This one’s a curiosity. Why does the title lead you to believe it’s a horror movie when it’s more like Mad Max Lite? How have I never seen it before? Why don’t people talk about it these days? Why did they hyphenate “Drive-In” but not “Dead End?” I mean, I guess that’s correct, but it just looks weird?
Dead End Drive-In is not a post-apocalyptic flick. More like “mid-apocalypse.” A series of story cards open the film, foretelling believable events that will lead to the dystopian setting we’re about to see: a deadly riot, a nuclear accident, a genocide in Capetown, an economic crisis that ultimately leads to “the government” invoking emergency powers (The local government? The Australian government? The world government?). This film takes place in the future, but it’s the very near future, like mid- to late-90s. The filmmakers either thought this film would be completely forgotten in a few years or they truly believed that civilization was ending. I suspect it was the latter.
Tow truck drivers and lawless scavengers known as cowboys are at war in the streets, vying to be the first to reach the latest automobile accident. When the cowboys show up, brandishing shurikens and nunchucks, the corrupt police wipe their hands and leave the scene. The news crews get there before the ambulances, shoving bright lights and microphones in the dying people’s faces. Everything that isn’t bolted down in the world has already been scrapped. Everything that is bolted down is constantly being dismantled by hoodlums with grinders.
The main character, Crabs, takes his best girl to the drive-in movies in his older brother’s ’56 Chevy. The drive-in is located at the end of a three-kilometer road, which appears to be elevated over a large body of water. Now, as someone who has gone to the drive-in for as long as I can remember, I can tell you the first red flag that our teenage protagonists missed: the place is packed, but there wasn’t a long line to get in. While Crabs and his girl get frisky, someone steals the wheels off his Chevy. By the time he gets dressed, he discovers the thieves are a couple of policemen who are loading his wheels into the back of a paddy wagon. Rather than confront the cops themselves, Crabs and his girl go to the ticket booth to lodge a complaint. The manager isn’t particularly surprised by the news. When they ask to use his phone, he tells them they can’t. That’s against the rules.
The teens return to the car and camp through the night. When they wake up the next morning, they realize all the cars in the drive-in are in various levels of disrepair, likely disabled by the same policemen who disabled Crabs’s Chevy. The drive-in, as it turns out, is a concentration camp for the type of youths the government deems undesirable. It’s one of many drive-ins operating as such. Few of the teens who are trapped there want to leave. They get fed everyday. They get to watch bitchin’ movies every night. They get to live, rent-free, in graffiti-covered cars while throwing a never-ending party with all the drugs, booze, and sex they want, provided by the government. Eventually the government ships immigrants in, causing the drive-in’s denizens to devolve into white supremacy.
Whereas there were dozens of Mad Max and Road Warrior knock-offs in roughly the same era, most were routine carbon copies. Dead End Drive-In, also an Aussie production, takes only a kernel from George Miller’s franchise before running headlong into its own territory. You could even think of it as Mad Max adjacent, showing what might have taken place beyond the death roads. There aren’t a whole lot of car chases. There’s surprisingly little violence. There’s just a straight-laced teenager who’s surrounded by a commune of drug-abusing punks who alternatively want to beat him and get him to join them. It’s a lot of fun watching him plan his escape.
I’ve said this before in my review of Blood Rage: I can’t possibly remain impartial when a movie is set in a drive-in theater. Having said that, I don’t think you have to love the drive-in as much as I do to find enjoyment in this picture. It’s a solid film with a simple plot and a likeable hero. It’s got a nice wind-up to some decent action at the end. It’s not as thrilling as Mad Max or as irreverent as, say, Repo Man, but then again, what is?
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