Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		2.0

Drive-In Massacre Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 14, 2017

Are you old enough to remember drive-in theaters as something other than simply a vestigial trace of a bygone era? I have tons of great, and a few not so great, memories of being dragged to drive-ins by my older sisters when I was little and my parents insisted that I be able to attend if my sisters wanted to use the family car. (I even remember our local drive-in being the “medical center” where polio vaccine sugar cubes were handed out to the populace on successive Sunday afternoons, something that I later learned was done nationally.) But by the time I was old enough to understand a tangential pleasure of going to a drive-in (as in on a date, in a car—you get my drift, I’m sure), drive-ins were already becoming a thing of the past. Writer-director Stu Segall mentions in his commentary included on the new Blu-ray of Drive-in Massacre that he had to search far and wide to find a drive-in that was still extant and that would grant permission for him to film there when he shot the film in 1977, finally scouting a location in Simi Valley where a drive-in had gone out of business but hadn’t yet been torn down. In a kind of weird bit of synchronicity, drive-in theaters have been at least tangentially involved in a couple of other recent reviews in my queue, including Arrow’s Dead-End Drive-In and Blood Rage. Perhaps just a little humorously, Blood Rage begins (much as Drive-In Massacre does) with a pretty graphic death scene at the titular locale, while Dead End Drive-In offers a somewhat more post-Apocalyptic take on driving to see a movie. What’s really funny, though (at least for those with a somewhat skewed sense of humor), is that one of Drive-In Massacre’s plot conceits is that gruesome murders at the Simi Drive-In actually increase business, as if people are (sorry, you probably know this is coming) dying to get in.

There’s simply no getting around the fact that Drive-In Massacre is Grade Z fodder, as even Stu Segall seems to understand in both his commentary and an interview with him also included on the Blu-ray as a supplement. Segall doesn’t have any delusions that he made Art (or even art), but he, along with other cast and crew members interviewed for this release, obviously have incredibly fond memories of the (get ready) four day shoot that resulted in this outing. Segall is up front about this simply being one of a long line of “product” he created during this era, getting a bunch of friends together in the time honored showbiz tradition of “let’s put on a show” (or in this case “make a movie”). The result is predictably lame brained a lot of the time, but for those who like their lo-fi flicks without even a hint of pretension, Drive-In Massacre may hit the spot.

The film gets off to an appropriately Grand Guignol inspired start with a couple in a car who meet their fate at the end of a sword (in a feminist role reversal, it’s the woman who is “hot to trot”, while the guy wants to catch the beginning of the film—so much for “realism”). That leads to the involvement of two police officers, Mike Leary (John Goff, who also co-wrote the film) and John Koch (Bruce Kimball). The theater is run by a kind Anton LaVey-ish looking guy named Austin Johnson (Robert E. Pearson), whose gigantic cross pendant seems like a dead giveaway he’s not a practicing Christian. Johnson’s staff also includes the wonderfully named custodian Germy (Douglas Gudbye) who might be a bit mentally defective but who is at least a little more forthcoming with the police than Johnson is.

A number of red herrings are presented, including of course Austin and Germy, as well as the neighborhood peeping tom, a guy named Orville Ingleson (Norman Sheridan), all while a nightly assortment of victims accrues. The police eventually decide to stake out the theater (dressed as a “couple”), with one of the suspects meeting their demise, obviously thereby rendering them off the suspect list. There’s an almost lovable buffoonery to much of the presentation, with not quite ready for prime time performance levels meeting on the fly shooting and editing techniques.

The film is awfully talky, interrupted by brief bouts of over the top violence, but there is one unintentionally hilarious bit of voice over, after one final red herring is presented in an actually almost tense sequence within a warehouse, a supposed suspect who is ultimately dispatched by the police. I won’t spoil the actual “dialogue”, other than to say it more or less says “oops, killed the wrong guy,” and then moves on. That then provides the film with what appears to be a revelation, which in fact is kind of obfuscated a moment later with some clunky framing, followed by a completely silly “sting” that presages a similar “you are there” (i.e, in a movie theater, at least presumably) gambit utilized in the Sensurround “classic” Earthquake.

Drive-In Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Drive-In Massacre is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. According to the text on the back of the insert, this was sourced from the original camera negative "which was found in the ruins of the Sky View Drive-In Movie Theater near Oxnard", in what sounds like a set up for a Grade Z movie itself. With an understanding that this was a beyond low budget feature shot by folks just learning their craft, the transfer is actually rather nice looking, especially when the film gets out into the bright sunshine, where the palette pops vividly and detail levels are generally at least decent and often very good. As should be expected, the film has a lot of nighttime footage and as you can see in some of the screenshots accompanying this review, detail levels understandably falter in these moments. There's a somewhat variable grain field (contrast screenshot 8 with some of the others), but overall things resolve naturally and give a good, gritty ambience to the viewing experience. There is minor damage extant, including some spotty (stock?) footage during the credits, as well as occasional distractions like small blemishes and reel change markers.

Drive-In Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Drive-In Massacre features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix that can't quite overcome some source based boxiness and a somewhat tinny sound (especially with regard to some of the pretty bad underscoring) that reveals the lo-fi ambience of the recording techniques utilized for the film. While fidelity is a little dated sounding, dialogue and those all important screams are delivered clearly if narrowly.

Drive-In Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:49)


• Audio Commentary with Stu Segall also features someone interviewing him (sporadically) whose name I never caught.


• Drive-In Days: Interview with Star / Co-Writer John F. Goff (1080p; 16:18) is a good reminiscence with Goff, who talks about growing up in a family which owned a movie theater and some of his early theater work.


• Norm Sheridan Recalls Drive-In Massacre (1080p; 11:45) is another fun look back with the actor who played the pervy peeping tom character in the film.


• Making the Massacre: Interview with Director Stu Segall (480i; 6:32) finds Segall an affable guy happily talking about everything from his work on TV shows like Hunter to some of his soft core porn outings.

Drive-In Massacre Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

My hunch is even genre enthusiasts who love exploitation fare like this would be hard pressed to make the case that Drive-In Massacre is any kind of lost masterpiece, especially when Stu Segall himself suggest it was "just another cog" in his production wheel at the time. But the film delivers some requisite gore at various intervals, and the supplementary package is agreeable. Technical merits are generally very good for those considering a purchase.