Dead End Drive-In

Saw Dead End Drive-In, a gloriously 80s film. It's set at some point in the future when some kind of series of calamities has left the world in some kind of depressed, messy state, with graffiti everywhere and random small fires also quite common. It's a very 80s apocalypse. Anyway, after a bit of world-building, the plot follows Crab and his girlfriend who go to a drive-in and become trapped there. The gates of the drive-in are locked an electrified. There are many others there but they spend their time in petty factionalism or in complacently watching films. The film is pretty obviously a metaphor for how we are happily trapped in our own system.

So, the film is a sort of fable. As such, it requires various characters to behave a little stupidly: Crab's girlfriend immediately feels like the drive-in in home. When Crab is beginning to get scared that they'll never escape, he rejects her advances. She accuses him of not loving her anymore. When he talks about leaving, she sulks about them being together. She identifies so strongly with what is transparently an awful prison that she can't even conceive of leaving it. There's also a gang of jerks who are the main antagonists. At one point Crab pleads with them to help him escape. They reveal that in their old lives they were unemployed and starving. Even a prison, they argue, is preferable. They have a point.

The film is fairly clever. It's very proud of its cleverness and makes all the symbolism pretty explicit. I'm grateful for this because by making it obvious, at least I'm sure of picking up on it. There's also tons and tons of music-video-tier outrageous costumes and makeup. There's one scene where the prison guards pick up a prostitute. She's wearing functioning headlights over her tits. The aesthetic is so punk-80s it's amazing. It's very excessive and very delightful.

I liked this film. It's central message is very spelled-out, but this doesn't detract from the action. The sets and characters are wonderfully freaky and hilarious. This movie is kind of a romp. It's not very subtle in any way, but its excesses are delightful to behold. As one character puts it "you'd better think about that, because I will by god-zilla!" Delightful.