Drive In Massacre

Plot synopsis:
A opening title card reads that on August 10th, at a rural California drive-in, the horror began. A young couple arrives at a local drive-in to watch the movie playing that is currently playing. They park their car and talk about having a baby. The woman suggests procreating at the drive-in, but the man, Alan, wants to see the beginning of the movie. As Alan reaches out for the speaker to hang upon the car window, he is beheaded by a sword-like machete. The woman screams, but the unseen killer shoves the blade through her neck and she dies a slow death as she opens the car door and falls out onto the ground.The next day, two police detectives, John Kosh and Mike Leary, go to the drive-in to investigate the murders and talk to the grumpy manager, Austin Johnson. Austin tells them about a carnival what was once there before the "trash heap" of the drive-in was opened. He says that Germy, the simpleton drive-in cleaner and the man who discovered the bodies, was once a carnival geek. The cops talk with Germy where he tells them that he was once a sword swallower, and he says that the theater owner (who is away in Hawaii on vacation) lets him use his private sword collection. Germy talks about a trouble-maker who is at the drive-in every night looking for kissing couples to spy on. He describes the man and his car to John and Mike, and the officers ask Germy to get the license plate number if the man returns.That night, another young couple, named David and Lori, arrive at the drive-in, and Lori tells David that she is pregnant. David seems happy with the news and the two of them kiss, but Lori is uncomfortable due to the murders on the previous night. While David and Lori are making out, an unseen man is spying on them. Suddenly, another unseen man opens the passenger door and shoves a sword right through David and Lori.The next morning at the police station, John and Mike talk with their police captain who introduces them to a police psychologist who tells them that it may be difficult to find the killer since he does not seem to leave a pattern except for the using the same weapon and using the same location to kill. Afterwords, Germy is brought to the police station where he tells John and Mike that the sword discovered with the two recent murder victims is not from the owner's personal collection. He tells them that Austin also worked at the carnival, but was "not very good with the blades", and chased around girls for fun. But he tells them that the mysterious man was at the drive-in that night and gives them the license plate number.John and Mike go to see Orville at his house where the cops press the man about being at the drive-in for the last two nights. While Mike plays the bad cop, John is the sympathetic cop. While Orville admits to being at the drive-in to spy on couples having sex in their cars, he maintains that he did not kill anyone and promises that he will not return to the drive-in. He lets the officers look at his car. When a bloody cloth is found, Orville runs. John and Mike catch up to Orville and arrest him. Orville claims that the blood is from a dog that he ran over the previous night.A little later, the cops are told by a pathologist that the blood on the rag found in Orville's car is really from a canine. Orville is released with a warning not to return to the drive-in. But that evening, Orville returns to the drive-in anyway. Nearby, John and Mike are staking out the place as decoys (with Mike dressed in drag), waiting for Orville to show up and make his move. Nearby in another car, a man, named Jim, tries to kiss the woman that's with him, but she is too much into watching the movie. The man exits the car to go to the concession stand. Germy goes up to the police officers car to talk with them, when he gets pulled away by Austin who tells him to get back to work. Mike gets out of the car to "answer the call of nature" and John helps him get out of the car. Nearby, Jim returns to his car, when he sees his girlfriend's severed head fall off her body, and screams for help. Mike and John run back to the scene, but then discover Orville dead in his car too.The next day, Austin is brought into the station where Mike and John talk to him about once being a knife-thrower at the carnival. But Austin is furious at them when they tell him to close down the drive-in until the case is solved, and mocks them for being so close to the killer while he killed another person right under their noses. But after several minutes of interrogation, Austin is free to go since the police do not have anything to hold him on. At the drive-in, Austin tells Germy that he's fired and also tells him to get his things and leave. That evening, Germy goes to a nearby carnival and hears voices talking to or about him.Meanwhile, John and Mike get a phone call that a man is cornered in a small warehouse after killing two people with a machete. In the warehouse, a man has a little girl hostage. She bites his hand and runs away. The man chases after her and talks about cutting the "poison" (he means meanness) out of her. John and Mike arrive at the warehouse, run inside, and following gunfire and a pursuit, Mike shoots and kills the man. The girl comes out of hiding and says that the man they killed was her sick father, who had killed her mother and aunt years ago with a machete, but that he broke out of a mental hospital that morning.John and Mike suddenly realize that Austin can leave the projection booth between the reel changes during the movie which could make him the killer since he told them previously that he was inside the booth all night. John and Mike race over the drive-in to pick him up.Meanwhile, Arlene, the drive-in cashier, tries to stop Germy from going to see Austin. Germy says that he owes him money and that he has a gift for the manager. Germy is shown to have the owner's sword collection with him. John and Mike arrive at the drive-in where they see on the big screen where a western movie is being shown, the shadow of Austin being stabbed by a sword. The detectives run inside the projection booth to find Austin dead... hacked to pieces. While Arlene turns on the PA speakers announcing that everyone leave, John and Mike hear a noise in the next room and run in with their guns drawn only to find Germy dead as well.A disclaimer in the final shot says:"The senseless bloodbath that gripped a California Drive-in has spread to other theaters throughout the country. Authorities say there are no clues to the killer's identity and no end to the horror in sight. The killer could strike again. Anywhere... Anytime... Who will be next?"There is a public-address voice-over from the drive in theater manager telling the drive-in theater audience viewing this movie that there is a killer lurking in the theater and not to panic for the police are on their way.

Tags: cult, mystery, murder, violence

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