Shining and Howling at the Drive-In

Vivid still and crystal clear as if it were only yesterday, a random memory from childhood returned to me recently: My Dad once took me to a drive-in movie double feature of The Shining and The Howling in Richmond, Indiana. The Howling was released on March 13, 1981 and it was the main event on the night in question. Second feature The Shining probably started sometime after 10 or 11pm. I had already read Stephen King's book by age 12 and I was really excited to see The Shining. Dad fell asleep behind the wheel pretty early in the evening so I sat alone on the hood of his 1978 Mercury Cougar, leaning back against the windshield for the entirety of both films. This would have been the summer before I started freshman year of high school. I turned 14 that August and I was in hog heaven, staying up late, eating junk food, watching R-rated horror films under the stars.

[In those days my Dad drove a 1978 brown metal flake Mercury Cougar like this one.]

As a teenager with no idea how much Kubrick's film version would differ from the book, I was a little confused and put off by The Shining. I enjoyed it, certainly. But I felt it bore barely a passing resemblance to Stephen King's novel and the film barely scratched the surface of the book's greater depths. At the drive-in movies in those days you parked your car next to a metal post that had a crappy speaker on it about three feet off the ground so you could roll down your window to hear the movie. This primitive sound system left a lot to be desired. So perhaps my first viewing of The Shining was marred by the fact that I couldn't really hear what was going on. Some years later drive-ins would begin to broadcast the film's audio on a weak local radio signal so you could sit in your car and listen to the movie on your vehicle's stereo system. Even under the circumstances, Jack Nicholson carried the day of course.

[Dee Wallace with one of The Critters in 1986.] The Howling did not do gangbusters at the box office in the year of its release. Over time, its reputation hasn't improved like some other low budget horror films of the era. But Dee Wallace, who was soon to be cast in a star turn as the mom in E.T., turning into a vampire on the evening news has since become an iconic moment in the history of late 20th century B-movie monster flicks. An above average actress with a respectable career, Wallace deserved better than what Hollywood had in store for her. Cujo in 1983, Critters in '86. You get the picture.

The following year my Dad took me to see Pink Floyd - The Wall when it first hit theaters. Two-fisted with popcorn and soda as we entered the cinema, I was rockin' out, bug eyed, edge of my seat riveted by the film from beginning to end. But Dad slept through that one too.