DRIVE-IN MASSACRE

Drive-In Massacre Movie Review

Two police detectives try to find a madman who is killing young couples at a drive-in movie theater. That is the simplistic story of this 1976 film...it may or may not be a coincidence that this movie came out around the beginning of the end for the era of the drive-ins. When I saw the title of this movie listed on the Chilling Classics box set I received for Christmas in 2018, I was immediately excited, as I LOVE drive-in movie theaters.

Just look at those prices!

The thought of a horror film set in a drive-in made me exited, but it didn't take this film long to bring it down. The opening scene is actually good from a blood and guts standpoint--when a guy leans out of his car to get the speaker to put in his window, we see a sword come down and behead him--his girlfriend, still sitting in the car, gets her throat cut and bleeds out. This scene was pulled off nicely, and the cheap look and questionable special effects add to the enjoyment; however, the glaring problem is that this happens in a packed drive-in, and nobody sees it?! The same drive-in sees murders the next couple nights and again, nobody, including our detectives, who are three cars from where this happens, sees a thing...and the drive-in remains open. So yeah, the story is thin. The acting across the board is bad, and unfortunately, the lookalike detectives--the two main characters--are the worst of the bunch. One of them is billed as Jake Barnes, and if you took my advice in another recent review, you have read The Sun Also Rises and recognize this name. I mention this not only because I found it mildly entertaining that I had just referenced that book and knew I was about to again when I wrote this, but also because the actor's name isn't Jake Barnes at all--it's John F. Goff. While this in and of itself may not be interesting, it's only because you have yet to hear, as the late Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. Drive-In Massacre was quite the rebellious film. It was shot without permits, and was made non-union. In order to avoid fines as a result of the film's rogue action, 11 of the 14 credited actors used pseudonyms! 

"We were supposed to do that?!

Drive-In Massacre is, by pretty much any measuring stick, a poor movie--aside from the horrible acting, we also have terrible lighting, repeated usage of the same scenes, and ***SPOILER ALERT*** a killer that is never seen or identified! ***END SPOILER*** The script was written in a week, the film was shot in just four days, and once the crew realized they had not written in enough to make a feature length film, they added additional scenes that only VERY loosely relate to the rest of the movie, bringing the run time to 74 minutes. All this said, I have to admit to enjoying it far more than I should have. I am as much a sucker for scenes set at carnivals as I am those at drive-ins, and we have a wonderful sequence at a carnival here. And that ending...as unsatisfying as it is for those of us checking out the film in the comfort of our living room, it must have been really awesome for those watching it at a drive-in theater. 

On A Scale Of One To Ten: 5

Drive-In Massacre Movie Trailer (This is a phenomenal trailer!)