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The Best Episodes of Shudder’s The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs
The Last Drive-in With Joe Bob Briggs has been a major boon for horror streaming service Shudder. Though the original movies and catalog titles that are available to stream were the biggest draw for Shudder in its early days, reviving this classic format with the fan-favorite Job Bob Briggs has become probably the biggest reason that some people maintain their Shudder subscription. With the original mega-sized marathon, several holiday-themed collections, and over fifty episodes of The Last Drive-In regular series there are a lot of movies to potentially watch along with Joe Bob. As of this writing these are our picks for the best episodes to watch on Shudder.
Tourist Trap
The first episode of the original The Last Drive-In marathon from 2018 is the perfect primer on what it’s like to have Joe Bob talk to you about a classic, trashy movie. This 1979 cult horror movie is almost always entertaining even if it never makes a lick of sense, but at least Joe Bob’s commentary is able to soften the ineptitude with plenty of trivia and insight into this film’s place as an under-celebrated entry in the horror canon.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “What is the idea of fudge anyway? Why do people only buy fudge on vacation?”
Pieces
If you’re not going to watch the entire 2018 The Last Drive-In marathon, the next best option is to skip to the last film in the collection, you know exactly what it is. Pieces, the Spanish-American slasher/giallo movie, is a cult film for a reason and its nonsensical storyline is only enhanced by the history lessons that Joe Bob can impart. Joe Bob also tells audiences the story about how reviewing Pieces at the time of its original release almost got him fired from his film critic job.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “It doesn’t take any talent at all for a director to hire eight highly trained actors, who give great performances and make him look good. You know what takes talent? Hire eight highly trained acclaimed actors and make sure all of them give the worst performances of their life.”
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
There is no one, and we mean no one, that can speak with more critical authority on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre than Joe Bob Briggs. Despite Briggs appearing on multiple cable television networks across his career and hosting several key horror movies, his hosting of Chain Saw during this marathon was the first time he was ever able to host it during one of his shows. Having an extensive history with the film itself makes this a great watch for viewers, but it also helps that it’s just one of the best movies Joe Bob has ever hosted too.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “For some reason, Gunnar Hansen, they don’t ask him to perform at children’s birthday parties.”
Hello Mary Lou – Prom Night 2
This is a great episode in part because of the wildness of the film but in that it was also Joe Bob finally giving in to the will of Darcy the Mail Girl by showing one of her favorites. The episode also has a feel of finality too it, since it ended the first season of The Last Drive-In as a series on Shudder. Even though things continued with the show to a major degree, there’s an inherent sweetness in the fact that it feels like a finale.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “We’ll crown Darcy, and I promise not to set you on fire, because the Shudder insurance doesn’t cover that.”
Scare Package
Though not the only movie that Joe Bob Briggs has hosted that he also appears in, Scare Package is the only one of these currently streaming. The anthology horror movie is actually a pretty fun one, even with its meta-winking at the larger genre getting a little too out of hand at times. Seeing Joe Bob on screen as himself and in the movie is a unique event for viewers, and sadly this one is at least easier to stomach than the other movie starring JBB, Hogzilla (Sorry, Joe Bob)
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “This movie coming up actually deals with the epistemological question of what would happen if, in the course of being transformed into a pile of goo, some countervailing force, like silver handcuffs, interrupted that meltdown, leading to a sort of species confusion – Are you human, or are you goo?”
Mother’s Day
Charles Kaufman’s rape/revenge slasher movie is one that manages to put all of his brother’s work to shame. Though plenty of Lloyd Kaufman’s movies are featured on The Last Drive-In, Mother’s Day is a wild watch, plus filmmaker Eli Roth makes an appearance via satellite (this was filmed during the COVID times after all) to talk about his own love for Mother’s Day and the horror genre.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “The first psycho hag I ever met was my sixth grade teacher. She had so much rouge on her cheeks, they glowed like a chipmunk that’s been zapped with nuclear radiation.”
Next of Kin
One of the best hidden gems that Joe Bob has ever shown on the series, Next of Kin is one that is a fun watch because it’s an engaging, rarely seen cult movie. The film itself is entertaining enough but naturally JBB is able to infuse the conversation with trivia and knowledge that allow for a full appreciation of something many audience members may not have seen. Joe Bob also offers us a brief history of hand drying (naturally with charts).
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “The great thing about doing imaginative camera work with extremely elderly people is that they can look deranged for no reason. So you never know who are the victims and who are the predators.”
Humanoids from the Deep
One of Roger Corman’s best movies ever gets its time on The Last Drive-In and Joe Bob brings in the form of Humanoids from the Deep. A purely sleaze take on The Horror of Party Beach, this might be one of the most gruesome movies that Corman ever produced, and the filmmaking icon appears via satellite to talk about it with Joe Bob.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “Sure, we’ve seen it before, but have we seen it with a ventriloquist dummy sex scene on the beach? I think not.”
Black Roses
Joe Bob brings us one of the most unique movies in the satanic-panic, heavy metal horror subgenre, one that has the hallmarks of its cousins but also some weirdly adorable puppets as well. Though there are both better and worse movies in the heavy metal horror world, none of them are really like Black Roses. Naturally Joe Bob also weaves it together with some great guests, bringing in The Boulet Brothers, fresh from Shudder‘s other giant streaming series Dragula, to talk all things alternative, censorship, and how they align with the horror genre. Fans will also spot an appearance by a member of The Sopranos cast in the film.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “The interesting thing about all these demonic rock movies is that they basically accept what Tipper Gore was saying, that rock and roll is demonic, it does result in chaos and death.”
The Baby
There’s not really any way to describe The Baby without ruining it, but suffice to say that Joe Bob Briggs knows how to set it up and give it a lot of context. The Baby is a grimy classic here that is best viewed with Joe Bob’s guidance, if only because you’re going to need him to bring you back down to Earth when you see how its final 10 minutes come together. Naturally there’s also major tangent by Joe Bob about baby names, just to make sure he stays on brand.
Joe Bob’s Best Quote: “This movie is not just arrested development. This movie is arrested, jailed, tried, found guilty, sentenced to prison development.”
