Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow (1959)

Simply Perfect

Did you people see the same film I saw?

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Attempting to gather funds for their club, a group of teenage hot- rodders trying to hold a Halloween-themed dance party in a remote mansion finds the location has been haunted by a series of strange ghosts and spirits forcing them to find a way to keep the party going.This here was quite the disappointing horror effort overall. One of the film's biggest issues is the fact that so many of the elements that appeal to the teenagers of the time are just utterly bland and boring. The main focus here is on the exploits of the club and how the reporters' interview of the group members really for the first half of the film as listening to them talk about cars, engage in insipid dancing scenes or go through their rivalry with the other delinquent group just makes this go by so slowly. On top of that, the scenes of the girls' slumber party of the exhaustive musical numbers sung throughout their numerous dance parties which just not only eats up time here but really highlights the other big flaw in this one which is the incessant need for the youth culture appeal that really doesn't make this one all that interesting. This focus on the youth culture rather than bringing on the horror really lowers the interest of the film as well as causes the last big problem in bringing on such an excruciating first half for the film that it takes nearly fifty minutes before they even arrive at the house which doesn't leave much time to really exploit the horror stylings which is due to these elements have attempting to appeal to that mindset. That also turns into the reasoning why this one ends as abruptly as it does since this takes place in the middle of the party and letting the band play on seems like the higher priority, all at the expense of the horror. These here are what really hold this one back even with a few rather decent positives. One of the better features here is the solid car-racing on display which offers some great action here with the solid opening race to get this one going off nicely and the rather fun if cheesy car antics throughout the latter half which is rather nice at keeping this one rather enjoyable. The other really big plus here is the film's cheesy and somewhat fun last half in the house itself, as the antics with the haunted house tropes of cackling creatures and revolving doors that let the creatures loose to torment the group are chilling in concept yet still rather comedic scare tactics that continues on into the party as the creatures crash the dance and get involved in rather silly manners. It may not appeal to all out there, but is something to like with this one.Rated Unrated/PG: Mild Violence.

This isn't a drag-racing movie. Nor is it a ghost movie. It's not even a rock 'n' roll movie. This is some kind of Eisenhower-era fantasia about white suburbia where the kids are so white, so square, so dull, so clean-cut, so boring it makes Happy Days look like a Quentin Tarantino movie by comparison. Why is the old guy hanging around so much? Is he writing some sort of feature-length Sports Illustrated piece on hot-rodding? Jeez, and the parents watching over the party. If my parents stood over my party like that I'd kill myself in a car crash. And what's with the daughter slinking over the couch and draping her legs over daddy's knees. Yikes. I was hoping a black guy would make a cameo and we'd get to see one of the characters sh-- their pants in panic.

Some films are simply fun nonsense, like this silly, example of a late 50s teen movie. It predates 'Beach Blanket Bingo' and many others that used a similar formula. They had some quirky characters that actually were funny, like the tall girl with the glasses and her boyfriend. And the film did not take itself seriously which was a plus. The rock band shooting off guns in the air was surprising. I especially liked the costume party near the end where they used some creature outfits from other famous B-horror films of the time. If you watch it see which monsters you can ID. Once again the movie poster art makes promises the movie does not deliver on, still we had a good time watching this the other night.

This movie has everything it takes to make a great terrible movie: Bad acting, 50's genre, 50's hot rods, no continuity. I love this movie. Only problem is I've fallen asleep 3 times trying to follow it to it's end, and I've never seen who the monster is. I can hardly wait until it comes around again on Friday or Saturday night TV. I'll try again.