The Drive-In

The Drive In is an exercise in splatterpunk and general outrageousness that misfires as often as it hits its mark. A pick-up load of high school buddies attends the all-night horror show at the local drive in. During the second feature a fiery red meteor hurtles towards the drive in, halts itself just over the screens, and breaks into a toothy, malignant grin. Things go downhill from there. The movies continue to play, but the drive-in is surrounded by a darkness that dissolves anyone that attempts to leave. The concession stand holds out as long as possible serving hotdogs, popcorn, candy, and soft drinks, but starvation and dehydration soon take their toll. Fights turn into pitched battles and those moviegoers that seem suspiciously well fed have turned to cannibalism. Those are the predictable plot points. Lansdale ratchets up the grotesqueries when two characters become fused into the Popcorn King, and blue tentacles search probingly from the clouds.

Little of this is as much fun as it should be. Lansdale published The Drive In in 1988. That's two years before he began the Hap and Leonard novels that both made his name in the genre fiction world and began the maturing of his writing style. This relentless parade of vulgarity and horror becomes tedious before it hits its stride for a bang-up climax. And like every horror film of the past thirty years, it ends with a teaser that makes you curious - against your will - about the sequel.