Shudder: Joe Bob Briggs kills it again with Dinners of Death

Now that the Thanksgiving buzz has worn off, we look back at the “Dinners of Death” with Joe Bob Briggs and what we can look forward to.

We did it! We made it through Thanksgiving weekend 2018. The tryptophan haze has finally worn off, we survived conversations with conservative Uncle Frank, the bruises from Black Friday shopping are starting to fade and the Christmas season has officially kicked its ass into gear.

I wholeheartedly believe that there was one thing that helped all of us get through the holiday: Joe Bob Briggs and Dinners of Death. Be it the anticipation for the marathon or the camaraderie during the event, this was another hit out of the park by Joe Bob and Shudder.

This past summer, The Last Drive In 24-hour marathon on Shudder got so much traffic that the servers couldn’t handle it, which is less of a complaint and more of a testament to just how many people loved it and wanted to be a part of it. I had it streaming all day, I even had Blood Feast plugged into my car speakers as I drove. I knew damn well that I was going to be there for this one.

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Joe Bob Briggs and Darcy the Mail Girl (the fantastic Diana Prince) were back again for a dusk ‘til dawn marathon of four movies, one of them “the only Thanksgiving movie” out there. We all know that’s not true but it became a running joke through the marathon. Dinners of Death started with a huge bang, tossing out The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) right off the bat. It’s a hell of a way to begin. It was followed by The Hills Have Eyes (1977), Dead or Alive and finished off with the film we all had been waiting for, Blood Rage, the gory and incestuous Thanksgiving film.

I’ll be honest, I made it to Dead or Alive before I passed out but then came back again for Blood Rage. I had to see how this marathon would end. The Last Drive In ended with a message so heartfelt, many horror fans were left in tears. This time, the show ended with a joke, a wonderful Joe Bob-ian joke, which made it feel like there was a lot more to come. You don’t have to say goodbye if you will see each other again soon.

That isn’t to say the show was bereft of any sentimentality. The marathon started with a lesson on the history of bigotry in America and right before Blood Rage began, Joe Bob Briggs talked about why he does these marathons. He told the story of an ancient theater in Greece, how certain streaming services don’t believe in the coming together to watch movies with others anymore and that we were meant to watch movies together and if we can’t do it in a theater, then we can all come together for a live stream to talk and share the feelings that we get from the films we are watching, like God (or whoever) intended.

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I said this during the last marathon and it stands true for this and future marathons: Joe Bob is the master at bringing horror fans together in one place on the internet and they actually get along! The internet can be a dark, scary place but every time a marathon is on, it’s full of excitement and stories.

If you missed Dinners of Death, fret not, you can now stream it on Shudder and Joe Bob and Darcy the Mail Girl will be back again this Christmas for another marathon and a weekly series in 2019. Our love for horror and Joe Bob is keeping the tradition alive and I couldn’t be prouder of all of you. I feel like I get a second chance on the experience I missed out on when I was younger.

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Fan of the immortal Joe Bob Briggs? Catch Dinners of Death? Let the other horror heads know what you think in the comment section below.

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