Dead End Drive-In (1986)

I was goofing around on Wikipedia a while back, reading their article about exploitation movies. You would probably be surprised at just how many different styles of exploitation movie there are. Most people are at least a little familiar with "Blaxploitation," which gave us such flicks as Foxy Brown and Shaft. And slasher movies could probably be thrown into the mix as well. But then there's the other ones, the ones you'd almost have to go out of your way to find. There's the "women in prison" movies, Nazi-themed movies like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS, "sexploitation" movies like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, "rape and revenge" movies like I Spit on Your Grave, and so on. Exploitation movies are such a broad concept that we could honestly be here all day citing examples.

One of the ones listed on Wikipedia that really caught my eye, though, was "Ozploitation." I initially thought it had something to do with weird parodies of The Wizard of Oz, as dumb as that may sound But instead, it's a term used to describe low-budget, B-grade action, comedy, and horror movies produced during the revival of the Australian film industry during the '70s and '80s.

While Mad Max and its sequels are perhaps the most famous Ozploitation movies out there, there are plenty more to be had. Some of them took direct inspiration from the dystopian future that Mad Max Rockatansky called home, the title of one of them being enough to make me want to sit down and review it. So let's dig into the 1986 flick Dead End Drive-In.

As the 1980s became the 1990s, a series of catastrophes have left the world's economy in ruins. Australia has been hit especially hard, with social unrest leading to a country where lawlessness and gang warfare have become the status quo. It's gotten to the point where the Australian government has come up with what they feel is a solution to their problems.

But first, let's meet Jimmy "Crabs" Rossini (Ned Manning), who's borrowed his brother's '56 Chevy so he and his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) can go to a local drive-in theater. Because the unemployed get in at a reduced rate, Crabs tells the box office clerk he doesn't have a job so he can save a few bucks. But just as the young couple are about to have a go in the backseat, someone steals two of the car's tires. Mr. Thompson (Peter Whitford), the drive-in's manager, is unable to help, and they're ultimately forced to spend the night at the drive-in.

Crabs and Carmen wake up the following morning to discover that the drive-in is actually something of a shanty town called home by hundreds of people that live out of their cars. Throw in the electrified fences surrounding the premises and the police stationed at the gates, and it quickly becomes apparent that the drive-in is a prison for society's unwanted. Its prisoners are satisfied living a passive, lazy existence where they're fed a steady diet of junk food, drugs, rock and roll, and nightly movies. And while Carmen quickly assimilates into the population, Crabs is unwilling to give up his life beyond the drive-in's fences and begins planning his escape.

I don't think I'd be wrong to assume that you've probably never heard of Dead End Drive-In. I myself hadn't actually heard of it until recently, when I stumbled upon it while looking up drive-in theaters on Google. I thought the premise sounded intriguing enough, and so into my Netflix queue it went. And you know what? It wasn't half bad. It's got its fair share of flaws, and I doubt I'll ever think of it again once I finish writing this review. But I can't say that I hated it. I actually kinda liked it.

At the helm is Brian Trenchard-Smith, the director behind such classics as Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4: In Space. But let's not hold those movies against him, because Trenchard-Smith actually does a respectable job with Dead End Drive-In. He never lets the movie become boring, as every scene really helps build momentum. It's obvious the movie didn't have a very high budget, but Trenchard-Smith makes the most of what he's got with some cool production design and great cinematography from Paul Murphy.

I also thought that the acting was top-notch, especially from the lead actor. The whole movie would have been negatively affected had the actor playing Crabs put forth a bad performance, but Ned Manning is great. He's guilty of a little overacting at times, but Manning is likable in the role. He's good enough that he makes you want to follow him, to see if he'll be able to get out of the situation his character is stuck in. You can't really go wrong with that.

Outside of Manning, there aren't really too many major players. The whole movie centers around Manning and his character, and the supporting cast doesn't get a whole lot of time to really shine. But that doesn't mean they don't contribute.In the role of the movie's antagonist, Peter Whitford is a lot of fun. His character is a sleazy prick putting on a "nice guy" façade, and Whitford is great at it. Natalie McCurry is also good as Crabs's girlfriend Carmen, providing the movie with an intriguing balance to Crabs's quest for freedom. There's also a good performance from Dave Gibson in a super-small and thankless role. His biggest scene comes when he delivers a monologue about why he enjoys living at the drive-in, and Gibson doesn't disappoint.

If there are any flaws to Dead End Drive-In, they come from the script written by Peter Smalley. Granted, there are some elements that work, like its social satire. The drive-in is an odd mirror of society, becoming a little world of its own. The cynical people living within its electrified walls are provided with everything they could want, and allow themselves to become complacent, far more satisfied to continue living their shallow, apathetic existence because there's nothing outside for them. The whole thing doesn't fly too well with Crabs, who would far rather have a life of freedom in that crappy outside world than live in captivity in the drive-in. I'm sure it was far more relevant back in the '80s, but it works.

There are other parts that don't work, though. Again, I go back to the social satire. After a while, Smalley really starts to hit you over the head with it despite the fact that the satire hasn't really advanced anything. And then, towards the end, he introduces a group of Asians who are dumped into the drive-in. Everyone but Crabs immediately goes into a racist fury, organizing against those who they feel have encroached upon their territory. The movie was rolling along pretty good, then Smalley introduces that and things take a really odd turn. It feels like it's only there to make sure that Crabs is the only likable character in the whole movie.

And it doesn't help anything that the anti-Asian subplot has no payoff at all. They're brought in, an Indian man gets harassed in the restroom, there's a "white power" rally at the concession stand, and then boom, we hit a climax full of explosions and a car chase. It's like they wanted to keep the movie under an hour and a half, so Smalley just chopped twenty minutes worth of script out of the end.

I also didn't like how the movie spent so long focusing on Crabs investigating the drive-in's inner workings. The whole thing was obvious within the first fifteen minutes, and the movie just keeps going along anyway. It was time that could have been spent on either Crabs's escape plan or life inside the drive-in.

But Dead End Drive-In isn't too bad a movie when looked at as a whole. I honestly can't say that I didn't enjoy it. It's not a great movie or anything, but it's an hour and a half of dumb yet endearing fun. Chances are that it'll forever stay in obscurity (at least here in the United States), but if you're a fan of movies like Mad Max, you might end up feeling the way I do if you stumble across it. It'd at least make for fun watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon when you have nothing better to do.

Final Rating: **½