Short Story: The Uk's Premier Drive-in Movie…

Short Story: The Uk's Premier Drive-in Movie Experience

The promise delivered by the posters plastered around nearby towns brought locals flocking to the opening night of the UK's premier drive in movie experience. This exotic notion held a wonderful novelty for all those who had grown up envious of American kids who could pull up in their parent's car to salivate over thirty foot high projections of Olivia Newton John and John Travolta - and over each other, of course.

After paying in at the ticket office, a team of staff members met incoming cars and attached small metal receptors to each car’s radio antenna. "Now tune your radio into 910MW,” customers were told. "You'll get the film's audio through your car speakers."

The movie on the opening night was Night of the Living Dead by George Romero. Before the picture began, a clip featuring George Stapiro, the Texan owner of the drive in, explained to the audience why he had selected that particular film. "First off, it’s an American masterpiece of horror and suspense," beamed Stapiro, "and secondly, it was the first film I ever saw at a drive in cinema."

Meanwhile, staff members dressed up as the living dead lurched between the cars selling popcorn. Tom Struth, the head of operations, who reported directly to Stapiro, had complained bitterly when his boss had made this suggestion as an opening night gimmick. "We want the people to enjoy their night George, and yes, I know we need to give them something different," he said firmly, "but for Christ sakes, if we have staff shuffling around like the undead instead of doing their jobs quickly and efficiently, we could lose a fortune in sales and piss people off in the process."

George had conceded the point then ordered more staff to be hired for the opening night.

"It's not just about the sales tonight, Tommy," Stapiro said calmly, "I want to give the people of the UK a real movie experience."

In one of the front parking bays nearest to the big screen sat James D'Loren and his girlfriend Sarah Locke. They had taken a loan of James' parent’s car to attend the opening night. It was a simple white Renault Clio with a few dents and bruises on its exterior. Through the radio they could hear George Stapiro giving his opening statements. "Just start the damn movie already," muttered James.

Suddenly there came a knock on the front passenger window that caused Sarah to jolt upright. It was a confectionary vendor dressed as a zombie. James flicked down the button on the passenger side electric window and the glass slid down.

"Something from the basket?" asked the zombie. He had a heavy red and white basket full of sweets and popcorn hanging around his neck.

"Any peanuts?" asked Sarah.

The zombie reached into his basket and produced a bag of salted nuts.

"Just a couple of small popcorns too," added James.

Sarah took the popcorn from the zombie and handed him a ten pound note, taking less than she was owed in change. The zombie thanked the couple then shuffled off to the next car.

"Never bought sweeties from a zombie before," smirked James as he buzzed the window closed.

"You've never been in my dad's shop," quipped Sarah.

The movie began with an old fashioned flickering count down as demanded by George Stapiro. Then the film burst onto the screen; rickety camera work showing an eight foot high car creeping its way towards a famously spooky cemetery.

* * *

The desperate residents of the farmhouse had been fending off the living dead for nearly half an hour by the time that the stench of burning rubber finally wafted its way into James and Sarah's car.

"Can you smell something burning?" asked Sarah.

"I was just thinking that," James replied, winding down his window slightly. The smell suddenly became overpowering. "Something must be on fire."

"That stinks. Shut the window!" Sarah demanded.

"Could be anything," James said reassuringly. "Probably just a car on the main road or someth-"

James' eyes came to rest on the red glow in the rear view mirror.

"Oh my god, the ticket office is on fire!" he yelled.

Sarah turned in her seat and saw the red glow flickering over the roof of the Astra parked behind them. Inside that car, a middle aged man and his wife lay slumped against the dashboard. She screamed as she realised that in the blue Land Rover next to them, four people were slouched over, also seemingly asleep.

James sat upright in the car and scanned around him.

Incredulity popped the breath out of his mouth.

Everybody in sight was unconscious, including two zombie confectionary vendors who had fallen to the ground, scattering popcorn and chocolate around them.

Sarah got out of the car and walked around the vehicle. Everywhere she looked people were lying unconscious. She caught a glimpse of the giant screen out the corner of her eye. A man was having his face eaten by the living dead.

She got back in the car.

"We need to get out of here," she said to her boyfriend as she re-entered the Clio, only to find that James couldn't hear her. He was slumped against the driver side window, unconscious.

For the second time that night, Sarah screamed.

Then she too fell silent.

* * *

Everybody in the drive in awoke at almost exactly the same time.

James had regained consciousness only a few seconds before Sarah.

He noticed that it was almost light outside and the giant cinema screen was gone.

But the ticket office was intact.

There was no sign of any fire.

* * *

George Stapiro answered his office telephone on the second ring.

"How did it go?" asked an anonymous voice.

"Side effects. Losing consciousness. The usual. I really thought we were going to crack it this time." Stapiro replied.

"Well, this is a little more complicated than a scratch and sniff or some dumb blue 3D aliens, George. Give it time. We'll get there soon."

"Well, the good news is that the fire worked a treat. Some people were screaming," Stapiro chuckled.

"And the smell? Did that work?"

"Yeah, that worked out fine too. The microphones on the car antennas picked up a lot of conversations about it. Nearly everyone complained about a burning smell at some point."

"That's a positive development." the voice replied.

"Hell yeah. The only problem is that most of them lost consciousness within a few minutes of noticing the fire and the smell, and once they were out, they were out cold. Helen Moratt over at studio 912 seems to think it’s related to a form of total sensory overload caused by the projections. The images just kind of overwhelm the senses after a short while. In any case, we are getting closer, and once we crack this thing, it’s going to be huge."

Then there was a click and the line went dead.

Staprio leaned back into his chair and closed his eyes before muttering quietly, almost longingly, to himself;

"It'll make for one hell of a show."