Summer Drive In Delights (and Horrors)

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, I discovered the Drive In horror flick and I couldn’t get enough of them. My parents would never consider taking me to such a thing but as I got into my teens there was always at least one kid in our gang old enough to drive or who had a cool older sibling.

Because you paid by the carload, we’d pile as many kids as possible into a car and hide a few in the trunk,too. We’d hold our breaths as the ticket taker peered into the back seat but soon we were in the clear.

At that time Drive Ins were already beginning to fade and they tried everything to keep us coming. I remember piling out at intermission to view a “real” mummy on display and another time, a guy dressed as Frankenstein roamed around all night between the cars. My favorite was the all-night deal. If you stayed for a fourth movie (around 4 am), you got free donuts and coffee. It wasn’t the refreshments, just the challenge.

Below is my list of a few of my favs. I love horror flicks from all eras, but these are the ones I distinctly recall seeing at the Drive In…some are classics, some were, well, very very bad…but they were all deliciously creepy and fun.

—Betty Boom

Betty Boom’s 10+ Scary Drive-In Flicks 1962-1974

• Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
  Nothing better than Scare Sisters Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Okay, I didn’t see this the first year it was out, but it was a favorite rerun for our Drive In. I do recall seeing the ads in 1962 while we were at the Drive In for a Disney flick and that was scary enough for a seven-year-old. Another scary Bette vehicle was Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965) …it’s those eyes!
  
• Dracula, Prince of Darkness (1966)
  Christopher Lee starred in quite a few Dracula flicks, most produced by the great and ghoulish Hammer Studios in UK. Lee also starred in Taste of Blood (1970) and Dracula, A. D. 1972 (1972) among others.
  
• The Undertaker and His Pals (1967)
  I think the director of this flick normally did porn flicks. I just remember it was soooo bad it was funny. All I recall now is that the premise involved a funeral parlor and a butcher shop where a pound of lamb’s leg was indeed a pound of Sally Lamb’s leg.
  
• Night of the Living Dead (1968)
  The zombie movie to end all zombie movies, and to start a whole George Romero franchise. Dawn of the Dead (1978) was good, too…You’ll never go to the shopping mall again…well, at least for a week!
  
• Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
  Mia before Woody, Ira Levin (writer) and Roman Polanski…and my first glimpse of labor pains!
  
• Willard (1971)
  Yes, a tale about a boy and his rats. Later I saw Ben (1972) in a regular theater. What can you say about a boy, his rat and a hit Michael Jackson song?
  
• Last House on the Left (1972)
  Early Wes Craven. This and The Hills Have Eyes (1977) creeped me out for a long time. Craven is indeed a master of …ewwww. Also, I think this was the first of the scary “house” movies.
  
• I Dismember Mama (1974)
  This one had the best title! (my apologies to Irene Dunn). Mama better hide!
  
• It’s Alive (1974)
  Gerber kid, move over, this baby was a real little monster!
  
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
  Advertised as the bloodiest movie ever, this one had some real-life story behind it…which of course made it all the more freaky.

I didn’t mention several Hitchcock films (the master) and a slew of other great scary movies of the period such as The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), Halloween (1978), The Amityville Horror (1979) because I saw all of these indoors and frankly, they were a higher quality than the usual Drive In flicks. With Drive In movies it was all about the ambiance, after all!

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Here's some good Drive In Movie Theater Sites:

American Drive In features a film about drive in movie culture.

Drive In Movie lists drive ins still in operation all over the U.S.

Drive on In is full of fun and drive in nostalgia including a Drive In Museum!

Check out boomer era horror films info at Filmsite, Brian's Drive In and Mediaknowall.

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