psychedelic drive in music

Cult of Frankenstein and Mansion of Dracula were a famous double bill. They ran for three weeks straight at the Starlight drive in theater. Neither of them had any big name stars but they were A flicks despite their B movie budgets. The cult thing really freaked viewers out and played on their fear of conformity and paranoia. The Dracula flick was flat out spooky, the hero was a ghost like figure in the movie and the lighting was just plain eerie with deep reds and thick shadows. The mansion itself was huge and felt like it was alive. It was a real mansion too although there are disagreements about where it is located, it’s either in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or the UK depending on who you ask.

            Viewers didn’t know what to make of Attack of the Prehistoric Beast. Some said it was the straight up funniest comedy they had ever seen. Others thought it was dark. Some other people just thought it was stupid and that it looked like some 50’s giant monster scientist type landed in a movie with a 70’s porn actress.

            Satan’s Sister had a minor hit song called Into the Sky the love theme from Satan’s Sister. The tune was more popular than the movie. The movie was held over a week and put on a double bill with the Burning Witch only because of the song.

            The Burning Witch is a whole other ballgame. No big names in it or anything like that. Maybe it was true about the real live woman being burned at the stake and the distributors destroyed all the copies to cover it up. Funny thing is not many people seem to remember the movie at all.

            Then there was Undead Kiss. That was one demented flick. What were the monsters in that movie? Vampires, ghosts, zombies, aliens, who knows? There was almost no dialogue and it was a little on the arty side with all sorts of psychedelic colors and sounds. There didn’t seem to be much a plot but it was pretty, gothic, and spaced out.

            Yeah some people say the Starlight was haunted. Maybe it was haunted not just by ghosts but also by the strange films they showed.

Mark Colby- Long time fan of the Starlight Drive in Theater.