This is about as bad as it gets, even for mega low budget semi independently produced 1970's American made horror. How this film developed a cult following is beyond me, and I *like* stuff such as this.<br /><br />THE PLOT: A maniac is running loose decapitating people with a handy sword & knife collection at a small town California Drive-In. The end.<br /><br />Or rather, that IS the end of it. For some reason this film's conclusion is not present on the version I managed to buy for about thirty cents. In place of what should have been a violent, seen-it-all-before conclusion to yet another psycho killer movie, you get the coming attractions reel for the film -- An idea that has merit (if it had been planned that way) since the movie is set in a Drive-In and all. I was actually sitting there between beer five and six hoping that the trailer would suddenly snap forward in time to the end of the movie and finish what had been started. That would have been clever, and anybody plumbing for plot ideas here can go bale on it for their script, no charge.<br /><br />But DRIVE-IN MASSACRE is not that kind of a film. This is a movie with Fat Cop syndrome (two of them, actually, with one in drag for a while, I kid you not), a pink shirted sex pervert who has girlie magazine centerfolds pinned to the walls of his living room (presumably to comfort audience members who may be afraid he is gay), a second murdering loon who shouts "COME HERE LITTLE GIRL" so loudly and so often that we had to turn it down lest the neighbors think we were enjoying it (turns out he's her father, how charming), and for about fifteen minutes the movie tries to develop tension by having a repeating high pitched ticking sound clatter on and on and ON to the point where you start looking around the room wondering what the heck that noise is, and how do I stop it.<br /><br />Everything about this movie is wrong, except one thing: It is appropriately cheap, lurid, and sleazy lookin'. The nudity and sexual content is exploitative and unredeemed by anything that comes after it, the decapitations are actually very well handled, and I liked the polyester pant suited mid 1970's look, right down to the mod designs on the upholstery. But the film doesn't know what it wants to do with it's look and squanders whatever potential was there by being stupid, boring and not having a concluding scene that wraps it all up. The movie just sort of ends, a common trait amongst low budget 1970's American produced horror that should not have been made in the first place. And even at 78 minutes it's way too long, the pacing is wrong, and I felt silly afterward for having suggested viewing the thing. And remember, I am the guy who likes DEATH SHIP ...<br /><br />Two words: SKIP IT.