Review

Whereas Australian exploitation-jack-of-all-trades director Brian Trenchard-Smith’s previous cinematic sojourn into the realm of post-apocalyptic futuristic action, Escape 2000, was hindered by crippling production difficulties, this second venture into similar territory is a much more polished, satisfying film. Dead-End Drive-In offers another dystopian saga of a futuristic prison camp, but this time, the incarcerated social deviants are none too eager to leave, as the government of this crumbling futuristic society (of the 1990’s, which was apparently quite futuristic back in 1986, when the film was made) has created a full-service amusement park for the unemployed young hooligans lured into this makeshift internment camp. Dead-End derives considerable mileage from its clever premise: in an economically impoverished Australia, jobless and socially undesirable youths flock to an isolated drive-in theater only to have their car tires pilfered by police during the movies, thus stranding them in a lot surrounded by electrified fences and heavily guarded roads. Yet the government provides them with a steady diet of junk films and junk food, so the post-adolescent misfits are none too eager to flee—until “Crabs” (Ned Manning) and his girlfriend (the gorgeous Natalie McCurry, who should’ve appeared in more films) arrive. Trenchard-Smith occasionally overplays his socio-political satire hand (particularly when a subplot involving Asian immigrants is introduced in the latter third of the film), but Dead-End Drive-In remains a surprisingly engaging and suspenseful genre exercise, a considerable achievement given the film’s general lack of typical action setpieces. Yet the characters are appealing, and the film is also an absolute marvel of outrageously dated 1980’s production design and music (thankfully preserved in a proper widescreen presentation for the first time on American home video). New wave pop and post-Mad Max post-apocalypse film fetishists are advised to take the leap.

 -- Travis Crawford