Tuesday, October 5, 2010

October-Drive-In-Horror-Movie-Fest

 

 

 

 

image

Sign generator link.  Try it. Very neat.

Not only is October the month for ghosts and ghouls and things that go bump in the night, it was one of the best months of the year to enjoy drive-in movies as I grew up here in Florida.

 

The mosquitoes were mostly gone, as were the early evening thunderstorms (windshield wipers were always an annoyance at the drive-in), and the temperatures were just right.

 

Showtime was always just past sundown, so the first few minutes of the film was often washed out a bit by the twilight, but the experience was pure 1950’s and 1960’s Americana.  


Consuming bad movies (usually a double feature), along with heart-attack provoking food, from the comfort of our land yachts.

An experience that today’s high-tech multiplex cinema's simply can’t match.

 

To get us started, first a sampling of some of the old intermission and coming attraction reels . . .  then a pair of horrible double features, complete with a cartoon.

image

Drive-in intermission 

Drive-in Intermission 2

Drive-in Intermission 5

Drive In Intermission 7

Drive-in Intermission 9

image

If the intermissions listed above aren’t enough, you can view the entire list available from the Internet Archive  at this link.

 

Although drive-ins certainly showed first-run `A’ movies (I saw How The West Was Won and Star Wars at a drive-in), their real claim to fame were those cheaply made sub-B movies that were so bad, they only aired on the late-late-late show on television years later.

 

But that was half the fun.

 

You didn’t have to pay attention to the plot (there usually wasn’t one), and if you fell asleep (passed out, went to the restroom, etc.) you could easily pick up from when you regained awareness of your surroundings.

 

Today a double double-feature.

 

First, a pair of low budget cheesy sexploitative movies of the early 1950s that some kind soul on the Internet Archive has stitched together into a double feature, complete with cartoon.

drivein

Call them guilty pleasures, or research into the peculiar mores of our parent’s generation.  Just don’t expect them to be anything more than horrible old movies  . . .  the kind we used to watch at the drive in.

image 

 

Shocker Internet Drive In Week 1

 

 

Of course, for hardcore horror fans, these first two movies are a bit tame, and for you we’ve got the granddaddy of them all – George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and the 1960s classic Carnival of Souls  again served up as a drive-in Double Feature.

image

Shocker Internet Drive In Week 4 - Night of the Living Dead Double Feature

 

 

So pop some popcorn, grill up some hamburgers, and remove your window screens to let in a few mosquitoes . . .

 

 

And enjoy the show!

 

1 comment:

John T. M. Herres said...

I have a few memories of the drive-in experience, too. So upsetting there are relatively few left.