MOVIE: Dead End Drive-In (1986)

Dead End Drive-In

Australia 1986, 92m, New World/New South Wales Film Corp/Springvale

DVD: Arrow Films (UK) - Cert 15

In a near-futuristic Sydney, a young couple named Crabs and Carmen head for a night at the local drive-in theatre. As they enjoy the movie, two of the wheels are stolen from their vehicle, and as dawn rises they realise that they are stranded. It transpires that the drive-in has been converted into a concentration camp for the unemployed and undesirable. What's more, the people imprisoned there seem perfectly happy to stay, as does Carmen. Crabs, however, is determined to escape...

Back in the day, BBC2 used to screen seasons of films from Australia, and it was through these that I got to see all kinds of interesting items like Picnic At Hanging Rock, Sunday Too Far Away and Breaker Morant, interspersed with more eclectic flicks like The Cars That Ate Paris or Inn Of The Damned.

I was reminded of these film seasons whilst watching Dead End Drive-In, as although I don't recall it being screened on BBC2, it would have fitted in perfectly with the latter films mentioned above.

Ned Manning (Crabs) and Natalie McCurry (Carmen) make fine leads, as Carmen's increasing infatuation with the lifestyle and mentality inside the drive-in contrasts with Crabs' reinforced determination to get out of the place. There's good support from the range of assorted outcasts who have made a new life from their limited surroundings. Then there's a sterling turn from Peter Whitford, as drive-in manager Thompson. Seemingly friendly, you start to question his motivation, and are ultimately unsure whether he's really one of the bad guys or a government patsy.

Intentional or not (I suspect the former), there's social comment aplenty in Dead End Drive-In. The sidelining of the jobless and disenfranchised. The way they are kept docile by a diet of junk food, cigarettes, beer and drugs. The divisions within. The manner in which the inmates blame all of their problems on immigrants. The further radicalisation of the inmates as ethnic minoroties start to be bussed into the drive-in... Make of it all what you will. The fact that I am writing about it 27 years later, and much of it is still relevant says a great deal.



Favourite in-joke: Director Brian Trenchard-Smith manages to include his own Man From Hong Kong and Turkey Shoot amongst the films on show at the drive-in...

 
Original Australian Teaser Trailer:

MOVIES: In Brief (October 29th 2013)

A round up of a couple of slasher-ish flicks, one from the 80's and one more recent...

Killer Party

US 1986, 91m, MGM/Marquis/Polar

DVD: Warner Archive (US import) - UK Cert 18

When three college girls make their pledge to join a sorority, a party is thrown in an abandoned fraternity house which has been empty since a tragic accident many years earlier. One of the new pledges is enlisted for her skills in setting up macabre practical jokes, to make the party go with a bang. However, when her show begins, more strange things happen than anyone was expecting...

The first ten minutes are an interesting idea in theory, but are a red herring which ultimately slows the film down. Once the action proper gets going, it's an enjoyable enough ride, if muddled somewhat - a troubled and elongated production history, coupled with studio indifference can't have helped... Still, if 80's slasher flicks are your thing, then this moderately entertaining, equally frustrating, somewhat light on gore offering is worth checking out for some entertaining set pieces. It's also a reminder that people in the 80's used to willingly subject themselves to attacks on their hair with electric crimping irons, and wear items of stationery as earrings (no, really)... 

I Didn't Come Here To Die

US 2010, 77m, Kim and Jim/WonderStar

DVD: Second Sight - Cert 18

A group of volunteers on an ecological project in the woods start to encounter grisly fates. As they start to put two and two together and reach the same conclusion, things take an increasingly bizarre turn...

Not so much a slasher, as a very entertaining shaggy dog story. If I was to say too much about the plot of this neat little effort, I would be doing it a great injustice. What I will say is that it takes all of the conventions of the slasher movie, and manages the near impossible - it does something quite original with them. You need to stick with it to the end to appreciate just how good it is, not that it's a chore getting there, as it's a film which is nimble on its feet and doesn't outstay its welcome. Great fun, and recommended for those who fancy something a bit different.