Dead End Drive-In
Tags: tragedy, cult, psychedelic, satire, violence

Plot synopsis:
In the near future, the economy has collapsed and massive crime waves sweep the inner cities. The manufacturing industry has shrunk to the point where cars are a commodity and parts are fought over between salvage companies and roving gangs. In an attempt to control the crime-wave, a chain of drive-in theatres are turned into concentration camps for the undesirable and unemployed youth. The dirty, graffiti-laden drive-ins are surrounded by high fences, and the roads leading to them are Security Roads ("S-Roads") that do not allow walking under any circumstances. Police collaborate with the owner to sabotage cars of unsuspecting visitors; however, some who know the true nature of the drive-ins come voluntarily for the shelter and food. Broken cars are continuously collected at these facilities. The prisoners are allowed easy access to a wide variety of drugs, alcohol, junk food, exploitation films, and new wave music. This, coupled with the awful conditions on the outside, engineers an atmosphere of complacency and hopelessness so the inmates will accept their fate and not attempt escape.
Jimmy, a young health nut who is nicknamed Crabs, sneaks off with his brother's vintage 1956 Chevy to take his girlfriend, Carmen, to the local Star Drive-In. He tells the owner they are unemployed to get a discounted rate. While Crabs is intimate with Carmen, the back tires of his car are stolen, and Crabs soon discovers the police are responsible. Crabs complains to the owner, but he refuses to help until morning. The next morning, Crabs and Carmen are amazed at the number of cars still there, many of which have turned into hovels. The owner, Thompson, pretends to fill out a report and enters them both into the system. He lets them know they will be there for a while, as there are no buses or cabs, and gives them a stack of meal tickets to use at the run-down cafe. Time drags on, and Crabs makes several attempts at escape that are thwarted.
Foregoing an attempt to climb a fence he discovers is electrified, he locates the tires he needs but learns his gas has been drained. He steals gas from a police vehicle, but then finds his engine stripped. Suspecting that Thompson, who receives a stipend for each prisoner, is behind the sabotage, Crabs warns him not interfere again. Further complicating matters are the verbal and physical fights Crabs continues to have with one of the racist gangs. During this time, Carmen makes no attempt to avoid the unhealthy eating and drug culture at the camp. She becomes friends with several of the female inmates, who are successful at indoctrinating her to the encampment's bizarre racist mentality that Asians are to somehow blame for their problems, a situation exacerbated by the arrival of foreigners trucked into the camp. All attempts to talk sense into her fail, and Crabs soon realizes that she has succumbed to the hopelessness that pervades the encampment.
Crabs attempts one more spectacular effort at escape: while the majority of the encampment, including Carmen, attends a racist meeting, he hijacks a tow truck. He attempts to sneak out peacefully, but is recognized by Thompson. This leads to a car chase inside the encampment; the police fire automatic weapons at the tow truck, which frightens the prisoners who are hiding in the cafe. Eventually, Crabs crashes but manages to elude the police on foot. He finds Carmen and unsuccessfully attempts to reason with her; he kisses her and wishes her well. Crabs disarms Thompson and forces him to delete his profile, but his escape attempt ends in a violent confrontation with the police; Thompson is accidentally killed, and the remaining policeman hunts down Crabs. Using a ramp near the entrance, Crabs launches his tow truck over the fence and lands on the S-Road.

Review: While his work may not be of high quality (his two "Leprechaun" films are a good example of this), they are always creative as his wild imagination seems to be set loose every time he sits at the director's chair.
"Dead-End Drive In", probably his best film, is a perfect example of this: writer Peter Carey constructs a very intelligent tale set in an apocalyptic wasteland, and Trenchard-Smith takes fully advantage of the plot to construct one of the best Australian b-movies.
A young man named Crabs (Ned Manning) is trapped in this way, but instead of becoming a conformist member of the nihilistic youth, he decides to fight back and escape no matter the cost.Hidden under this sci-fi/horror tale of an apocalyptic society is a very well-written plot with social commentary included.
Crabs is trapped in an apparent paradise where he can get all the fast food he wants and do nothing but live each day, but instead he chooses to fight back and try to escape from the Drive-In and to return to his family.
It is not a horror movie in the sense of being scary, but it is haunting in the sense that even when it is a fictitious scenery, it is not hard to believe that humanity will behave the way the conformist teenager do in the film.Ned Manning is very good as Crabs, as he has the looks of a common young man trapped unfairly in a living tomb.
The movie still manages to be quite entertaining and some effects (like the use of explosives) still look great after 20 years."Dead-End Drive In" is a very interesting sci-fi movie from Australia that it's definitely worth a rent.
Despite the lack of budget for the movie, Brian Trenchard-Smith gives a real sense of lots of people suffering from the consequences of economic failure.The movie follows Crabs and his girlfriend Carmen, who end up stranded in an almost post-apocalyptic drive-in cinema after their tires are stolen by the police.
Crabs becomes even more likable because - like us - he sees the drive-in as a huge prison infested with unfair racial divisions.'Dead-End Drive In' is, naturally, a little rough around the edges.
In a futuristic 1990 the government is keeping the unemployed youth locked up in a drive-in and giving them snack bar food,drugs,beer,and all night movies for free.Where do I sign up?
Yes it's a bit silly at times,and the premise is unbelievable,but after all it's a "B" film.You just can't expect perfection in films like these,and I (for one) wouldn't have it any other way.There's nothing like stepping back to a simpler time and place.This fine little independent film from Down Under is just like taking a mini vacation in the way back machine.Pop this one in the DVD break out the popcorn and a cold Fosters and enjoy this blast from the past....8)8/10 on the Drive-in-Freak-O-Meter...ya just gotta check this out!.
This is a sci-fi film with great looking sets, decent acting and an illogical story line.
Put it all together and add a few explosions and you have a fantastic ride.The film tells the story of Crabs a young man who borrows his brother's car and goes to the drive in with a date.
Overall, the film is fun and is really good for anyone who likes futuristic, tongue in cheek sci-fi flicks..
(I'm French excuse my bad English) Dead end drive in is a very good film.
Look at the plot of Dead End Drive-In you pretty much know what you got into is a 80s dystopian movie but to my surprise the movie actually far more deep and somehow go beyond than just a cheesy b-movie.The characters is your typical cliché rebel teenagers so the dialogue not that easy to hear(no offense to Aussie people btw) or interesting but what catch my eyes the most is the world around them and how it work is fascinating to me.It may come out a little bit boring to watch cause the majority of the runtime there nothing really happens so I only recommend this movie to hardcore b-movie fan.
One night Jimmy takes his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) to the Star Drive-In, but while they're making out, his car's wheels are nicked.
The drive-in is in fact a huge concentration camp for controlling feral teens, who are systematically trapped there and fed on a diet of bad food and bad movies.
Arriving at the fag-end of the Australian New Wave, Brian "BMX Bandits" Trenchard-Smith's 1986 post-apocalypse teen flick strongly echoes the Mad Max series as well as cult classics like Night of the Comet and Repo Man, using the 80s consumerist boom as the basis for its social commentary.
Carmen is given less to do, ultimately serving a cautionary function: she represents the path of least resistance.If you can get beyond the ridiculous premise and you run with the barebones plot, there's much fun to be had with Dead-End Drive-In. It doesn't quite have the discipline and craft to bring it to the standard of the aforementioned cult favourites, but it's no shame to be one notch down..
Some fans dislike slashers, but I adore them.)Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has said, "The Drive-In is, of course, an allegory for the junk values of the eighties, which our hero sees as a prison." I am not sure how clear this is.
We have a brand new 2K restoration from original film materials (which looks pretty good despite the low quality it likely started as).
After their tyres are stolen while making out at a drive-in theatre, two Sydney youths find themselves trapped in the drive-in theatre, unable to phone for help, along with several social misfits in this absurdist thriller from 'Turkey Shoot' director Brian Trenchard-Smith.
As the protagonist's girlfriend quickly grows to like the place too, the film offers a satire of relationship commitment as he soon finds himself forced to live with a woman who he saw as no more than a 'squeeze' day-in, day-out.
Brian Trenchard-Smith's "Dead-End Drive In" combines practically all the greatest elements of the 80's decade in one giant derivative yet surprisingly refreshing and entertaining film.
The grim plot and disturbing undertones are more than obviously inspired by "Escape from New York" as well as that other Aussie cult landmark "Mad Max", but at the same time there's also a lot of light-headed comedy and cheesy 80's tunes in the film.
In the year 1990, when the entire world is rotten and there ain't much left resembling law and order in the streets, Jimmy  or "Crabs" like the friends tend to call him - invites his funky voluptuous girlfriend for a night at the Star drive-in theater.
Crabs refuses to accept his situation and plans and escape, but all the other prisoners  including his girlfriend  seem to like the place because they have easy access to fast food and plenty of free movie.
"Dead-End Drive In" is a vastly amusing and often wittily scripted cult gem that is ripe for rediscovery by fans of Sci-Fi and action cinema all around the globe.
Although I disagree, I can easily understand why some people think "Dead-End Drive In" is disappointing and even a bit boring.
DEAD END DRIVE IN is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic 1990.
A great car jump saves the day though and takes you home, and you realize that even though you could've lived without DEAD END DRIVE IN, you really enjoyed the heck out of it.
Look for the director's own ESCAPE 2000/TURKEY SHOOT playing on the drive-in screen during the film.
After the global success of low-budget exploitation flick Mad Max, the Australian film industry underwent a revolution, built mainly around fast cars, a rebellious attitude, and a satirical look at the 'dangerous' youth of the day, all within a post-apocalyptic, near-future setting.
The director referred to his best work, Dead End Drive-In, as a mixture of Mad Max and Luis Bunuel's The Exterminating Angel, and although he was clearly over-reaching by comparing his film to two established classics, there's much more going on here than punk teenagers, souped-up classic cars and boobs.
Yes, Dead End Drive-In is just as concerned with social and economic commentary as it is with loud music, B-movies and vehicles smashing into each other.In the near-future, society has crumbled amidst economic collapse, and small gangs of mohawked ne'er-do-wells scour the cities for car parts.
Workout junkie Crabs (Ned Manning) has little trouble getting his hands on an impressive ride - his burly older brother possesses a 1956 Chevy - and he manages to persuade his sibling to loan him the chick-magnet for a date with his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry).
Dead End Drive-In doesn't litter the story with action scenes, and although it is book-ended by some impressive stunt-work, the film takes it down a gear during the middle section to explore the madness of Crabs' situation.
While the dip in pacing may infuriate exploitation fans hoping to see leather-clad warriors of the apocalypse battling it out on jacked-up vehicles, it only increased my curiosity, and while Trenchard-Smith doesn't explore its themes with enough care to make the film truly resonate, Dead End Drive-In is one of the more thought-provoking and off-kilter efforts from the age of Ozploitation..
Many low-budget movie productions also have nice ideas but not always a budget that can realize them.Well, in Dead End's case it's pretty clear that the producer didn't know what to do with his idea, although he must have had a fair budget since it doesn't look especially cheap.
Things like this just make me angry and annoyed, when the director thinks that the audience are dead-panned idiots who can't think for themselves.I know this movie is meant to be somewhat satirical and that these kind of movies shouldn't be taken too seriously, but honestly, it's not even so bad it's funny and that makes this movie a real bummer.
Yes this movie stinks with 80s pompous acting and tackiness, yet from another perspective it becomes an interesting time-capsule into the resent past, and for someone who did not experience the 80s I watched the film with an anthropological curiosity.
The story involves a guy who takes his date to a drive-in movie.
Drive out of this original flick, with a dead end plot.
In drives our hero Crabsee, (Manning) and his hot date Carmen (McCurry) who tries to defy the odds, and the other youth who've much accepted their fate, for rotting away in this dive of takeaway of crummy movies, courtesy of some of the director's other flicks.
Every place looks like downtown L.A. One day a guy goes with his girlfriend to a drive-in theater and while they're having sex in the car, the wheels get stolen.
Dead End Drive-In is one of those films that could only have hailed from the '80s, a neon-drenched dose of new-wave nonsense from down under, a cult oddity that dabbles in social commentary (junk culture and racism), but which works best as pure B-movie fodder, director Brian Trenchard-Smith delivering crazy characters, car crashes, shootouts, drugs, sex and rock 'n' roll aplenty.Ned Manning stars as Jimmy "Crabs" Rossinni, who takes his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) to the Star drive-in, unaware that the place is being used as a detention centre for the nation's disaffected youth.
Trapped by a tall wall topped with electrified wire, the prisoners are fed a diet of drugs, junk food and trashy movies (including a couple of Trenchard-Smith's earlier efforts), but unlike Carmen, Jimmy isn't about to sit back and accept his situation and plans to escape by whatever means necessary, with or without his girlfriend (personally, I would have stayed: McCurry, who would go on to be crowned Miss Australia 1989, is a total babe).With a neat set-up, the scene is set for lots of trashy fun, and for a while it all works very nicely, but Trenchard-Smith struggles to keep the momentum going, his script offering very little of interest once Jimmy realises the gravity of his predicament, the lad spending most of his time hunting for new wheels for his car (boring) when he could be seeing to his knockout girlfriend (not boring).Things eventually pick up for the entertaining finale, in which Jimmy makes a bid for freedom that results in lots of vehicular stunts and exchange of gunfire with the cops, although the ending does leave a rather awkward question unanswered: is Jimmy now a fugitive, wanted for the killing of a cop?
A young jogger named Crabs takes his girlfriend to a drive in cinema.This is where the movie takes a crazy turn.
Dead-End Drive In (1986) ** (out of 4) Australian cult film takes place in the (then) future as crime, unemployment and various other issues have taken over everywhere.
A variety of punks, criminals and lowlifes end up pulling into a drive in to enjoy a movie but little do they know that they'll be trapped there due to it being turned into what's basically a prison camp.
DEAD-END DRIVE IN comes with a great title, an interesting concept and a likable lead but unfortunately there's very little else working in the picture.
As it stands, the film is simply interesting on a few levels but not enough to make it a complete winner or really worth watching unless you're a fan of Australian cinema.
The main plot deals with a couple (Ned Manning, Natalie McCurry) entering the drive-in and getting trapped.
The drive-in that serves for the post apocalyptic like setting for most of the film is very well established and there are some fantastic shots of punk like posers amidst a ruin of busted cars and sunbathers..
Jimmy finds out that the authoritarian police are rounding up wild-assed punk kids and dumping them into sprawling concentration camp-like drive-ins which pacify its inhabitants with a mentally stultifying diet of greasy diner food, cheap beer, raucous rock music, and cheesy low-grade exploitation movies (any similarity between this plot synopsis and my real lifestyle is purely coincidental).
Jimmy, not one for being submissive to any uptight restrictive establishment, plots to escape from the drive-in's repressive confines so he can live his life the way he wants to again.Smoothly directed by Aussie B-pic specialist Brian Trenchard-Smith (who also did the grim futuristic "The Most Dangerous Game" variant "Turkey Shoot," a clip of which can be glimpsed playing on a drive-in screen), this bang-up little beaut bubbles, burns and blazes brilliantly with a brash, cheeky, waggishly irreverent tone, handsome, dexterous, sun-bleached, neon-hazed cinematography by Paul Murphy, a fantastically catchy and thrashin' New Wave rock'n'roll soundtrack, fresh, dynamic acting from an exuberant no-name cast, a top-drawer lowdown bluesy score by Frank Strangio, a very cool funky-punky look and feel, and several extremely visceral, muscular, gut-rippingly thrilling knock-you-flat-on-your-bum dazzling action sequences (an appropriately brutal hand-to-hand fight scene, a few incendiary shoot-outs, and a couple of explosively frenzied sparks a flyin' and autos going' BOOM!
The 80s had a penchant for McGyvering something into a film and 'Dead End Drive-In' is absolutely no exception.
Let's just say the environment is "Mad Max-like." A young man named Jimmy, who has no particular goal or interest, definitely has a drive (no pun intended) and wants some purpose in life.
Jimmy is intent on becoming physically strong and has a steadfast attitude at that.One night, Jimmy and his girlfriend Carmen end up taking Jimmy's brother's 56 Chevy to a drive-in movie theater.
One night he borrows his brother's car and takes his best girl Carmen (Natalie McCurry) for a night at the drive-in.Things seem to be going smoothly, the couple find themselves going at it only to later realize that the tires from the car have been stolen.
One way or another Crabs and Carmen must find a way to escape and return to the real world.Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has said that the film was "an allegory for the junk values of the eighties" and it shows.
Trenchard-Smith has a firm hand on the directing of the film, a true feat since he was brought in after the initial director left.Fans of the film discovered this not in theaters or in drive-ins across the world.
The government has created a chain of drive-in movie theaters that are to serve as a sort of concentration camp for the young, reckless youth of society — surrounded by tall, electrified fences and only accessible by security roads (or "s-roads") that under no circumstances allow walking.
Crabs (Ned Manning) and his girlfriend, Carmen (Natalie McCurry) wind up there on a date night and soon realize they aren't leaving any time soon.The whole atmosphere of the movie is amazing.
All of the other prisoners are happy to exist as they are — the whole movie really is a sad "allegory for the junk values of the eighties, which our hero sees as a prison", as director Brian Trenchard-Smith refers to it.
Dead-End Drive-In. Crabs and Carmen(Ned Manning and Natalie McCurry)decide to take big bro's fancy Chevy for a little spin and stop at the Star Drive-In. What they don't expect is that the cops steal two wheels from the car and there is no way out.
As they come to understand, this place is a concentration camp for punkers, junk-food lovers, and drive-in movie addicts.
Crabs is dead-set against remaining in the slums of this prison(which might actually be a dream for those who wish to party endlessly the day and night away, eat burgers, drink down strawberry shakes, and do drugs without a hassle)& will seek a way out while his girlfriend, Carmen, loves her new home and wishes to remain.Set in a economically unstable Australia, undesirables or those deemed as "wastes" of the society have their own place to live with minor allowances and make their place of rest inside their tire-less vehicles.