“When life gets you down, watch Ozploitation.” – ancient Wisconsin proverb

What a week! A hectic schedule and crazy life meant that I really needed a movie that grabbed my dwindling attention this week. Seeing that the Australian film Dead End Drive-in had cars, punks and a miserable dystopian future, this seemed like the perfect fit.

Following a series of events, including the second crash of Wall Street, the world is in a dystopia. One of the side-effects is a decline in manufacturing thus cars are in short supply. Gangs of people fight over scrap parts.

Crabs is a young man who loves fitness, cars and girls. When he takes his girlfriend, Carmen, on a date to a drive-in movie theatre one night, their car tyres are stolen. Crabs realises, to his surprise, that they were stolen by the police. He’s unable to get them back, so the young couple are forced to spend the night at the drive-in.

When they wake up the following morning, they see that most of the cars are still there. It’s a community of people like them who have been forced to stay around, collected like toys.

Carmen quickly takes a liking to her new surroundings. The food is fun. The kids are their age. Crabs, however, is more suspicious of the place. Everyone is seemingly complacent and unwilling to try to escape.

Seemingly all is alright until one day a truck full of foreigners arrives at the camp, angering the white population at the drive-in. Carmen is pulled further into the racist ideology while Crabs continues to plot his escape.

I was pleasantly surprised by the film’s messaging, which is both very Australian yet resonates in many countries. I would have liked it to be taken even further. So bus of immigrants arrives, but we never see much interaction with the group. Not that I’d want to see racial abuse, but I wanted to know more about these people. Even making one an actual character with dialogue would be something at least. Would any of them try to escape or does everyone fall into the same trap of contentment?

This world is so interesting in Dead End Drive-in, I really think there could be sequels to it or even a remake after all these years. If anything, beyond its political message, this movie is just fun. There are plenty of car chases and shootouts. Plus it has the added bonus of the unique Aussie humour.

I don’t watch nearly enough Ozploitation, but I think I found my new favourite pick-me-up genre.