You'll Pay To Get In... And Pray To Get Out!

Drive-In Massacre
1977 | Color | 74 Min. | 1.33.1 | R | Horror | Mono | S.A.M. Productions

Source: American Horror Stories 12 Movie Collection DVD

Director: Stu Segall

Writers: John F. Goff

Stars: 

John F. Goff

Steve Vincent

Douglas Gudbye

Verkina Flowers

Two police detectives try to catch a serial killer who is stalking a rural California drive-in theater, randomly killing people with a sword.

Boy did I think I was in trouble seconds after popping this bad boy into the DVD player. Half the screen was dark and the other half was fading in and out. Thankfully it corrects itself shortly thereafter but the film still looks like a direct port from a 16mm reel to reel. In a way, the grim and grit fit into the movies atmosphere but still not easy to watch. In fact, just a little color correction would have helped tremendously. So why is this a cult classic?

The acting is nothing to write home about either I get the sense that this was a few buddies looking to make a movie. They are not over the top and they fit their parts but come up way flat. The soundtrack is miserable people on youtube have better scores than this. The sound only comes from the center channel so there is no separation to help move this flick along. 

Now this says it's a horror movie but I beg to differ. We get very little bloodshed all tho what we do get is very well done. Brief nudity that is not even that much in fact we get more in most early 80's PG movies. So I really feel that the R and "Horror" where just part of the selling points. Maybe a crime movie would have been a better idea. So it looks like I can cross another off the bucket list. I did not hate this movie, but I'm pretty sure I will never need to watch it again.

And don't get me started about the ending...

2 Bloody Brains out of 5