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Drive-In Discs, Volume 1
Elite // Unrated // December 19, 2000
List Price: $29.99 [Buy now and save at Dvdempire]
I'm not entirely sure if I've ever graced a drive-in theater with my presence, but being a die-hard Joe Bob Briggs fan for the past decade, it's a bit difficult to not have at least some love for the unfortunately-largely-dead phenomenon of decades past. There are still some within a couple hours' drive, but I'd prefer to see trashy double-features, not the same big budget schlock I could see down th' road. I might never have a real drive-in experience, but Elite Entertainment's "Drive-In Discs, Vol. 1" DVD is probably the next best thing.
This first installment in Elite's "Drive-In Discs" series features two low-budget horror films. "The Giant Leeches" (1960) also known as "Attack of the Giant Leeches", and probably best remembered as episode 406 of "Mystery Science Theater 3000") is the harrowing tale of...well, giant leeches. Doing what giant leeches do best, the titular creatures feast on some backwater swamp folk, and it's up to the state game warden and a few megatons of explosives to save the day. In the second film, "Screaming Skull" (1958 and MST3K episode 912), a widower and a young woman with a history of mental problems return to his old home, and the new bride finds herself haunted by, as the title suggests, a screaming skull. I was expecting both movies to be horribly dated, campy, schlock-horror, but surprisingly, both films were very watchable, although each of them running only a hair over an hour probably has a lot to do with that. "The Giant Leeches" drags on a bit and the leech suits are ridiculous, but ... "Screaming Skull" blew me away. The effects are laughable, but it's pretty rare for a movie like this to inspire genuine tension, and the movie held my interest throughout. I haven't seen the MST3K episode based around "Screaming Skull", but seeing it on its own, I don't particularly want to. The film holds up very well on its own, and, aside from the infrequent skull effects, "Screaming Skull" really doesn't open itself up to much parody, in my ever-humble opinion. Neither feature is so bad as to be unwatchable, and although I'd assumed before I unwrapped the case that this'd be something fun to sit through just once, I can see myself pulling "Drive-In Discs" out again and giving it another spin.
Video/Audio: Both "The Giant Leeches" and "Screaming Skull" are presented at 1.85:1 in full anamorphic widescreen. Yeah, the transfers suck, easily ranking as the worst widescreen-enhanced transfers out of the hundreds I've seen, but that's all part of the fun. I mean, it'd be pretty goofy to listen to a Distorto track while watching a pristine lookin' film, right? "But Adam," asks the reader, "what in the name of Jimmy Dean is Distorto?" An original concept by Elite, Distorto is a 5-channel mix with the scratchy, distorted audio of the film coming from solely the left speaker, true to drive-in form, with the other speakers providing the sort of ambiance you'd expect from a noisy outdoor theater. And no, these aren't (just) cricket loops playing for a couple hours -- the audio coming from the other channels is occassionally related to what's playing on-screen, though overall it seems a little subdued. For the next go-around, Elite might want to look for some louder, more obnoxious people to record. Traditional 2.0 mono tracks are also included, though neither film sounds particularly impressive either way. Both "Screaming Skull" and "The Giant Leeches" look and sound like the soft, damaged sorts of prints Joel and the 'bots watched on MST3K, and if that's the sort of presentation Elite was going for with "Drive-In Discs", they succeeded.
Supplements: What sets "Drive-In Discs" apart from Madacy's similarly-crappy-looking double feature discs is the recreation of the entire drive-in experience. Ads. Trailers. Cartoons. Intermission stuff. It's all here, looking awfully pristine. I guess the vast majority of Elite's budget went towards getting the rights and cleaning 'em up instead of spiffing up the features themselves. Although these extras were intended to be seen along with the double feature, they're also available individually, a definite plus to those of us with DVD changers. What better way to watch any movie than to have "Let's all go to the lobby..." playing first? Also of note is that all of the supplements are widescreen enhanced, even the 4x3 cartoons, which are windowboxed. Elite gets a big thumbs-up for that, but the lack of timecoding is a slight disappointment.
Conclusion: Despite a year's delay and the not-insubstantial list price of $30 (probably what most drive-ins gross per night nowadays), "Drive-In Discs, Vol. 1" doesn't really seem worth it. At $15 or maybe $20 at the most, this'd be the sort of novelty disc I'd highly recommend. The concept is great, and the execution, transfers aside, is near-flawless. I'll still recommend it, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that for volume two (which, according to the full page ad in "Rue Morgue" and the trailers included on the disc, will feature "The Wasp Woman" and "The Giant Gila Monster"), Elite uses some nicer transfers and lowers the price substantially. Recommended.
This first installment in Elite's "Drive-In Discs" series features two low-budget horror films. "The Giant Leeches" (1960) also known as "Attack of the Giant Leeches", and probably best remembered as episode 406 of "Mystery Science Theater 3000") is the harrowing tale of...well, giant leeches. Doing what giant leeches do best, the titular creatures feast on some backwater swamp folk, and it's up to the state game warden and a few megatons of explosives to save the day. In the second film, "Screaming Skull" (1958 and MST3K episode 912), a widower and a young woman with a history of mental problems return to his old home, and the new bride finds herself haunted by, as the title suggests, a screaming skull. I was expecting both movies to be horribly dated, campy, schlock-horror, but surprisingly, both films were very watchable, although each of them running only a hair over an hour probably has a lot to do with that. "The Giant Leeches" drags on a bit and the leech suits are ridiculous, but ... "Screaming Skull" blew me away. The effects are laughable, but it's pretty rare for a movie like this to inspire genuine tension, and the movie held my interest throughout. I haven't seen the MST3K episode based around "Screaming Skull", but seeing it on its own, I don't particularly want to. The film holds up very well on its own, and, aside from the infrequent skull effects, "Screaming Skull" really doesn't open itself up to much parody, in my ever-humble opinion. Neither feature is so bad as to be unwatchable, and although I'd assumed before I unwrapped the case that this'd be something fun to sit through just once, I can see myself pulling "Drive-In Discs" out again and giving it another spin.
Video/Audio: Both "The Giant Leeches" and "Screaming Skull" are presented at 1.85:1 in full anamorphic widescreen. Yeah, the transfers suck, easily ranking as the worst widescreen-enhanced transfers out of the hundreds I've seen, but that's all part of the fun. I mean, it'd be pretty goofy to listen to a Distorto track while watching a pristine lookin' film, right? "But Adam," asks the reader, "what in the name of Jimmy Dean is Distorto?" An original concept by Elite, Distorto is a 5-channel mix with the scratchy, distorted audio of the film coming from solely the left speaker, true to drive-in form, with the other speakers providing the sort of ambiance you'd expect from a noisy outdoor theater. And no, these aren't (just) cricket loops playing for a couple hours -- the audio coming from the other channels is occassionally related to what's playing on-screen, though overall it seems a little subdued. For the next go-around, Elite might want to look for some louder, more obnoxious people to record. Traditional 2.0 mono tracks are also included, though neither film sounds particularly impressive either way. Both "Screaming Skull" and "The Giant Leeches" look and sound like the soft, damaged sorts of prints Joel and the 'bots watched on MST3K, and if that's the sort of presentation Elite was going for with "Drive-In Discs", they succeeded.
Supplements: What sets "Drive-In Discs" apart from Madacy's similarly-crappy-looking double feature discs is the recreation of the entire drive-in experience. Ads. Trailers. Cartoons. Intermission stuff. It's all here, looking awfully pristine. I guess the vast majority of Elite's budget went towards getting the rights and cleaning 'em up instead of spiffing up the features themselves. Although these extras were intended to be seen along with the double feature, they're also available individually, a definite plus to those of us with DVD changers. What better way to watch any movie than to have "Let's all go to the lobby..." playing first? Also of note is that all of the supplements are widescreen enhanced, even the 4x3 cartoons, which are windowboxed. Elite gets a big thumbs-up for that, but the lack of timecoding is a slight disappointment.
Conclusion: Despite a year's delay and the not-insubstantial list price of $30 (probably what most drive-ins gross per night nowadays), "Drive-In Discs, Vol. 1" doesn't really seem worth it. At $15 or maybe $20 at the most, this'd be the sort of novelty disc I'd highly recommend. The concept is great, and the execution, transfers aside, is near-flawless. I'll still recommend it, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that for volume two (which, according to the full page ad in "Rue Morgue" and the trailers included on the disc, will feature "The Wasp Woman" and "The Giant Gila Monster"), Elite uses some nicer transfers and lowers the price substantially. Recommended.
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