Drive-In Discs Collection (Elite Entertainment, 2003)

The Drive-In Discs Collection (Elite Entertainment, 2003) is a nifty 3-DVD box set that tries to simulate the 1950s or 60s drive-in movie experience in your home.

Each disc contains a double-feature of vintage schlock, bumpered by concession stand ads, an intermission, a pair of short-subject cartoons, and film trailers.


The best gimmick of this set is an alternate DISTORTO audio track. This track layers ambient sound effects over the regular movie soundtrack... crickets chirping, cars parking and doors opening and closing, and audience laughter, screams, and other reactions. (You'll even here conversational snippets, like someone asking if anyone wants anything from the snack bar, etc.)

I think the DISTORTO track works better in theory than in practice. When it sticks to the sounds effects, it really gives the sensation of being at a drive-in theater. But some of the "audience members" get a bit chatty at times, in some cases even offering up their own, um, "witty" commentary to what's occurring on-screen, and the result is more annoying than entertaining. Still, I applaud the effort, and find I usually end up switching back and forth between DISTORTO and the regular audio track throughout the program.

To give you an idea of what you're in for, here's a run-down of the contents of the disc one double-feature: Attack of the Giant Leeches / The Screaming Skull.
The title menu screen, followed by a barely animated ticket-taker tearing your ticket:

First, the National Anthem, complete with sing-a-long lyrics:

I really like this next one. This no-nonsense spokesman sternly warns that noise and outbursts will not be tolerated, and those asked to leave the theater today will not be admitted in the future. AWESOME! Put this guy on a postage stamp.

Next is an ad for "PIC", a mosquito-repelling candle of sorts, perfect to keep pests away at the drive-in or at the backyard barbecue:


Next we have your basic all-purpose refreshment stand ad. Hot dogs, pizza, hot and cold beverages, chicken wings(?)..they've got it all:

Another great one... this ad warns against "public displays of affection." Because one thing that isn't for sale at the refreshment stand is dignity.

A trailer for The Wasp Woman (now showing on Disc 2 of this very set!)

And now a cartoon (Betty Boop):

Better get those PIC candles lit...the first show is starting! "Attack of the Giant Leeches" (1960):

Now is a good time to point out that the quality of the transfers of the actual films is awful! They look like 4th generation VHS. Feel free to rationalize this as being an accurate recreation of the beat-up prints that got projected at the actual drive-in, if that makes it tolerable.

After the end credits of "Attack of the Giant Leeches" roll, we go right into the classic "Let's All Go To The Lobby" concession stand ad:

Followed by a "Tex Rides Again" intermission spot:

Then a cartoon hot-dog that wants you to eat him!

And the hotdog's green doppelganger, Chilly Dilly, the pickle:

Next, a trailer for The Giant Gila Monster (also appearing in its entirety on Disc 2 of this set):


A second short-subject (Popeye):

Hope you got your Chilly Dilly, because the B-picture is starting..."The Screaming Skull" (1950):

This static graphic appears after the end credits of "Screaming Skull" roll:



The Drive-In Discs Collection is out of print as of this writing, but used copies can be found at reasonable prices.

All About Ghosts (1977, Maynard)

All About Ghosts (1977, Maynard, Usborne Publishing), one of three books in the World of the Unknown series (I previously posted on All About Monsters). A slim (32 pages), but well-illustrated look at a variety of topics relating to ghosts, from traditional spirits that appear in folklore and literature, to supposed real-life hauntings from the modern era, and even known ghost-hoax methods.



Here's an illustration of the Pepper's Ghost effect...a centuries old illusion using reflections on a large pane of glass. The effect can be viewed today in the ballroom section of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

I always liked this 2-page spread detailing all the elements you might expect to encounter in an actual haunted house. With the numbered pictures spread across the house exterior, it resembles some kind of haunted house board game. Oops! I landed on the screaming skull (7)...lose a turn!

Here are details of all the haunted encounters:

The book was republished in 1999 by Tiger Books International with a new cover (the interior pages are identical to the original 1977 edition).

The Plague Dogs (1982)

I last posted about the film Watership Down, which, while having its share of frightening moments, was still ultimately a grand adventure story, not horror. But The Plague Dogs (1982, Nepenthe Productions), also based on a novel by Richard Adams, is another matter entirely...a dark, downward spiral of a story, with heavy themes and a disturbing plot that is certainly not appropriate for young children.

From the very first scene there is no doubt that we're entering grim territory. The story begins in an animal research facility that is nothing short of a chamber of horrors. A mongrel dog, Rowf, is being subjected to a cruel experiment where he is repeatedly drowned and revived.

Later we meet his friend, a terrier named Snitter, whose bandaged head betrays that he's been the subject of some kind of brain operation. A gate left carelessly unlatched provides the dogs a chance at escape, but first they must pass through the various laboratories.

Once free of the lab, they must survive in a nightmarish wilderness that at times seems almost otherworldly.

Snitter's operation has rendered him schizophrenic (the animals are anthropomorphic), and he sometimes finds himself "inside of his head", confusing his actual surroundings with memories of happier times, as when he perceives this warehouse as being a previous master's home.

Hungry and desperate, the dogs make a conscious decision to become "wild animals", and kill a sheep to survive.

We never really believe the dogs have a chance of escape or survival--they just seem doomed from the outset, merely biding time until their inevitable capture or death.

When we find out that the lab where the dogs escaped from was doing some work with the bubonic plague, and there is fear that Snitter and Rowf may have become contaminated, any hope of escape is lost. The military is unleashed to hunt them down.

Snitter has previously described the post-operation irritation in his head as being like large flies buzzing, and the sight and sound of the helicopter convinces him these flies have finally escaped from inside his brain and are hunting them.

In a cruel irony, they find themselves trapped against the sea. Snitter, convinced there is a nearby island, swims for it, but Rowf's experiences in the lab's drowning pool make this a much less inviting avenue...

Like Watership Down, The Plague Dogs is an adequate, if greatly amended adaptation of the superior, much longer novel on which its based. The book can be bit daunting. Not only is it quite long at 480 pages, but much of the dialogue is written in a dialect that requires a glossary to decipher (for example, "Dinna fash yersel" translates to "don't upset yourself.") But I found it worth the trouble.

Buy the book here. Buy the DVD here.