Terror at the Drive-In!

While lots of people like to make a fuss about Christmas, Easter or Passover, I myself find that nothing captures the imagination like All Hallow's Eve, or in the parlance of our time, Halloween!
So in honor of the most fun day of the year (a pox on all religious nuts and hardline lefties who have routed Halloween from our nation's classrooms) I have decided to pay tribute to horror films and Halloween memories of my youth all this month. But first I wanted to talk about my fave place to watch horror flicks, and that is the DRIVE-IN THEATRE.


I admit an unfailing and wholly sentimental attachment to the Drive-In theatre. As a young buck, my Dad used to usher the entire family to the movies on a Friday or Saturday night (rarely both, but that was not unheard of) to take in whatever was playing on the enormous outdoor screens. I saw every genre of movie at the Drive-In, but nothing to me was more entertaining under the open sky like a good scary movie. Something about the contrast of being in the great outdoors while crammed into a 1975 Chevy Impala with the whole family watching It's Alive! that leaves a lasting impression on a youngster.

It is those impressions that had me so excited to attend this weekend's horror marathon out at the incredibly cool Bowie Baysox Stadium Drive-In! While the movies are exciting from a cult-film perspective (House on Haunted Hill/Trilogy of Terror/ Frankenstein Must Die!), it is the experience of catching these type of films in their natural habitat that is the real thrill. Our first visit to the Baysox Drive-In was to take in another genre picture that practically was made for drive-ins, Cannonball Run! Alas, the terrible rains that plagued the eastern seabored this week postponed the nights festivities, leaving me only my memories of drive-in terror from years back. I will of course report back if we attend the re-scheduled event. I only hope they bring the hearse out to take pictures with as they promised they would at the last Horror fest!



Of course, there are still a few bonafide, permanent Drive-In Theatres located all over the country, as evidenced by this great website. We found a great one while visiting my family in Wisconsin Dells, WI. A beautiful if somewhat cheesy(a big part of it's charm) resort town in southern WI, it boasts a great drive-in to call it's own in addition to rock formations, water shows and t-shirt shops! It's called the Big Sky Drive in, and is family owned and operated. We caught the fine Kurt Russell showcase 'Sky High' (which was a lot of fun), but fell asleep to the regrettable 'Dukes of Hazard'.
Regardless, it was great to be outdoors in late August basking in all that big screen glory. And the nachos were pretty good too.

Anyway, here are the top 5 movies that I want to see on a Drive-In screen:


1. Vanishing Point (1971)- the greatest car chase-while-hopped-up-on-uppers movie of all time! Plus you get Cleavon Little as Super Soul, the blind soul-radio DJ who is doing on-air commentary all the way. 'Classic' can't even cover it. 'Supreme Entertainment' might do.

2. Two Lane Blacktop (1971)- The 'existential' road movie....lots of racing, lots of open road car chases, the American original Warren Oates as GTO, and barely any dialogue from the two male leads (James Tayor and Dennis Wilson). Odd, fascinating, and the convergence of 70s art film with made-for-the-drive-in exploitation. It was a feat never to be duplicated.

3. Cockfighter (1974)- 3 years later, Monte Hellman returned to the drive-in circuit along with the greatest character actor of his generation(which is actually saying something), Warren Oates. This was based on a Charles Willeford novel of the same name, and was a star vehicle for lifelong sideman Oates. I feel this is easily Oates' finest moment, and I would love to see his weatherbeaten mug up on a huge outdoor screen like God intended. Roger Corman produced this epic about the sport of cockfighting, which he erroneously assumed would be a huge hit in the south(where it was shot using actual cockfighters and real fights). Corman failed to realize just how demonized (though still popular underground) the whole sport was in Southern States, and when it tanked on first release, he recut it, added some car chases and re-released it as 'Born to Kill'! Oh, did I mention that it also stars Harry Dean Stanton? Well, it does.

4. Rock and Roll High School (1979) - When this masterpiece of comedic anarchy and punk rock majesty hit theatres, the American drive-in picture was undoubtedly on the wane. But this would still have all the right elements for a drive-in experience like no other: The Ramones, Clint Howard, high school kids smoking pot and blowing up their school...even Paul Bartel! What more can you ask for while snuggling in the backseat with yer honey? Not much. Except for I forgot all about Principal Togar, the amazing Mary Warnov. "Do your parents know that you're Ramones?!" I would kill for a chance to witness this from my car.

5. Night Of The Living Dead (1968)- George Romero and his fellow filmmakers in Pittsburg would change the history of drive-in horror when they unleased this bleak, terrifying and altogether unique film on audiences all across the country in 1968. To have all that scandalous footage 30 feet high with the top down on the convertible would be close to a religious experience for me, so I hope that my local drive-in chooses to screen this in my lifetime. Gory, creepy and socially relevant. And scary as hell.

Quote of the Day:
"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues."
-Duke Ellington