satanic Cults: Inside '70s Horror with David Weiner, Director "In Search of Darkness"

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Why was the 1970s the absolute golden age of horror cinema? We sit down with director David Weiner to talk about "In Search of Darkness: '70s" and break down iconic masterpieces like The Exorcist, Jaws, Halloween, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

He's back! In this highly anticipated sequel interview, David Weiner returns to the Horror Nerds Podcast to chat with hosts Samantha and Bonnie. Together, they dive deep into the rise of low-budget slashers, the decade's intense satanic frenzy, and the legendary directors who defined a generation of fear. Make sure you have your wits and gear, because it's time to go searching in darkness again.

👉 Support the documentary here: https://insearchofdarkness.com/

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SHOW CREDITS:
Hosted by Samantha Hale and Bonnie Marie Williams
Based on Horror Nerd Comedy created by Samantha Hale
Copywriter: Eva Williams
Social Media: Eva Williams
Editor: Sarah Manners
Post Production: Sarah Manners and Bonnie Marie Williams
Creative Producer: Adam Molloy
Producer: Samantha Hale 
Executive Producer: Bonnie Marie Williams

Horror Nerds Podcast music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Podcast Intro by Joe White
Podcast VO by Bonnie Marie Williams
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SPEAKER_07

I was scared absolutely beyond my brain. I just I could not believe what I was watching, but I was determined. I was determined not to turn it off and run away about to watch. Now, my my grandmother knitted this old-fashioned Afghan blanket. And what I would do is I'd watch see the holes how big they are? I literally have the same thing. And when Reagan would come on, I'd watch like this. And I would literally just walk watch through the holes.

SPEAKER_04

I mean, we used to drink from the hose and watch demons on TV. It was the thing we did.

SPEAKER_05

Welcome to Horner, the podcast.

SPEAKER_04

Now that we're recording, if you want to compliment my t-shirt again, David, you may if you want to.

SPEAKER_07

Oh my gosh, I spit on your grave. You know, a lot of people in In Search of Darkness 70s have asked for that movie. Is that horror? Is it rape revenge? Is it just not a thing that I should not not do for In Search of Darkness 70s? We survey everybody, and that is a high-ranking demand that people want. I spit on your grave for In Search of Darkness 70s.

SPEAKER_04

I believe it. I believe it. That is one of those movies that you're like, oh God, why am I wanting this is horrible. Oh, okay. I see where they're going with this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

It gets to a very satisfying point in the movie after you really endure, oh gosh, you know, it's only a movie, but it's it's quite an experience to go through that movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And the 70s films just hit harder. They were just more. It's crazy because our technology has come so far. The cameras have improved, the lighting, everything has dramatically become more high definition. But yet the 70s films felt more organic, more real, more terrifying.

SPEAKER_07

The gritty element of the not pristine footage really actually makes it more cinematic, ironically. You know? They they were trying to like save money on film stock, but fundamentally, now that we get looking back to that stuff, we get an experience that is almost more like a documentary feel for some of these films.

SPEAKER_06

Exactly. Totally. You nailed it. Because that was that's what I was always thinking like, what does this feel like? And you just you nailed it. And now my brain just went, oh, everything makes sense. Well, not everything, but a lot makes sense right now.

SPEAKER_07

Very cinematic era, but cinematic is a very broad-ranging term. And and everyone has a different it's like art, what is art to you? Art could be anything. Cinematic can be anything to you. I mean, cinematic is literally something that was captured on a camera and projected in a cinema, arguably. But cinematic, I think, also is very much a state of mind, a concept. It could be that vertigo dolly shot in Jaws when Chief Brody first sees the, you know, the the first uh his first kill that he he witnesses, you know, uh on the on the beach in Amity. But uh it could also be just the way something like I Spit on Your Grave or or Texas Chainsaw Massacre is filmed and the handheld nature of things where it basically transports you into a whole different world that at first you're like, gosh, this is really low budget and this is really janky, but then you're like something about it grabs you by the lapels and pulls you in.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Do you think that that kind of footage from the 70s inspired the found footage subgenre of horror? Do you think people were like, well, this looks organic and gritty? Let's do it on purpose.

SPEAKER_07

Absolutely. You know, think movies like those, you know, or or just the Italian stuff, you know, like Hannibal Holocaust.

SPEAKER_04

I can't do it. Oh, I tried. Oh, I tried.

SPEAKER_07

Or faces of death. I mean, all these things, whether they were fabricated or real or a combination of the two, the whole concept of a snuff film, that that's something that, you know, it's funny. People say found footage all the time. You don't hear snuff film, and that's probably a good thing. But ultimately, yeah. The thing though is like, you know, there were, you know, I remember in the 70s, people were like, Do you think it's a snuff film? You know, a snuff for those in the audience who don't know what that means. It's not the little stuff that you if you have a powdered wig, you go, you you put something in your nose. Not that snuff. We're talking about people being killed for real.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

People being killed for real on screen. And that was kind of a thing that even just like that's like a sub-sub sub subgenre in the 70s. And sometimes you weren't quite sure what exactly was happening, what was quite real. Was that sex scene, you know, in in Don't Look Now? Was that a real thing? You know, what was happening in deliverance to poor Ned BD? I don't know, you know. Right. There's a lot of you know stuff that toes the line.

SPEAKER_04

I had probably one of the funniest things ever happen. So I was doing this show at this amazing place called the Fourth Horseman in Long Beach, and it's a horror-themed pizzeria like restaurant. The food's amazing, it's all decked out. Like real horror fans go there just to hang out. So we did the show there, the live show, of course. And I usually I love to do crowd work. I'll say, Hey, what are some of the first scary movies that you guys ever saw when you were way too young? And this guy was like, uh, cannibal holocaust. I was like, uh uh, I'm sorry, who was your dad? Ted Bundy? What the hell? Like, are you serious? That's a bad idea. And then I looked down and he had a little dog in his lap. And I said, Is that a dog in your lap? He said, Yeah, it's my ESA. I said, I'm sorry, you're what? My emotional support animal. I'm like, well, no fucking kidding. You have your first movie, I would need an emotional support chihuahua too. That's insane.

SPEAKER_07

You know, there's a whole generation that sort of got to see stuff. I think we qualify as that generation where so many of us saw stuff that we probably were way too young to see.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

And that, and that's a that's a through line that I think a lot of us wear as a badge of honor because even though, you know, we shouldn't have seen it, and we all can acknowledge to ourselves, I was way too young when I saw that. It sort of gives this sort of driving motivation to discover more horror because we were we were it was imprinted. It was like, are you my mother horror? You know, like when you're really young. It's the kind of thing where, yeah, are you my mommy? It's not a steam shovel, it's a horror film, cannibal feerox, you know.

SPEAKER_04

Very that. I consider my horror mother uh Carolyn Jones Adams Family. She's my horror mother. She was the one.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, that's very nurturing, and that's really it's a positive role model, if you ask me.

SPEAKER_06

Mine's Elvira. Yeah. Elvira's mine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

My son calls Elvira my ex-wife because I've interviewed her many times, and I'm like, oh, I have to do another interview with Elvira. He's like, Oh, is that your ex-wife? I don't know. It's one of those things, don't even ask why, but for some reason he created that.

SPEAKER_04

But no one will who would break up with Cassandra? Oh my gosh. No one's a good one. Who fumbles a baddie?

SPEAKER_06

Who fumbles her? Truly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Maybe it's wishful thinking on his part. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06

Maybe. You know, she would have been a great choice for my dad's ex-wife, too. So, you know, that's fine. Because like when I was little, this is how I knew it was Halloween was my dad would decorate and get out the Elvira cardboard cutout from the course light campaign and put that out. And he's like, Okay, I decorated, it's Halloween. So even before, you know, we didn't have seasons out here. So it's like my little three-year-old brain was like, Elvira, Halloween. And then when we moved, it mysteriously disappeared. My dad's like, Yeah, your mom said something happened to it. I think my mom happened to it.

SPEAKER_07

Ooh, she ripped in half. Too bad, you know.

SPEAKER_06

Too bad. Oh no, the moving truck. She must have fallen off the moving truck. That's what it was. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02

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SPEAKER_07

Smell ya in your dreams.com and you could pre-order your copy of In Search of Darkness 70s. You get your name in the credits. We're doing entirely new, very, very cool stuff for the ultimate Cinephile. And it's not only the Blu-ray, but we're going to have this really cool 80-page companion book. We're doing things a little differently this time. And we're also doing things very much the same where we're going through a whole decade, 1970, 1979, talking to people from the era who are still around. Some of the people who aren't around, I've got some amazing surprises that I'm pretty excited about. Where, well, maybe if it's not them because they're not here, we might have some relatives of these icons as well. Use your imagination for that, because unfortunately, I can't reveal anything just yet. But we're very excited. I'm in production on In Search of Darkness 70s. I've already done a handful of interviews that I have in a can. And it's been very, very super cool. And it's been the ultimate experience for me to revisit this decade that is my formative years, my training ground, my imprint years. Are you my mommy horror? Yes, you are. I'm the little kid who grew up in the 70s.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I I might have to steal that phrase. Imprint years.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That's that's good. Perfect. Like that, there's no better way to describe it. Because for me, I'm a little bit behind. So 80s, like 80s, 90s. I was born in 83. So I guess like late 80s, early 90s was my imprint. I mean, Pennywise imprinted on me way too early.

SPEAKER_03

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04

That one hurt. Yeah, that one hurt a lot. But it's true. That will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I think how cool would it have been? I mean, so many of the most incredible films ever came out of the 70s. I can't even imagine what that must have done to your horror-loving brain. I mean, well, I I know what it did. It created In Search of Darkness, which is fantastic and honestly a win-win for all of us.

SPEAKER_07

I I used I used to thank you. You know, I I read Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine in the 70s, and in a very weird, unintended, circuitous route, I ended up being the editor-in-chief of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. So it I it kind of came full circle for me. But that was like my Bible as I would, you know, go to the newsstand and I'd look at all these cool movies. I'd watch them mostly on TV in the 70s, because I was a 70s kid. I was born in 68. So essentially 70s kid, 80s teen, and then I got my career going in my 20s in the 90s. But I grew up watching some sometimes the premiere on television, the network television premiere of the Exorcist, of the Omen, of the Amityville horror, of Halloween, even though that was in the early 80s when that came on TV. But those I saw all those things on TV first. Where were my parents and why were they not preventing me from doing this? I think they were just happy I wasn't doing smack in the alley outside or something like that. Yeah. Watching kid, right?

SPEAKER_04

I mean, we used to drink from the hose and watch demons on TV. It was the thing. We did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

You made sure you got home when the streetlights came on and they couldn't track us. Were any of us outside playing Buffy when we were little? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_06

I don't know.

SPEAKER_07

I have to tell you a story, and I literally have I have the prop that I used as a kid. So when I first saw The Exorcist on television, all the kids would talk about it. So I wanted to see it, and it was on TV. But whenever it really got into it, and and Reagan comes on and she's really scary with a face and everything like that, I was scared absolutely beyond my brain. I just I could not believe what I was watching, but I was determined. I was determined not to turn it off and run away, but to watch. Now, my my grandmother knitted this old-fashioned Afghan blanket. And what I would do is I'd watch see the holes how big they are. I literally have the same thing. And when Reagan would come on, I'd watch like this. And I would literally just walk watch through the holes. And uh, and that's how I got through it. And I literally, it's kind of ridiculous. I have it right here. And I didn't even break it out, I just leave it on my bed.

SPEAKER_04

I love that. That's how I watch romantic comedies. Just oh no.

SPEAKER_06

Oh no. Okay. Yeah. This is so gross and unbelievable. Ugh.

SPEAKER_07

Right? But you still do it. You still do it. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_06

That guy's kind of good looking. Okay, let me look through here. He's kind of cute.

SPEAKER_07

Well, that's what separates us from the average human beings, is I think all the all the horror fans, we we were determined, even if we were scared, we wanted to sort of face our fears and we wanted to learn how to how to deconstruct these things so we could watch even more of them. I did that with with Halloween, you know, deconstructing John Carpenter's Halloween. But I these things scared the crap out of me. But but it's like a badge of honor having watched these things. I watched, and I told you guys this in the past. I watched the Amityville horror like this, but I read the book when I was in fourth grade because it was a it was a bestseller, and I wanted to know what what all the hype was. I figured it was a real Hunten House story. So, you know, my parents they they let me do this stuff and I don't know why.

SPEAKER_06

See, oh man. My my dad, I wanted to read Carrie when I was 12. And my dad was like, hey, um, I know we have a rule that if it is on the shelves in this house, you can watch it, you can read it. However, I would feel better if maybe you just waited until high school for that one. And I'm like, okay, if that's coming from him, like, okay. And then I I did too many honors classes in high school, and I never got around to it. But I'm I'm a little jealous that you got to read that when you did.

SPEAKER_07

So well, this is why the 70s is a golden age, is because so many of our icons that we know and love today, they first started really uh carving their path in the 70s. So Stephen King, he was, you know, his stuff came out and his movies. So Brian DePama makes, you know, Carrie in 76. There's a TV movie of of Salem's Lot in 1979. You have just the the giants of the era, you know, David Cronenberg, George Romero, uh, you know, William Friedkin, uh Steven Spielberg doing Duel and Jaws, never really known as a horror guy, but creating that template. It was horror.

SPEAKER_04

That truck was terrifying. That that was one of my first movies, actually, was Duel. I think I might have even seen Duel before it, I think. And I I was terrified of that truck. I was like, oh God! And what I love so much of it, it's very similar to like it feels like the the monster. Well, I I love sharks, so I don't want to call Jaws a monster, but it was very much like the villain in Jaws. It was all this point of view, and you you don't really get close enough to it at first, so it's like this scary monster that you don't know what you're dealing with for a while. And God, that movie was so great. But the thing, a thing that I really, really love, my favorite trivia fact of the 70s is that Murray Hamilton, right, who was the priest in Amityville, who doesn't believe the house is possessed, he's the mare in Jaws who doesn't believe there's a shark in the water. That's so funny to me.

SPEAKER_07

He just says, no, no, no, you, you know.

SPEAKER_04

He's that guy. He was typecast as that guy.

SPEAKER_07

Very much so, very much so. For every duel and and Jaws, you've got a movie like The Car, you know, where uh where you've got, you know, uh James Brolin and Ronnie Cox are running away from a demonic car. I mean, the 70s were full. 70s were full of Satan, sin, and sex. They really were.

SPEAKER_06

And sweet dance moves. Whoa, that's true.

SPEAKER_07

Well, let's let's move more to the yeah, that's right, right? Saturday, sex, sin, Saturday night fever as well. You know, you gotta throw in disco as well. Uh I there's when you look at a decade, so much changes from the beginning of the decade to the end of the decade. Trends really sort of evolve, maybe blow up and then disappear. You know, disco by the end, you know, they're they were blowing up disco records in stadiums by the end of the sort of disco era. Not to get too disco distracted. Disco distracted.

SPEAKER_04

But uh distracted?

SPEAKER_07

Discracted?

SPEAKER_06

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SPEAKER_07

It it's a very cool decade because you see just sort of this evolution of horror, especially because basically the uh the reins are off, you know, they the gloves are off, the reins are off. I'm gonna I'm gonna mix metaphors, but ultimately the the Hayes Code disappeared, and so it was about self-censorship, and self-censorship was really just the MPAA. So adult films, uh sex, all that stuff, you know, more gore, more blood, more nudity and sexual situations versus just the heaving bosoms of you know hammer horror. These are the things that really sort of a filmmaker's jumped on and changed. And that's where you get like I spit on your grave, and you know, uh whether it's deliverance or a rape-revenge, you know, uh uh saga like that, or The Last House on the Left, West Craven gets his start as well. There's so much going on, but it's a basically a reaction to the fact that these guys can kind of do whatever they want. And especially if it's an indie film, they could do anything they want. And especially when the studios they're seeing all these indie films starting with like Easy Rider, you know, Roger Corman films, you know, or Bonnie and Clyde, you know, they're there, it's the counterculture saying we could do this and people will want to spend money on these things versus the happy ending. So you get grittier films, it's the network era, it's the taxi driver era, it's the dog day afternoon era, you know. And then of course it's the blockbuster era halfway through when you know you've got exorcists leading up to that, but then you've got Jaws, and then of course, really like you know, Spielberg and Lucas just knocking out of the park with Star Wars and Close Encounters, it changed the way Hollywood thought and made movies. But what I'm saying here is ultimately no one knew what the rules were, so everyone did what they wanted to do, but studios were into horror as well. You know, if Exorcist does well, we'll do the Omen, you know, Amityville horror, these things all did so well. That's where Alien comes along, you know? Ridley Scott shows up and has amazing production storyboards, and Fox is like, okay, well, this is more than just a pounted house B movie in space, you know. Let's uh let's get an amazing design for the most amazing creature that we had ever seen ever, ever before, but also set the template for movies for decades to come.

SPEAKER_04

Right, right.

SPEAKER_07

That's just tip of the iceberg, you know.

SPEAKER_04

And let's keep putting Veronica Cartwright in movies and not telling her that things are gonna jump out of her and then get the most organic scream you're ever gonna get from an actor. I love Veronica Cartwright so much, and oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_07

In Invasion of the Body Snatchers, she's from that. Exactly. And uh yeah.

SPEAKER_04

When he yells at her at the end, she didn't know he was gonna do that. That's terrifying. Oh my gosh, how it's awesome.

SPEAKER_07

It's awesome. So these are, I mean, that there's so much to talk about, and there's there's so many sub-genres during that era. But what we get to do within Search of Darkness is we get to celebrate this and we get to get the people who love this stuff, who revere it. We get to put every movie on an even playing field. So if you're talking about the exorcist or you're talking about the car, it's gonna get the same uh reaction. If you're talking about piranha and you're talking about Jaws, it's gonna get the same treatment. Ultimately, we're all big fans of this stuff, and it hits home for all of us for different reasons, you know. And like I said, you know, when I think of the the omen, when I think of the exorcist, when I think of Amityville horror and seeing these on TV, I think of my Afghan and seeing it mostly like this, you know? But that's That's what's important to me because I I I'm proud of being able to see this stuff. I'm proud that my parents looked the other way. So I got to see this stuff. And it it truly shaped me and and horror geeks like all of us for decades to come. And it and it shaped the way horror was structured, you know, the slasher, the birth of the slasher, maybe the found footage, like you were saying. Just so much going on, so much creativity and a whole different vibe from the 60s and the 80s. It it sits as a decade uh head and antlers above the rest in terms of what people were inspired by and influenced by and look back to, and still it just it it remains incredibly uh a unique time for filmmaking and for horror.

SPEAKER_04

A hundred percent, a hundred percent agreed. And what I think makes In Search of Darkness stand out is that it's created with so much love from, I say this with love, a nerd, from like one of us, from it from someone who lives for this stuff, who was raised on it. And so I'm really glad it's really cool to hear you say, you know what? Listen, we're gonna give Jaws its time, but we're also gonna give the car. I mean, everything, all horror is created equally. And I feel like if you're a horror fan, like I can Google Jaws and there's so much incredible content out there, and I've got so much information, but it's really nice that you're bringing in the other 70s horror films that maybe, oh, I haven't seen this one, or oh my gosh, I saw that once when I was a kid. Let me rewatch it as an adult and see what I find, you know, from my new older perspective in life. So I think that's really amazing.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, you make a great point. When I think of I I choose a random number and I say there are, say, 30 movies that I think when if you're worth your salt as a as a casual horror fan, you know easily 30 titles from the 70s, you know, whether it's Texas Chainsaw Massacre or whether it's Hespiria, there's so much going on. But here's the thing you know what? There's so many movies, you can't see them all. And a lot of times in clip shows or or whatnot, uh, you know, you've seen bits and pieces, you've seen a trailer, you've heard people talk about it, ad nauseum. So you feel like you've seen it, but there still might be some of these movies out there that you just have never seen, you know. Maybe you never did see Last House on the Left. Maybe you never did see Cry of the uh Banshee or I haven't seen that one. Blood on Satan's Claw, you know. I mean, there are things out there, but like in this top 30, you're like, what's that?

SPEAKER_04

I know what I'm doing tonight.

SPEAKER_07

Folk horror or the wicker man. So so the wicker man, that's a perfect people have heard of the wicker man, they've seen Pits and Pieces of the Wicker Man, but how many people have actually seen The Wicker Man? You know who you are. I'm not calling you out for saying you did, but you didn't. I'm saying, hey, maybe now's the time to be like, huh. Maybe I'll sort of switch my own programming, I'll I'll change my own personal algorithm. Time to review some of these movies and just sit down, take the time, put my device away, and full on 70s wash over me. Watch a movie that you haven't really seen, but you've only heard of, or you never saw the ending, or people said it's great, you know? Yeah. I mean, have you have you seen, you know, uh how how many Brian DePain movies of his early era have you seen? How many George Romero movies have you seen? You know, Cronenberg, have you seen Rabbid, The Crazies? There's just so much good stuff, you know? I mean, that's good too. Rocky Horror, Phantom of Paradise, Eraserhead, Midnight Movies. You know, I'm just now I just sound like a listicle, but there's just so much to do on, you know.

SPEAKER_06

No, you just sound like a horror nerd, and that's that's more than welcome here.

SPEAKER_04

Or maybe you're, you know, in your 20s or 30s and you've only seen the remake. Maybe you never saw the original. Go back and see the original. I think that it completely counts.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. And this is what it's all about. Yeah. We're so excited to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, we're all excited, excited and horror caffeinated. So that's the problem. That's a good problem to have. It's a good problem to have. Based on what you are saying, I'm in complete agreement in that uh I I have the the older that we get, and I'll just point to my own gray hair. I'm not talking about you. The older that we get, uh, I've seen so many things, but there's still so much that I haven't seen. I have the best homework in the world. I always love to say that because it's true. I'm like, okay, I thought I knew the 70s, but oh my gosh, there's all these titles that I still have not seen either the full movie or I never saw the movie at all. And so I get to watch these and determine if they really are the best title to include in In Search of Darkness 70s. But on top of that, as you get older, there's a whole younger generation, whatever age they are, teens, twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, it doesn't matter who you are, but there's always more than you can watch. And people like to gatekeep. They're like, you know, gosh, you know, you haven't seen that. You know, well, yeah, you know, there's guess what? There's millions of movies out there. How am I gonna see them all when I have a day job? You know, it's like we get to them when we get to them, and our cue is constantly shuffling with what we want to see next, you know. But ultimately, you know, and that's why people love letterbox so much, because at least you could just log the things that you want to see or see what people are excited about. And it doesn't have to be all new stuff. And so I think a nice little thing that we get to do with Insearch of Darkness documentaries is we really kind of get this curated list for people to learn about great horror movies. And you could watch an In Search of Darkness movie, be intrigued by something that we talk about, whether you've seen it, want to see it, want to revisit it, never heard of it, what have you. And you could add that to your list. And the thing is, you could proudly say, when you eventually get to it, you watch it and you're like, that was awesome. How did I sleep on that? And that's all you have to say. Or you could say, damn you for making me spend time to watch this because this was a waste of my two hours that I could never get back. But at least I pointed you there.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And also it might maybe you could look at in search of doctrine. There's a little bit of a cheat sheet of, hey, here's a whole list of ones that maybe, maybe consider these, and there's plenty to consider. Yeah. I mean, I personally would appreciate that. If I'm like, I don't know where to start, I would like a little bit of a guideline.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, or just analysis paralysis of like which one, because they they say that thing of like you're scrolling through Netflix and you end up spending more time scrolling trying to decide what to watch versus actually just picking a damn movie. But when you have, hey, here's some really cool things about some really cool movies that you may or may not like, but you probably will, you can go, oh, okay, that looks interesting because I just learned more about it. So thereby, I'm gonna give that more of a shot versus some random thing that I'll probably fall asleep on the couch watching. So I think that's really cool of just helping to curate it a little bit more for somebody that might get overwhelmed by all the different options out there and and being their guide to the underworld, so to speak. I think that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, you're a guide to the underworld. Put that on a bumper sticker.

SPEAKER_07

Let's call her Bonnie Charon on the river sticks. So uh don't pay the ferryman though, just whatever you do. Don't even let him fix a price until he gets the other side. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Nope, nope, sorry, can't have my AMX. No, no. Hey Sam, what are you doing on uh April 25th?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I'll be going to the sugar and moon market at the lodge in Sierra Madre.

SPEAKER_06

Wow, that's oddly specific. But actually sounds like a lot of fun. What are you doing there?

SPEAKER_04

Okay, so I'm gonna be picking up some sage butter from our friend and sponsor, the mountain crone.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, that sounds awesome. Can I come with?

SPEAKER_04

Yada. I already got you a ticket, B.

SPEAKER_06

Sweet! Well, that's kind of spooky. You read my mind. Oh, that's funny. I'm actually gonna see her at Mountlow Brewery Company. Whew, try saying that five times fast. On May 9th to pick up some restock lip balms. Because with all this talking we do, my lips are gonna look like the Cripkeepers if I don't hydrate them.

SPEAKER_04

I like the Cripkeepers lips. Um, hey, can you pick me up on the way over? Yeah, sure. I'll go grab my keys.

SPEAKER_07

Anyway, I always appreciate your enthusiasm, and and you know, you know us. We could go for a very long time. So I just want to say what's cool about these documentaries, uh they've established themselves. I'm just I'm the guy who makes them, but this is what I what I've learned from my own Frankenstein creation is that it's a combination of curation, it's a combination of celebration, it's a combination of a little bit of film school, it's a reiteration of what you know, it's learning new factoids and information and and seeing people talk about what it was like to work on these movies or what their insight is that you've never quite thought about before. But seeing everyone's enthusiasm about the genre, sharing what you already know, it reinforces what you feel about watching horror movies. And so when you see all this stuff, you get to see how a whole decade fits together like a big jigsaw puzzle, reflecting the era, how it's affecting and influencing the pop culture zeitgeist, and conversely, how the zeitgeist is affecting the filmmakers and the films they make. So it's a reconsideration of a whole decade, but it's also a revisit and uh maybe a study guide. I don't know. You know, I could just keep on coming up with all these allegories, but it's become way more than what I ever thought. It's also uh something to keep you company while you're falling asleep, while you're doing your laundry, while you're drawing, painting, while you're while you're doing other things, or you're like, gosh, I don't want to watch anything. I'm just gonna put on a search of darkness so I don't have to watch one movie. I can watch a hundred.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. See, and we love that efficiency, don't we? Because you can just, if it's too hot to walk outside, get out your freaking walking pad and set it up, and then you can watch a documentary and get fit and get your cardio and your steps in, and that's efficient as hell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I actually do that. I watched there was a documentary on on the child's play franchise. It was four hours. I watched all four hours and I got four workouts in. That's what I did.

SPEAKER_07

Excellent. Very, very, very, very constructive way of approaching things, you know. Uh time goes way past, you know, way faster when your your mind is engaged. You know? Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And the cool thing is is that with some of these films, like maybe you've already seen them, so you don't have to like watch every single clip because you already know what's happening. So it's okay that you're still doing your push-ups or your dishes. But also, like with documentaries, like you can just kind of listen to it also and fall in love with it and reimagine the scenes from your favorite films from the 70s in your mind as well. So it it kind of depends on a preference. However, if you just like to sit and watch every detail, wonderful. If you like to have comfort in the background while you're doing something, it works too.

SPEAKER_07

I like to multitask, so I do my push-ups while I do the dishes.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, those are some heavy dishes, I suppose.

SPEAKER_07

I just strategically wanted to say probably the dumbest thing I've said today. And, you know, maybe see what the response would be.

SPEAKER_06

The day is young.

SPEAKER_04

The day is young. I don't know how you're gonna top that though. We were we were just yes anding so well over here. God really were should we do a sketch team? Should we, guys, should we do should we start a an improv troupe? I'm down.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Can we call it Satan's sketch or Satan's set in Saturday Night Live? Can that be our sketch? Oh, that's good. Shoveling? You're Satan, David. I just obviously. That's a high honor.

SPEAKER_07

You're Satan, you're Satan, obviously. Yeah, it's all right.

SPEAKER_03

You're the guy.

SPEAKER_07

I assumed I was. I assumed I was. No, there is no offense here. I'd be offended if I did not get the Satan, the satanic designation.

SPEAKER_06

You could be like Gary Marshall, Satan in Hocus Pocus, though. Sandison sisters. And then you could feed everybody Clark bars.

SPEAKER_04

It'll be so crazy.

SPEAKER_07

Oh my gosh. Wow. Someone watches Hocus Pocus a lot.

SPEAKER_04

A lot. I saw it eight times in the theater when it came out. My poor father. I made him take me eight times. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

Well, I kind of rounded us out because we were supposed to do 15 minutes and we're like 20 minutes past the 15 minutes. Okay.

SPEAKER_06

We're good.

SPEAKER_07

Okay.

SPEAKER_06

We're good. This is too good. We can't stop ourselves. We built in a half an hour to be safe because I know we like to yap. And we love having you here. You're so we're so enamored. We're just like, keep talking. This is amazing.

SPEAKER_04

I know. It's almost like you're a director and you know how to do things quickly and put them in place. Have you done this before?

SPEAKER_07

I know. No, it just comes naturally.

SPEAKER_04

I just we don't want to go. Like, we don't want to go. I'll never let go. I'm like full going rose from Titanic. I'll never let go. It's time for all of us to get off the door in the water. It's time to go.

SPEAKER_07

Well, here's the thing. Uh uh I love the fact that you guys uh give me any time at all of the day. It's always a treat. And I think your audience is an incredibly smart audience with a wonderful sense of humor. Otherwise, they wouldn't be tuning in, right? And so all I ask you and your audience is to spread the word. If you're interested in this or if you know my documentaries, just spread the word. You know, if you know people who love horror, they love 70s horror, they love documentaries about this kind of stuff, go to insearchofdarkness.com and pre-order ISOD70s in Search of Darkness 70s, and you can see all the cool swag and merch and stuff that you can get with it. But what's important is that you are helping crowdfund an indie project by people who put their blood, sweat, and tears into a project that's not owned by Paramount or Netflix or uh, you know, we that part louder for those in the back, that part. Yeah, you know, we're we're just indie filmmakers. Uh, and we, you know, you guys supporting our projects allows us to go up to bat another time. And the proof is in the pudding because this is my seventh documentary for Creative Reese. Plus, I just, you know, did like executive producing for two others. So the thing expanded and the aliens expanded. This is my sixth In Search of Darkness documentary, and I did In Search of Tomorrow. We love doing this stuff. We love being able to do this stuff, but we can't do it without your support. So it's much appreciated.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, thank you. Listen to what you just said. I'm sorry, I'm just blown away. That's so incredible. I don't think people understand how hard that is to achieve. Like, that is massive. So my hat is off to you. That is pretty incredible. You should be so proud of yourself. That's really cool. Like, I'm sorry, from a producer brain and someone who's worked on documentaries in another lifetime. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of passion. And obviously, you believe in it and you love it, and that's why it keeps happening. So kudos. That's actually phenomenal. That's so good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Thank you. Thank you. True, true. Yeah. That's nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07

You're better, you're better than my egg eye companion that totally gives me praise and validation.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. And we're human. And we're human. And we'll praise you anytime you would like to come back and get more praise because it's very, very genuine. So we'll do it again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Especially coming from Sam. That's a big deal. Yeah, I don't Thanks, P. Anytime. Love you, mean it. I should hit stop now. Okay.

SPEAKER_07

Well, I don't yeah, I'm I'm I don't know when to stop, so I'm just stopping.

SPEAKER_05

This is not a test. This is your emergency broadcast system, announcing the conclusion of the Horror Nerds Comedy Podcast, sanctioned by Horror Nerds Productions. All authorized screams, laughter, and unhinged opinions of Class Four have now been safely contained. During this broadcast, all tangents, puns, and unsolicited horror takes were permitted without consequence. Emergency podcast services will resume after this brief transmission. Blessed be our final girls and our horror nerds founders, a podcast reborn. May humor be with you all.