HelluvaBurger? Helluvillain! : Drive Thru (2007)

Drive Thru (2007)
Ratings:***
Starring: Leighton Meester and Nick D'Agosto

A duo of wannabe punks and their girlfriends stop by a drive thru burger joint "Hellaburger" after a night of vandalizing and alcohol in-fueled rage, only to be repeatedly insulted by someone on the other side of the drive thru's intercom. The punks decided to crash in and show whoever's inside who's boss, only to find no geeky nerd nor a fat manager handling the joint, but rather came face to face with a demonic maniac who resembles the restaurant's mascot "Horny The Clown", who easily dispatches them with a mean cleaver.

We then shift our attention to a backyard party that is later cut short when the cops show up when they became too rowdy. Not wanting to end the night early, our lead, Mac, along with her boyfriend, Fisher, decided to have fun inside by playing with an Ouija board with their friends. Strangely, while the board apparently worked, all it gave out was a series of jumbled letters and numbers; this later turned out to be  the plate number of the car owned by the opening victims.

For some stranger reason, Mac continues to receive more weird premonitions via 70s toys (Magic 8 ball, Etch-a-Sketch, etc.) of those who are gonna bite the big one, as well as being attacked and stalked by the same killer clown whose presence may had something to do with the restaurant's hidden legacy. Could Mac have a connection to the killings? Who is Horny The Clown?  And who's crazy enough to eat them sloppy burgers? (seriously, look how oily those things are...)

Released by Lionsgate, Drive Thru is another Direct to Video effort that, while technically bad, it is somehow made a little bearable thanks to its angry, remorseless, and maniacal killer. The film itself is a plethora of cliches but works pretty well as a star vehicle for another wise-cracking killer with a whole lot of style.

The visual effects can be poor as you can obviously tell what's CGI/ CGI assisted or not and the acting varies from hilarious to wooden. And then there's the plot twist that was really A Nightmare on Elm Street(1984) rip-off with the killer's creation centered on a secret kept by the victim's parents, death by fire and vengeance inflicted upon the children of all those responsible. Unnecessary subplots were plenty and all left open for a possible sequel which felt overworked for nothing.

"Relax, it's just a candle. Wait til' I show you the flamethrower!"

And yet, with the I'm willing to put those aside thanks to the film's energy and camp value, and too the series of blood-soaked killings that are as silly and/or gruesome as possible. There's a lot of heart and guts put into the direction and the corniness is just workable as a campy horror flick.

There's little else to say about this movie other than it can be a lot of fun. It's obviously not meant for everyone but anybody with an appreciation for bad movies can get a whole lot of entertainment from this. Drive Thru is worth the rent and a good viewing company with your greasy chicken nuggets and monster burgers.

Bodycount:
1 male found with his face dunked into deep fryer
1 male chopped repeatedly with cleaver
1 female gets a cleaver buried into her head
1 female killed offscreen
1 female had her head chained inside a microwave and cooked until it explodes
1 male found hanged
1 male decapitated by the mouth with cleaver
1 female hacked to death with cleaver
1 male had his head split with cleaver
1 male hacked to death with cleaver
1 male burned to death (flashback)
1 female found in pieces
1 male sliced in half with cleaver
1 male killed offscreen with cleaver
total: 14

...Really?....Which Bush are we talking about here...