sleaze heaven

Review of Drive-In Massacre (1976) by screenqueeen: 👍 4/5

the thirteenth night in the lonesome hooptober day 9 film 9 cats: 0

56/100

seemingly trying to capitalize on THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE's positioning of marking a specific date where the killings occur (august 10th) yet it pulls back hard on that tonally once the first kill jitters* wash away and the rest of the movie unfolds. the best parts of this are its characters and portrayals. there isn't a single "normal" person in this entire thing and the whole aesthetic is odd, which is undoubtedly a very good thing. shoutout to Douglas Gudbye aka Germy, who apparently has been in film exclusively in the year 1976, other credits including a character named Hogbreath in C.B. HUSTLERS and an amputee (uncredited) in HAREM KEEPER OF THE OIL SHEIKS (an Ilsa joint to be sure). he does a great job of misdirection here and even gets a soul-searching sequence where he visits a carnival and all the dialogue about him plays back in his head, a level of introspection we don't get for anyone else. spending time with some couples at the drive-in has the most satisfying moments for those who love eavesdropping and the stuff those characters are going through are enough to be its own movie. i have to give some respect to how this decides to end: completely open-ended and also self-contained but with a text card over the last shot that wants to hone a type of William Castle energy into the audience. my favorite character actor Buck Flowers makes an appearance (and co-wrote the movie) as a machete-wielding killer in a warehouse filled with nondescript cardboard boxes towards the final stretch of the film in one of the funniest sidetracks these two cops find themselves in that only enforces the view of ineptitude of law enforcement. hey, i like this kinda trash.

*what a hell of a first kill too, my jaw dropped even though i saw it coming from a mile away. this has great effects, i just wish there was more of it