Editorials
[TV Terrors] Remembering Joe Bob Briggs’ “MonsterVision”
Horror and science fiction have always been a part of the television canvas, and constant attempts have been made to produce classic entertainment. Some have fallen by the wayside, while others became mainstream phenomena. With “TV Terrors,” we take a look back at the many genre efforts from the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s, exploring some genre TV that took genuine approaches to creativity that became cult classics, and others that sank in to obscurity.
We begin… with “MonsterVision.“
- Aired from 1991 – 2000
- Aired on Turner Network Television
Once upon a time, cable television was an escape for various audiences that went in search of programming tailored toward them. The super stations though were a platform for whatever programming the networks could afford, allowing them to air blocks of movies and animated series that could fill time. Mornings on the USA Network saw airings of obscure kung fu movies, and on Saturday nights if you stayed up late enough you could entertain yourself with a classic horror or sci-fi film hosted by Joe Bob Briggs.
“Monstervision” was once mainly a creature feature programming block that aired late night with hosts Penn and Teller, but in 1996 it became a playground for the one and only Joe Bob Briggs. Briggs (real name: John Bloom), a very experienced newspaper columnist and satirist, was brought in fresh from The Movie Channel to host “Monstervision” after years on “Joe Bob’s Drive-In Theater.” After a short time the show became synonymous with Joe Bob, who used the platform to deliver his own off the cuff rants about society and instill priceless nuggets of information and trivia to his fans.
“Monstervision” came at a time when the internet was still in its infancy, so Joe Bob’s information was often fresh and surprising, as well as incredibly funny. Probably my all time favorite episode of “Monstervision” was the airing of “The Warriors,” where Joe Bob laid out a map of New York City and showed the trail of the Warriors from the Bronx to Coney Island. There’s even the time he was scolded by Anne Francis during a screening of “Forbidden Planet.” TNT “Monstervision” allowed the Joe Bob character to emerge from his trademark trailer and cop a squat on his lawn chair.
With his own beer in a koozy, he’d introduce the pair of movies for the night. Oftentimes they had their own themes, and they’d come on late. One week Joe Bob aired a Dracula night where he aired 1992’s Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” alongside Mel Brooks’ “Dracula Dead and Loving It.” He also had “Joe Bob’s Summer School” which allowed him to interview folks like Clint Howard, Linnea Quigley, and Roddy Piper. He also sat down with army veterans questioning the credibility of “Red Dawn,” as well as a pet psychic. He could also be found at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant while hosting “Willy Wonka” and even did remotes for Superbowl weekends, hosting movies like “The Longest Yard” and “Semi-Tough.”
Who can forget the all night marathon of “Friday the 13th” films, sans “The Final Chapter,” which was an especially hard pill to swallow for Joe Bob, who would constantly call out TNT during the marathon. Joe Bob always had a punk edge to him, which made it tough to work within the confines of TNT; the network was increasingly cleaning up its image for a more family friendly section of the audience.
That said, Joe Bob was able to skirt the censors, constantly pointing out the scenes that were cut for sexual content, and never held back on what he thought of specific movies. Watch as Joe Bob spends the entirety of “The Fog” mocking its premise, and harping on how Carpenter is just so much better than the film itself. He even visibly suffers through 1995’s “The Howling: New Moon Rising,” giggling most of the time out of sheer incredulity at the film’s awfulness.
Joe Bob was just such a refreshing part of the late night cable experience, because he often seemed to be working without fear of reprimanding from his superiors. This meant we were almost always given a crusty Joe Bob, and always assured a dirty or funny joke as the show drew to a close. Joe Bob basically kept his format and good old fashioned shtick even when TNT retooled Monstervision to “Joe Bob’s Hollywood Saturday Night.”
There, the concept of Monstervision stretched in to films like “A League of Their Own,” “Look Who’s Talking Now” and “Twins,” but Joe Bob never ran out of quips and comebacks. Without much preamble, Monstervision ended in 2000. “Monstervision” remained a favorite for years, with Joe Bob constantly re-visiting memories of filming the show for fans during conventions and various interviews. The show ended when TNT retooled its entire network in the early aughts; but though it was cancelled, it never died in the hearts of movie buffs.
With the internet age, it garnered a ton of retrospectives and tributes, and inspired a new wave of horror hosts that carried the torch for Joe Bob.
Is It On DVD/Blu-Ray? No, but the segments featuring host Joe Bob Briggs have been made available online, and the “Ice Cream Man” segments were made exclusively available to buyers of the Limited Edition of “Ice Cream Man.” After almost twenty years off the air, Joe Bob is returning for a movie marathon on the popular horror streaming service Shudder TV this Summer, and will surely breed a new generation of horror fanatics who have yet to learn about the horror gospel of Joe Bob.
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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