Let’s hear it for season five of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs!

Well, another season has wrapped for The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs. It brought more of what we love, including witty banter amongst the cast and crew, awesome cosplay provided by Darcy, entertaining and informative interviews with special guests and interesting factoids shared by Joe Bob himself.

Some of the usual types of films were presented, but we also got some unexpected surprises, including anime and a made-for-tv movies. We got a couple of “elevated horror” films, and as always, lots of gore. Joe Bob was even bloodily killed TWICE.

As has become sadly normal for the fan base, there were still plenty of people bemoaning the film choices. And, even more sadly, social media found a lot of so-called fans complaining about Darcy. I thought we were well past that, but some people just can’t stop themselves. I personally don’t understand why those who were miserable all season long can’t just quit watching. Let those of us who enjoy the show (even when we aren’t huge fans of the films themselves) enjoy it.

For me, there were so many high points of The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs this season:

Zombies, zombies, zombies! – The opening film of season five was one of my all-time favorites, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (A/K/A Zombi 2). I have fond teen memories of watching it at a drive-in theater, then having to go home alone in the dark and spend a sleepless night because my parents were out of town. Although I have no problem watching extreme gore on film, I STILL can’t stand to watch horror movies that involve eye trauma, and I blame it on Zombie!

We were also treated to a double feature The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue and Day of the Dead, and we got a bonus Joe Bob episode premiering the first episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City.

The death of Joe Bob: While no one actually wants this to happen in real life, it was fun watching the bloody demise of Joe Bob, not once, but twice. Darcy beheaded him during The Devil’s Rain, and it was truly a sight to behold! Then he was disemboweled by zombies at the end of Day of the Dead in the season finale; while singing, no less. That one was both awesome and a bit sad at the same time.

High art horror – Season five featured some arty horror in the form of The Babadook, Possession, and my personal favorite film of the season, Tigers Are Not Afraid. I enjoyed all three of these films, but Tigers Are Not Afraid hit all the buttons for me. It was creepy, it was emotional, and the cast of child actors was stellar.

TV horror can be great, it can be cheesy – or it can be both – Dark Night of the Scarecrow is another fond teen horror memory for me. I used to love it when the television Movie of the Week was a horror or thriller, and Dark Night of the Scarecrow made enough of an impression on me that I sought out the DVD a couple of years ago. It was fun to see it get the Joe Bob treatment, and I enjoyed hearing the facts and trivia.

The other made-for-television film that was featured was Sharknado, which I had never seen. I always figured it would just be plain stupid. While it was extremely cheesy and yes, a little stupid, it was also a lot of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Animation can be pretty scary – Possibly my favorite double feature of the season was episode 8, during which we were treated to Phil Tippett’s astounding stop-motion animated masterpiece Mad God and the anime thriller Perfect Blue. I had seen Mad God already, but it is such a treat for the eyes and mind that I was just as engrossed this time…and watching Joe Bob interview Tippett was great. As for Perfect Blue, I am not a fan of anime, so it was never even on my radar. But I was captivated by the story of Mima and her mysterious stalker.

Animals gone wild – My second favorite double feature was week 9, when we got to see Alligator and Grizzly. I really had no memory of seeing either of these films, but about ten minutes into Alligator, my brain had some fuzzy memories of watching it. Both were fun Jaws rip-offs, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Favorite Darcy cosplay – Darcy always puts together some creative cosplay, and her Mima was dead-on. But my personal favorite was the gator costume she put together for Alligator. It was already pretty great, but adding the realistic gator mask made it even better, and hilarious.

Now fans are waiting to hear if Shudder is going to renew The Last Drive-In for a sixth season. We have already heard mention of a Halloween Special, so I think that bodes well, but Shudder has been in a state of uncertainty since they downsized their staff in December. The monthly schedules have been a bit lean, so fans are a bit nervous.

I think the series will be renewed, and I expect we should hear something about that soon. I promise that 1428 Elm will keep you informed as soon as we get word!