Dead End Drive-In (1986)

Dead End

Cast:

Ned Manning is Jimmy "Crabs"
Natalie McCurry is Carmen
Peter Whitford is Thompson
Wilbur Wilde is Hazza
Dave Gibson is Dave

What the IMDB says:

In the near future, drive-in theatres are turned into concentration camps for the undesirable and unemployed. The prisoners don't really care to escape because they are fed and they have a place to live which is, in most cases, probably better than the outside. Crabs and his girlfriend Carmen are put into the camp and all Crabs wants to do is escape.

Plot:

Riots, war, and the economic crash has ruined the world.

In Australia, Crabs, Jimmy, is jogging through a crummy neighborhood and barely gets away without having his shoes being stolen. The cops chase the gang off.

Crabs and his brother, Frank, are working out before heading to work. Frank is a tow truck driver that claims carts that have been on wrecks on the road.

The next day, the gang, the Car Boys chase, Crabs who barely out-drives them.

That night, Crabs takes Carmen, his girlfriend to the Star Drive-In, in Frank’s 1957 Chevy. Crabs claims to be unemployed to get the cheap tickets. The lovin’ ensues pretty quickly. They’re obviously distracted when 2 of the car wheels are stolen. Crabs chases the thieves but sees it was cops.

At the snack bar, Crabs tries to report to the drive-in’s manager, Thompson, about the theft. Thompson refuses to get involved until the morning.

In the morning, Thompson gives Crabs some meal ticket vouchers for the restaurant. Explaining how there’s no phone, the government doesn’t have any bus out this way, and how it is illegal to walk the road back to the city, it looks like Crabs is trapped there.

Carmen must have her obligatory shower scene as Jimmy tries repairing the car montage. The other girls show Carmen around.

Crabs is told how he can’t leave. Needless to say, he’s not too happy about that. Some of the guys finally welcome him into the group.

That night, Crabs learns the fence is electrified. Crabs and Carmen get into a fight about how she thinks he’s tired of her. Apparently, she is waiting for her master of the oblivious certificate by not realizing how she’s trapped and can’t leave.

More Crabs jogging montage.

One of the guys picks a fight with Crabs. It is time to see how a fight is fought with cricket bats. Well, our crustacean named friend is victorious.

Working on the car, Crabs seems a truckload of wrecks brought in and a load of people. He goes after some Chevy wheels.

Carmen wants to just live in the drive-in and is terrified of the newbies since they’re not pigmentally equal to her.

That night, Crabs siphons some gas from the cop car.

In the morning, Crabs finds the engine wrecked.

The guys want Crabs to join their pro white group. Later, Carmen heads to the meeting. .

The cops bring in another truckload of people. Crabs steals a tow truck. As the cops open fire, the chase around the parking lot ensues. Shooting Crabs’s tires out which leads to crashing and to the inevitable explosion.

As everyone tries to handle the fires, Crabs tries to convince Carmen to leave with him. She wants to stay.

Crabs gets the drop on Thompson at the snack bar and forces the manager to erase the computer. A cop comes in at the wrong time which leads to the cop and Thompson getting shot.

Crabs steals a cop car and guns it up a ramp as readily available in the Dukes of Hazzard. He crashes through the giant neon sign to freedom.

What I say:

This Week's suggested reading list is Joe R. Lansdale's The Drive In

Ever get the feeling that Australian movies haven't ever let go of the Mad Max Road Warrior genre? The film industry has always accepted the do one thing right and milk every drop out of it. While Mad Max was ripped off in the king of ripoffs: Italy. Other countries helped to milk every bit of cash imaginable inclusing the home country and continent: Australia. Twisted future with cars always has to make one think of Death Race 2000 or numerous Mad Max ripoffs like the Italian Warriors of the Wasteland. I know, I know that I should probably rail more incoherently about some sort of post-apocalyptic dystopian future.

An entire drive-in full of people who keep getting more people being sent it by the busloads. And, none of the want to escape except a guy who wasn't nicknamed after an invertebrae crusteacean. The women have accepted their imprisonment and even gathered each day to their beauty parlor. Crab's girlfriend, Carmen, immediately wants to just accept her life in the drive-in which we all know is a prison in everything but name. The tribe mentality all the drive-inner except Crabs.

Yes, the drive-in represents the macrocosm of society into a forced microcosm. A drive-in that is used as some sort of concentration camp for the unemployed may have been 1980s social satire. That probably makes more sense than the Battle Royale let the Japanese class hunt each other in Battle Royale. By the way, if possible, you need to hunt down a drive-in. Actually, I discovered one only an hour away from me. Kicked back in my car, (wonderful thing reclining seats) had the little speaker hanging from the window and revelled in the experience. Won't wax memorably on the memories as a kid and going to several of the nearby drive-ins at the early 80s...

After watching numerous b-movies, you start to pick up connections like how so and so starred in several movies. In this case how certain directors pop up again and again. The movies shown at the drive-in are: Man From Hong Kong and Turkey Shoot. Why am I mentioning these? Those are earlier movies the director had made. Brian Trenchard-Smith, the name doesn't ring a bell. However, a look at IMDB gives him more familiarity like Night of the Demons 2 and Nicole Kidman's tour-de-force performance in BMX Bandits. He has popped up directing other classics such as Atomic Dog and Leprechaun 3 and Leprechaun 4.

Boy and Girl go to a drive-in. The wheels are stolen off the car while they're distracted. Girls gets quickly adjusted whil the boy fumes and plots on how to escape. Finally, he manages to escape and use his car to jump in a way those Duke Boys would be proud. I've made several attempted jokes about the satire in this movie. Maybe it was intended to be in there like that. I prefer to just enjoy the movie at the original level without delving into a movie's potential secret meaning.

Dead-End Drive-In doesn't come across like you'd think it would. Guess, I figured the movie would have been more a slasher type rather than some futuristic satire because frankly it doen't have anything to call it sci-fi/fantasy. It's name might not be as an exploitative title as Drive-In Massacre. The "Dead-End" gives it that sort of roach motel or Bates Motel quality: "you can check in but you can't check out..."

Quotable Dialogue
"Wanna sell your shoes?"
"Bloody CAR BOYS!!"
"I'm not her hubby."
"I gotta work on me carrrrrrrrrrrr..."
"Want me to do stuff?"
Morals of the Story
Jogging is very important after the post apocalypse.
Street gangs wear mascara.
Restaurants don't carry orange juice.
Kricket is Australia's national pasttime.
All drivers are capable of competing Dukes of Hazzard style jumps with only 10 feet of clearance.