Dead End Drive-In

                                           

  In the near future, nuclear accidents, economic collapse and global riots have put the entire world in a state of chaos. Looting is widespread. Cities are wastelands. Violent thugs control the streets. But when working-class guy Jimmy Crabs, (Crabs to his friends) and his voluptuous girlfriend are accidentally trapped in a drive-in theater being used as a maximum-security youth prison, they discover a whole new society filled with brutality, racism and corruption. Now Jimmy has one desperate shot at escape, a last-chance high-speed plan that will blast him from one hell into another - the one that lies beyond the walls of Dead End Drive-In.

A post apocalyptic Australia. Gangs ruling the roads. A lone hero fighting for his survival and freedom. Has Mad Max: Thunder Road finally been released? No, it's the much lesser known but wonderfully entertaining Dead End Drive In. All our hero Jimmy Crabs wants is to work on the tow trucks scavenging parts from the wrecked cars on the highway like his older brother. That and get some from his girlfriend Carmen. But when he borrows his brother's car and takes her to the drive in things take a turn for the bizarre. The cars wheels are stolen, by the police no less.

Indeed it's actually a prison for the disaffected youth of the region. The cars become their homes, they're supplied with food, booze and movies. There's even birth control pills for the ladies. In fact it's a better deal than they had on the outside and the inmates don't want to leave their prison. Well none except for Crabs. When the authorities bring in a busload of Asian prisoners things come to a  head in violent race/gang warfare and Crabs decides it's time to make his move.

I remember catching this on VHS when it came out back in the 80s and being quite impressed with the action scenes but thinking there was a bit to much plot happening in between them. Now 23 years later I'm seeing it again. And now I see that the plot is actually pretty interesting. It's actually Mad Max meets 1984. There’s a good deal of political subtext in the script although thankfully it's not heavy handed and doesn't get in the way of the film being what it's intended to be, a good solid action film.

And action there is, fights, car chases, explosions and one hell of a stunt at the end that I won't give away if you haven't seen it. And when they're not happening in the film's story they're happening on the drive in's screen by way of excerpts from the films being shown most notably director Brian Trenchard-Smith's earlier films “Turkey Shoot”, ( “Escape 2000" in the US),  and  “The Man from Hong Kong”. There's also a good soundtrack and several of the scenes resemble music videos . The bands involved may be familiar to Australians but the only group I recognized was Hunters and Collectors.

The film looks very good with the drive in turned into an automotive shanty town and the weird garb the residents wear. The look is somewhere between old school punk and The Road Warrior. It's made to look real enough that it helps you to overcome the rather far fetched central concept and when you do start to question things there's a fight or chase to divert your attention.

The disc from Madman is light on the extras having just a trailer and commentary track by director Brian Trenchard-Smith. The commentary is interesting to listen to as he's pretty honest about the making of the film and how it turned out and not afraid to point out where something went wrong and to take the blame for it. It's sad currently all he can get for work is SyFy CGI fests.


                                                     Dead End Drive In 1986) Trailer