DEAD-END DRIVE IN (1986)

I Feel Like A Tooheys

Meatloaf, some freaks, and Steve Albini

A cricket duel, obviously

Title: Dead-End Drive In
Year: 1986
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Format: Blu-ray
Label: Arrow Video

Notes:

One of the few Arrow Video releases where their revisionary lurid artwork doesn't oversell the visual excess of the film, DEAD-END DRIVE IN is a pretty enjoyable Ozploitation feature in which juveniles are tricked into drive-in cinema-cum-concentration camp. There's some guff in the prologue about global disasters etc. but it doesn't really matter - the main thing is an excuse to mesh car fetishism with youth tribal caricatures. Basically, it's Mad Max meets The Warriors.

It's a very Australian film. The humour seems to mostly consist of telling each other to PISS OFF. The male lead's name is Ned. And they drink Foster's lager enthusiastically in one scene.

Obviously this is mostly fluff but the late entrance of a truckload of Asian prisoners introduces a slightly more serious tone where the white characters' racism feels awkward. It's just about addressed by the time our hero reaches his conclusion but it does stand out and date the film quite a bit.