In Search of Darkness

The documentary takes the horror cinema of the eighties year by year. It starts in 1980 and works to 1989, describing the films that stood out in each. Those who speak include actors, directors, producers and special effects artists who worked on them. The narrative takes not only the films but the conditions of production: how the makeup effects were made, how the budgets were found and how the video cassette market changed the genre. David A. Weiner directs. The documentary dates from 2019. It was made with money raised from the public and distributed independently. It runs over four hours; the documentary deliberately chooses to be comprehensive, and that is what it is most argued over for. Its most concrete sections are the accounts of the effects artists; computers were not used at the time and everything was done mechanically. The section on the video era explains the economy of the genre; because of the rental market a great many films were made that never played in cinemas. The method is interview; archive footage is used sparingly and the narrative rests on the talk. Its limit is structure; the ordering is by calendar and there is no thematic frame. Who it is for: anyone curious about the history of horror and the productions of the period. Who it is not for: it is very long, the structure repeats, and the density of names is heavy for anyone new to the genre.