Drive-In Horror Show (2009) Horror

Drive-In Horror Show (2009) - The first of my full slate of Halloween viewings, this local horror film was a collection of stories tied together with the antics of a ghoulish host. It is the post Apocalypse and the dead still go to the drive in; of course they are going to see horror stories. Written by Greg Ansin and Michael Neel and directed by Neel this was a fairly well put together feature. Five tales connected with the Drive-in skits. I really appreciate someone getting a movie made, there is so much effort needed that it is always a marvel that small independent film gets made. I may get these stories out of order but hopefully I won't forget any. The first "Pig" we have the aftermath of a college party and a young man wakes in a bathtub, clued to the tub. A college prank? No it appears he drugged a young woman and raped her and now she is going to get her revenge. He pleads and pleads for release, offering money and apologizing, but some crimes can not be forgiven as he soon finds out. This was one of the weaker stories and there was little tension, the editing too obviously showed the water level inconsistently. The gore effect as he ripped his feet off the tub was great.
The weakest of the stories though was the last, 'The Watcher" where for young adults go camping and shooting in the mountains only to be hunted and eaten by a cannibal. It had Jenna Morasca from winner of Survivor:Amazon and Ethan Zohn also from Survivor in one of the roles as Cherry. Unfortunately everything they did was stupid and there was really nothing to the story. Note if you are walking through the woods with bright lights on at night the last thing you have to worry about is being quiet.
"Fall Apart" was a cerebral story of a doctor who contracts a disease that rots his body. This one had some wonderful visuals although the story itself was just okay in my opinion. I would think a doctor would know to immediately head to the hospital instead of self treating.
My two favorite both had to do with kids. The first "The Closet" was a story about a boy in a horrible family who loved his sister but did not seem to care for him. A monster in his closet solves the lack of love issues by eating each family member in turn. The great turn, although not realistic of the kid then realizing he can not live with the hassles of life was cute in its way.
My favorite was "The Meat Man" a smartly written piece where a couple of kids think their father is the "Meat Man" killer. The writing in this one is wonderful as characters each take the same facts but craft very different stories.

The connecting Drive In theme was cute but I am not sure it really added anything to the film. It was a bit goofy a real throwback to the Creepshow movies. Each movie finished with a downer though, there was not a positive outcome in the bunch. I take it that it was intentional and certainly the best horror is unpredictable, but I think this was a bit predictable and I wished for a surprise ending in at least one of the pieces.
Over all the production values were low budget but hey this was a local film so you can't take too much away from it for that. Three of the stories were good to fair. We had a great atmosphere at the theater, STUDIO CINEMA 76 Trapelo Rd Belmont MA. The film makers and some of the actors were in the house, we had a costume contest and it was good fun even though it was freaking cold in the theater.

Rating (5.0)