By now everyone has heard the sad news, that Roger Corman, the great cult film director has died. I’ve seen many of his movies. They were a staple of the all night drive-in of the 70s and 80s. Where my friends and I spent countless weekend nights as teens. When I was in Middle School we went under the dubious supervision of my sister. Who would throw us out of the car the minute we arrived with the warning not to come back a minute before dawn at the risk of not having a ride the following week. And not a minute after or we’d have to walk home. Somehow, despite not having access to a car with speakers, and copious amounts of weed and alcohol I managed to absorb a lot of the content. RIP Mr. Corman and thank you for all the fun.
The Drive-In is one of the few things I’m nostalgic about from that time. It holds a special place in pop culture. The subject of Joe R. Lansdale’s classic cosmic horror novel The Drive-In, featuring one of the weirdest, creepiest villains of the genre. And Todd Tomorrow’s hilariously swanky theater in Polyester.
Talk about Roger Corman, B movies, and the drive-in, DeadSplinters. And have a great Monday.
I saw my first ever horror movie “Humanoids From the Deep” (exec produced) on Cable TV about rapey mutant Salmon men who killed the men and raped the women. It traumatized me worse that Jaws ever could.
Later that year I saw in the cinema “Battle From Beyond The Stars” Starwars ripoff as well as a Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai ripoff. Included was the first spaceship with boobs, Nell.
Starred John Boy (Richard Thomas), Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, and the blond bombshell Sybil Danning. Includes Julia Duffy. SFX done by now insufferable director James Cameron.
The Unholy Rollers and The Great Texas Dynamite Chase. For some reason showed up on the same movie channel as Humanoids From the Deep. Terrible movies, but had the late Claudia Jennings in it and being the simple minded male I was/am that was enough for me to watch.
Most of great bad B movies haven’t aged well. 😬
No shit. Exploitative and misogynistic. Lots of horrible behaviors especially by the men… rape seemed to be a common theme in a lot of them.
If you based your view of male/female interactions on B-movies… enjoy jail.
Many of the stories were pretty fucking dumb too.
To be fair, so has a lot of Hollywood A movies.
As a kid, I loved Death Race 2000, especially (spoiler alert) Sylvester Stalone getting killed off. I had a VW van in high school so we would take it to the drive in all the time and park backwards so we could open the back & lay down where the back seat should have been. Our most popular drive in was built on an old cemetery & what still existed butted up to it so that made horror movies that much more fun. It was also on the edge of a neighborhood that had 2 free reign great danes that would wander the drive in looking for dropped food. One came up to my buddy who was telling a story and grabbed a hot dog right out of his hands. We saw it coming, he did not and we said nothing until it grabbed the hot dog and he yelled, “holy shit, it’s a horse!” Good times!
Lol, thats a great story. A party van at the drive in was the height of cool!
Drive-ins were pretty rough in Florida, thanks to the mosquitos. You really had to layer on the bug spray or things got bad fast. I also remember the local drive in burning those mosquito repellent coils (by golly they still exist):
But it was a late night in the summer because they couldn’t start until the sun went down. Lots of socializing and playing Frisbee and whatnot waiting for things to kick off. Between all that and cigarette/cigar smoke we didn’t do the drive-in very often as a family outing.
When I got older and could drive we actually did it much more. They charged by the person so we’d sneak a couple of people in by hiding them in the trunk. That was probably stupid, but we always had volunteers. At that point our drive-in was one of the last in the state still open. Eventually a tornado hit and demolished it. Now the property has a retirement home on it.
When I was really young there was a drive in not too far from my house, and I vaguely remember my parents packing up the station wagon to go see movies. And I was definitely the little kid who fell asleep in the back after the first feature. It must have closed down when I was about five.
We used to do that when I was small. They had a little playground and would run a children’s movie first then whatever the parents wanted to see.
Oh, and another thing — they switched from those speakers you hung on your window to AM radio eventually. Supposedly there were people who just brought radios to nearby properties and watched movies entirely for free. I never tried it but heard about people doing it. They had a fence but it was in pretty severe disrepair, so I find it plausible.
I think all drive ins had messed up fences. A lot of the guys used to sneak in through them.
Yeah, even when the fence was intact, hopping it wasn’t difficult. In retrospect, the whole business was practically on the honor system. It’s no wonder they’re all gone.
I had a friend that worked at the ticket booth so we never payed to get in. And we’re free to smuggle in as much booze as possible. 😁
Some good directors got their starts with Corman, and of course a ton of great actors. There’s a lot to be said for knowing how to churn out a ton of stuff that more or less works and hiring a lot of people along the way without micromanaging everything. It’s the opposite of how a lot of the big studios and networks operate now.
And for doing SFX on the cheap like using styrofoam container lids as wall geeblies for science fiction movies.
I saw Corman’s “The Trip” when I was about 12 and it set my path for life.
RIP, maestro.
What a cast, Peter Fonda and Bruce Dern!
i love the death race 2000….i mean…put euthanasia day and the handgrenade (which is still a contender for worst pun in a movie ever) together in a movie and im a fan
i enjoyed 2050 too…but for some reason….going for that kind of movie with modern cameras and whatever just doesnt quite work
it had its moments tho
like…the map of america is fantastic
It’s a fun movie. Did they have drive in theaters in Europe? We’re so car centric here. I wasn’t sure if it was ever a thing in other countries
…there were a few about when I was a kid but they were a rarity
…think a few got going over lockdown in a few places in the UK & a few places in europe but not sure if any survived things “going back to normal”™?
Would have been great to have during lockdown.
i think we had them but they disappeared probably in the 80s somewhere…least ive never been to one
we do have pop up drive ins tho…where a local park or whatever gets turned into a drive in for a day or a week before going away again
plenty people get nostalgic for them…so we must have had them…but i think i probably just missed that boat