Savini & Briggs shift the tone from Campy to Classy

The second season of The Last Drive-In is only two episodes deep and it already has #DriveInMutants proclaiming loud and proud that the guests and movies are amongst the best they've seen. That is saying alot with past guests such as Felissa Rose and Barbara Crampton creating a gold standard for Drive-In co-hosts over the previous marathons.

Last night Tom Savini kept the co-host trend going and helped Joe Bob ever so subtly continue to shift the tone of the show from campy to classy in a way that lets us fans know that we are watching horror history unfold in front of us. These conversations on The Last Drive-In with horror superstars seem like we are sitting in on a candid convo between two tenured peers regaling in their career highlights. We just happen to be lucky enough to witness their musings and are blessed for it.

Earlier in the week between episodes Joe Bob announced that he would open the movies up to guesses again and started giving hints about the flicks. He stated the Joker took inspirations from one movie and the other was a classic high school flick. Once Savini was also announced in advance many folks guessed correctly that the first flick of the night was Maniac.

Shudder tweeted early on during Maniac to take a temperature of the #MutantFam by asking "How are we doing? Is everyone still OK? At least there are no bloodsucking freaks or "dick dogs," right?" which I personally thought was pretty funny. They know BSF caused a few folks to tune out last week and are kinda jabbing at those folks a little while also being concerned for their delicate sensibilities. Bloodsucking Freaks set the audience up nicely for the season, Briggs can get away with showing pretty much anything now.

During the movie Savini and Briggs discussed Disco Boys exploding head and how Savini was quite the ladies man, falling in love and swooning women who he "impaled" on set. Many fans were excited to hear Joe Bob give the 90's Night of the Living Dead its proper recognition to which Savini said after years or disowning it he also finally started enjoying the movie more recently after watching it with an audience at a midnight screening.

Briggs put Savini through a rapid fire asking him his proudest acting role, stunt work, theater and FX to which the legendary effects master responded respectively From Dusk Till Dawn, Dawn of the Dead, Camelot and Creepshow. Of course the two of them also promoted Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini available on Shudder as well as Savini: The Biography.

A particular highlight for me was the painting of Frank Zito that Joe Bob said would be added to the set of The Last Drive-In. See what I said earlier about making the show a bit classier? Another moment that stood out as usual was Darcy the Mail Girls first cosplay of the night which was a detail heavy recreation of the theatrical poster for Maniac.

In the second half of the show we quickly found out that the classic high school flick we'd be watching was Heathers. According to Briggs it is the first movie that has something good to say about teenage suicide. Or better yet according to the writer of the flick it is what would happen if Stanley Kubrick made a high school movie. So while Heathers isn't dark in the same way Maniac gets, it is definitely a film that sits perfectly with The Last Drive-In fanbase.

Joe Bob gushed over Heathers calling the opening act "one of the tightest and most entertaining in drive-in history". Briggs and the #MutantFam alike expressed their fondness of Winona Ryder who had once told Joe Bob that Heathers is the best movie she has ever made. Seeing Darcy take on Ryders character Veronica as her second cosplay of the evening was yet another amazing moment in a night full of them.

It was another in a series of awesome Friday nights with the #MutantFam, Joe Bob Briggs, Diana "Darcy the Mail Girl" Prince, Shudder, GM Craig Engler and the entire horror community. We made it to number two in trending this week which is always insane to see. So many normal things trending on Twitter and our weird niche horror show being amongst them is just crazy. Much appreciation for the whole cast and crew of The Last Drive-In and the entire community online that makes the show the phenomena that it is! See you all next week!