IT CAME FROM THE DRIVE-IN

edited by Norman Partridge

DAW, ISBN 0-88677-680-5, 1996, 320pp, US$5.50

A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper

Copyright 1996 Evelyn C. Leeper

I am a big fan of 1950s science fiction films, and married to an even bigger one. (In fact, he is embarked on a project of re-watching every 1950s science fiction film, one every Saturday night.) So when I saw this I thought it would be great.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten all those other 1950s films: the juvenile delinquent films, the Westerns, and so on. And I had forgotten that the drive-ins lasted into the 1960s and 1970s with films considerably worse. (Indeed, there are still drive-ins today, and who knows what they are running?) Too many of the authors seem to have taken these as inspiration, rather than the films I remember so fondly.

There are a few of good stories here. Gregory Nicoll's "Underground Atlanta," while having no connection to drive-ins other than the most tenuous similarity to 1970s horror films, is an interesting concept. And the Nina Kiriki Hoffman and the Steve Rasnic Tem stories have their moments. But the rest seem as unmemorable as the drive-in fare they commemorate. Maybe it I had been a more frequent patron of drive-ins I would appreciate them more, but as it stands I cannot recommend this anthology.

%B      It Came from the Drive-In
%E      Norman Partridge
%C      New York
%D      February 1996
%I      DAW
%O      paperback, US$5.50
%G      ISBN 0-88677-680-5
%P      320pp

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