Movie Review: Dead End Drive-In (1986)

I wasn’t expecting a movie with a title like this to be genuinely pretty good, but I’m always down for a pleasant surprise. The movie takes place in a dystopian future where unemployment is all over the place, and there’s massive crime.

Jimmy, known as Crabs (Ned Manning), and his girlfriend, Carmen (Natalie McCurry) go to a drive-in movie theater on a date, and while they’re having sex, their wheels are stolen from their Chevy.

Crabs figures out that the wheels were taken by the police, and it takes the two of them a while to figure out that the drive-in theater is essentially a prison.

It’s a fun setting for a movie, and there’s an interesting twist on this kind of premise when Crabs is the only one who wants to escape.

The gangs they come across insist that it’s better than the outside world, due to the unemployment and crime. Carmen even starts making friends, while Crabs makes enemies. I think there’s a missed opportunity with the Carmen character. With the exception of one scene, she’s basically always with her boyfriend, and if she’s the one of the two that becomes content with their situation, I think it’d have been more…