Grindhouse Weekly – ‘Dead End Drive-In’

Dead End Drive-In is a nice little piece of schlock hailing from Australia and released in 1986.  The director, Brian Trenchard-Smith released a number of great exploitation flicks, most notably 1983’s BMX Bandits and the gloriously pointless Stunt Rock. Though it may not be considered a classic, Dead End Drive-In does unofficially mark the end of the drive-in era when home video began its boom.

The film stars Ned Manning as Crabs, a young guy who’s just trying to make the most out of living in a post-apocalyptic future. One night Crabs decides to take his girl on a date to the local drive-in only to find out that once you enter the drive-in you can’t leave. The government decided they wanted a quick and easy way to rid themselves of the juvenile delinquents roaming the streets, so they turned a drive-in into a prison camp of sorts.

While the youngsters were unable to leave the drive-in there were several benefits to their situation.  First, they got to watch bad movies every night. Second, they no longer have to worry about work or money, and third, no more parents!

If you’ve seen any of the Mad Max films or its subsequent clones, you’ll find yourself in familiar territory with this picture.  Punk-looking delinquents who drive around in ridiculous cars doing a variety of nasty things and being assholes, that’s the name of the game.

Even though this is a glorified Mad Max rip-off, there’s still a lot to enjoy about this film.  Other than the obvious (and overused) statement about youth in the modern era, it also looks at the drive-in itself as a dying relic. Trenchard-Smith saw the end coming for drive-ins and decided to bring his thoughts to the forefront by making the drive-in a prison from which teenagers can never leave.

There was also a significant amount of racism being thrown around in this movie. That’s not to say that the film itself was racist, but it was making a comment on the growing issue of racism within Australia at the time.  When Crabs first becomes trapped in the drive-in it’s nearly all white kids.  At one point however, the government begins to bring in illegal immigrants into the camp in order to keep them detained before deportation.  This causes an uproar within the drive-in and results in a breakout of violence. While the message could be read loud and clear with little room for subtext, this still added a few layers to an otherwise average action flick.

Noble messages aside, this movie has some serious issues.  The first, and biggest hurdle I had to get past with this is simply how nonchalant the characters act when finding out they are indefinitely trapped.  The concept in and of itself is ludicrous, but then we have kids who seem to not care that they were just randomly incarcerated.  Aside from Crabs, no one seems to question, or even care why they’re being held there. They’re all idiots and I had zero interest in any of them getting out or even surviving till the credits.

Though the characters were completely moronic, this is still an enjoyable film.  It’s light on violence and heavy on car destruction, and it has some really great looking stunts.  As far as movies like this go, Dead End Drive-In is only slightly above middle of the road.  The characters and acting are horrendous, but the story in someone clever. This wouldn’t be the first recommendation on my list, but it’s certainly worth a watch on a lazy Sunday.