The Drive-In Will Never Die: Joe Bob Briggs Is Coming Back To Shudder This Year!

The redneck trash cinema aficionado isn't hanging his spurs up quite yet.

By Jul. 21, 2018

The Last Drive-In - the 24+ hour marathon that Shudder hosted with Joe Bob Briggs last week - was the movie event of 2018 for me.

Seeing Joe Bob back, doling out volumes of disreputable film history in-between rants and his trademark "Drive-In Totals" seriously brought a tear to my eye, and I'm not afraid to admit it. Because it was during that iron man event that I realized just how responsible Briggs is for my cinematic fascinations. He's the writer and personality I aspire to be like most: the off-beat archivist who isn't afraid of an off-color joke or expressing his possibly unpopular opinion. His mix of eloquence, Lone Star tomfoolery, and legitimate academic-level analysis is still a miracle to behold.

When The Last Drive-In wrapped up, I got depressed for a minute, thinking he'd never host again. After a rather emotional rundown on the history of horror hosting (during which Joe Bob himself got choked up) and the all-timer face-melter Pieces wrapping the fest, it felt like a fitting end I wasn't quite ready to accept. We were saying goodbye to one of the true greats, whose goofball TV antics and critical texts helped mold an entire generation of genre cinema fans. 

Well, the overwhelmingly positive response - not to mention the heavy traffic that caused Shudder's servers to crash throughout the night - has gotten the streaming network to persuade Joe Bob not to turn the lights out in the trailer quite yet. As a Tweet from Shudder's feed informed us:

Hell yes! Another round of 13 films from Joe Bob sounds downright teriffic. After Shudder announced their Creepshow anthology this week, and are now bringing JBB back to keep his shtick going, they're practically green-lighting projects to keep fourteen-year-old me completely happy (and I'm really cool with that!). 

No date has been announced as of yet, but we'll definitely keep you posted as soon as the drive-in announces when its gates will re-open. We love you Joe Bob! Keep horror history alive and well with those signing in to hear your pearls of downhome, cinematic sagacity.  

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