Ah, the drive-in movie theater. An immortal era in American cinema. These icons of the past can still be found in some places, if you’re willing to go looking, and you too can spend a night out under the stars in your own car, watching a movie on a giant screen in what amounts to a parking lot. And the folks out at Image Entertainment sent over a copy of Chillerama for us to review, a testament to the drive-in era. But will Chillerama manage to succeed on its own merits, or will it only be a hollow tribute coasting on former glories?

Chillerama takes us out to a sad day in American film…the closing of the last drive-in movie theater anywhere. And its proprietor, one Cecil B. Kaufman, isn’t planning to out on a whimper, but rather a bang. He’s planning to show four of the greatest lost movies ever known–or rather, unknown–to mankind, including such greats as Wadzilla, Diary of Anne Frankenstein,  Deathication and I Was A Teenage Werebear. You might think with a playbill like this there would be nothing to do but sit back with some popcorn and the biggest Coke you could smuggle in your car and enjoy the show, but there’s a little extra surprise waiting for the unsuspecting moviegoers.

Indeed, ahead of watching this one, I took the extra minute to pop up some corn. A movie so clearly geared toward the drive-in era all but demanded such accompaniment. And indeed, this was some of the most thoroughly B-movie action that I’d seen in a good long time. Some of it was so thoroughly outlandish as to be beyond belief. More than once I had to jam my rewind key to make quite certain that I had, in fact, actually seen what I’d just seen. Wadzilla alone gave me half a dozen such moments, and by the time I got to the musical beach flick-style that was I Was A Teenage Werebear, well, I knew I was in for a doozy. And I assure you, it only got bigger, louder and more utterly bizarre from there. Deathication will be one of the most disgusting things ever…but there’s a real surprise attached to this one. Strictly speaking? It’s not part of the movie. Confused? You’ll want to see for yourself. But brace yourself, because it’s a real doozy.

It’s B-movie on a scale we don’t ordinarily see, and the wraparound story that this one comes with only improves things, along with some truly terrific performances that make this one absolutely crackle with sheer filmmaking awesome. It is an utter delight of exploded or otherwise removed heads, monsters that strain credibility at every turn, and plotlines that outdo virtually every thing for sheer unaccountable baffling.

The Screenhead Ten Scale gives this one a straight ten out of ten, and Chillerama should be on every horror buff’s must see list.