Drive Thru. 2007. Lionsgate. Review by Brian Kirst
“Its like finding out Captain Kangaroo has pieces of Mr. Green Jeans in his freezer!” – Fisher, upon discovering Horny the Clown is the suspected killer.
With a mass murdering villain named Horny, the Clown working out his aggressions in town called Blanca Carna (Blanca Carnage, anyone?) you can immediately be reassured that writing-directing team Brandon Cowles and Shane Kuhn are not going to take too much seriously in their comedic slasher bonanza “Drive Thru”. Indeed, Cowles and Kuhn lay waste to school age hip-hop wannabes, oversexed young Republicans and unmotivated crews of stoners throughout this fast paced, over-the-top exercise. Most importantly, while working energetically within horror film clichés, Cowles and Kuhn also provide us with nice doses of creativity and fun. Indeed, Horny, the long dead mascot of local food sensation Hella Burgers, clues the rambunctious heroine into his upcoming crimes by providing her clues through etch-a-sketch drawings, Ouija board ramblings and other tasty means – thus allowing the imaginations of Cowles and Kuhn to truly shine.
Punk rocking teen vixen Mac is a few days away from her eighteenth birthday when her high school companions being meeting their ends in gruesome scenarios. Upon investigation, Mac learns she and her friends are being targeted because of a cruel prank their parents played as youths. With Hella Burgers long being a local cardiac nightmare, Mac swiftly realizes that fast food does indeed kill (in more ways than one), and she must race against the clock to prevent herself from becoming Horny the Clown’s next nubile young victim.
The cast embraces this wildly paced combination of “Scream”, “Happy Birthday to Me”, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Saw” with a nicely modulated passion. As Mac, Leighton Meester is the perfect combination of Suicide Girl and energetic Rachel Leigh Cook wannabe. She charms with massive pluck and understandably drives her wooed and clueless boyfriend Fisher’s (a pleasantly natural Nicholas D’Agosto) hormones wild from a rampaging, long stewing libido. Penn Badgley is also charming as the goof-off Van, who plans to defend himself from the undead antics with a plastic stake and a photocopied portrait of Jesus. Faith in Cowles and Kuhn is also demonstrated by appearances from several network television actors and the goofy cameo from quirky genre veteran Sean Whalen, who practically steals the show as a prodigiously unkempt maintenance man. Morgan Spurlock as an aggressively out-of-control Hella Burger manager is also reliably funny especially as he collapses in a dead faint upon witnessing one of Horny’s head costing shenanigans.
As for the gore effects – they are as juicily sloppy as the variety of chili based Hella Burger creations on display. While rarely realistic, they are always splashing red, eyeball popping fun and another reason why “Drive Thru” rates as a first rate, grue filled time waster.
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