Drive In Massacre

Drive In Massacre
1976
Unrated
70 minutes
Directed by Stu Segall












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

What a snooze fest this is.  After the first 2 gruesome deaths this one just falls apart.  At a scant 1 hour and 10 minutes you would think it wouldn't drag but it does.  Most of the time is spend with the 2 cops interviewing someone then rinse and repeat. The questioning is so drawn out it starts to numb my brain. It also doesn't help the audio is muffled so you can't even hear what the fuck they are saying sometimes. The first 2 deaths (a decapitation and brutal throat slashing) are about all you get as far as gore, other then a few aftermath shots. Not much in this movie makes sense.  How come if people are being killed every night, why is it so hard to catch the killer? Why is the drive in still running normally still after the murders? Why the fuck are people still going to it even knowing people have been getting killed?

 

For a film called “Drive-In Massacre” the drive in atmosphere is compromised by never seeing the screen (except for one brief scene near the end), and as such we only given (yet more) muffled speaking in the background to portray the movie being shown. We also see very little of the ticket and concession buildings, so we lose all that trashy, neon flecked, junk food razzmatazz that was so much part of the Drive-In experience. The cheapness of the whole shit fest movie also shows through seeing that we see no one else at the Drive-In (all the cars seem empty!) except the would be victims and/or the Cops. As such this stranding of the cars away from the actual Drive-In screen and atmosphere makes it feel like the movie should have been called simply "Car Park Massacre".

As such, despite a promising opening, we are left with a truly foul pile of putrid matter masquerading as a horror film that serves less purpose on God’s green Earth than a eye burrowing parasite in an African watering hole. It may have been one of the first true examples of the Slasher sub-genre that would get honed to perfection a few years later…but being the first piece of shit example of something that would get much better is hardly a triumph to shout about.  I could have forgiven most of the shit that didn't make sense if the rest of the movie had more kills and wasn't so fucking boring! 

The version I had was from a cheapy public domain release.  You know those sets that have like 095848877647 movies for like $10? Anyway.  The picture is blurry, overly dark, and hard to see anything going on in night shots.  The audio is a muffled mess and its hard to make out dialog, which is bad news for a movie like this.  It appears to be sourced from a VHS tape due to track lines. 

What more can I say?   Avoid this turd like the plague! 

Scream Bloody Murder (1973)

Rated : R
Directed by: Marc B. Ray
Staring:  Fred Holbert, Leigh Mitchell and Robert Knox

Scream Bloody Murder starts out with a boy named Matthew running over his father with a tractor while some how mangling his own hand before jumping off.  His mom then ships the poor bastard to a mental institution for 10 years and gets a shinning new hook for a hand in the process. For some unknown reason he is released from the mental institution only to find his mother remarried (which angers him).  He kills the husband with an axe and accidentally strangles his mom.  Then begins his rampage.  He meets up with a hooker in the process and tries to convince her to quit and live with him in his mansion (who he murdered the people in the house to get) where he holds her captive.

A piece of 70s exploitation through and though.  This movie doesn't make much sense at all, but it works.  It was made in 1971 but released in 1973.  It was also shot on 35mm and seems like it does have a budget and played in the theaters in the 70s. There's not really any gore to speak over but has it's share of blood.  One particularly nerving scene where he is chopping at a woman with a meat cleaver.  Even shortly after killing the dog, although off screen.  Some humor is injected as well.  Including a scene where the elderly woman that owns the house seems to overpower him.  Much of this movie doesn't make much sense.  He seems to rob many places and people for money but no cops are to be found.  He also has some weird obsession with his mother and everyone he kills he sees as a zombified version of his mom and her husband. The reason isn't explained why. His hook hand is also pretty much MIA as far as kills go.  Maybe it's there to add to his ummm sexual frustration?  In fact, nothing makes much sense in this movie but its still a fun ride.

Video/Audio: I watched mine on an old cheapy public domain disc that can be had for dirt cheap at the store.  I take it, its from an old VHS tape seeing as how I saw track lines.  Also the print used for the tape seems to be of a bad print itself.  Blurry, overly dark in places, specs, jump cuts, and the usual print damage.  Add to that the added pixelation from the awful bitrate on the disc (it does share space with another movie).  I'm OK with that though.  It gave me that feeling as a kid and going to the rental store and renting a cheap old horror movie on a tape. Audio is muffled as you'd expect.

I can only hope this strange little oddity gets a proper release someday. While not my favorite, I can see myself watching this again if it got a decent release.  Any takers?