1000 pounds in size, 13 years in the making, and 1 beloved horror host in the flesh, Hogzilla’s journey from production to world premiere on The Last Drive In is nothing short of amazing. It resulted in one of the most fun episodes of the series, with Joe Bob Briggs seemingly irritated, but we all know that deep down he enjoyed it!
Why We Love Darcy
Diana Prince aka “Darcy the Mail Girl” deserves all the credit for reaching out to Hogzilla director Diane Jacques and getting a new and final edit of the film ready for viewing (along with the help of Last Drive In director Austin Jennings).
Between this and her campaign to bring back Joe Bob which helped launch Shudder’s Last Drive In from the start, Darcy keeps showing us why she’s such an iconic and important beacon of the horror community!
It’s hard to decide which was more fun, Joe Bob’s look of amused, but shameful embarrassment as this old role of his was dug up from the depths, or Darcy’s presentation of the Drive In Totals. This marked one of the rare instances where watching their banter back and forth (as well as Joe Bob’s drinking game that got him pretty wasted) was more entertaining than the movie itself.
Hogzilla: The Review
Let’s be honest, Hogzilla is a downright awful movie, but that’s very much the point. It was made in a time before Joe Bob’s resurgence (he even admitted he was broke at the time, which is why he took the role), so including him in a major role was more a throwback to his Monstervision days.
The movie itself is your typical campy low budget monster horror, in the same vein as Sharknado or Thankskilling. Joe Bob is probably the only relatable character who ends up being a ghost in the end, something that Joe Bob himself didn’t even realize because he had never previously seen the movie and wasn’t at all following the plot. Everyone else is pretty unlikeable, but that just makes it all the more fun to watch them die one by one.
Preferred Method of Watching
While some prefer to just watch the movies without Joe Bob’s commentary (which I don’t understand at all), Hogzilla is a movie that definitely plays better watching The Last Drive In version, complete with the red carpet premiere, Job Bob’s anecdotes that he remembers from filming, and Darcy knowing more about the movie he’s in than he does.
It was far from the best movie that The Last Drive In has ever down, but it was without a doubt the most entertaining episode of the series thus far!
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Mike Hoffman – a co-producer and the final editor here. So – Here is where I am confused. I came in and re-cut this movie – 12 years ago (3rd editor – I think the 1st one didn’t last long and nothing was used). The editor before me (2nd editor) – then color graded it – slipped in the effects inserts – and handed it back. My studio then did the sound mix. Apparently – no one reached out to me. I just found out about this airing tonight. The movie had legal issues; and Dave sadly passed away. I am reading the Joe Bob team had to “reconstruct” the movie – probably from old Final Cut files that Dianne (the director had) – that weren’t finals. I have the original HD master archived with the final sound mix. Wow. The other producer – Aaron Wells – and I – met here – and ended up making the Jerry Lawler/Beetlejuice flick “Girls Gone Dead” about 2 years later.
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They mentioned on Last Drive In that it was a very complicated backstory, but they didn’t really elaborate on it.
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