Two kids are smoochin' when a giant lizzard pushes their car over a cliff and eats them. You'd think these little twerps should know better than to go neckin' out in the backwoods in a horror movie. Since the car's at the bottom of the cliff it doesn't get found for a long time.

We now flash over to the diner to meet the local teenagers who range in age from about 20 to 30 years old. These fun-loving kids are jukebox dancing to mundane instrumental pseudo Rock n Roll just like they do in every other movie involving teens. An old geezer walks in and orders up a Coke. For some strange reason his face screws up like a prune every time he takes a drink. So what's his gig? Oh, wait a minute, I get it, he's a boozehound. Yeah that's it.

Now the dead boy's super-rich father shows up and files a missing person report. He also happens to be a real nimrod. As a matter of fact, two things came to mind the first time I saw this creep. One, he can't act worth a rat's turd and secondly, I'm gonna enjoy watching the big lizzard eat him alive. Well I was right on the first one but wrong on the second. Nimrod goes through the whole pic unscathed. Oh well, life's a bitch.

The Sheriff figures the kids have probably just run off to get married. He goes down to the garage to talk to Chance, our handsome young auto mechanic hero. Not only does Chance sing rock n Roll and own a hot rod, but he appears to be a police informant. Chance agrees that perhaps the two kids did run away since the old man's such a dipstick. Chance has a little sister that's crippled and it seems the only reason she's in the film is so he can sing this horrible gut-wrenching nursery rhyme type song to her while batting his eyelids in the finest Ricky Nelson fashion.

The Sheriff can't find hide nor hair of the missing kids and explains he's the only peace officer in a ten thousand square mile territory. The kid's volunteer to form a search party and finally find the missing car without the kids. Chance tows it back to the garage. Meanwhile the lizzard munches on a few more local yokels including Chance's boss, leaving leaving the police informer unemployed.

Now the lizzard derails a toy train and dines on the passengers. The Sheriff doesn't investigate because it's out of his district. Hey, wait a minute, didn't that damn Sheriff just get through saying that his territory is ten thousand square miles big? But the wreck's just down the road, I don't get it, oh well, maybe I ain't supposed to get it.

Okay, it's Saturday night and we're goin' to a barndance. The DJ throws a record on and it's cool, like this is the first real Rock n Roll song we've heard in the movie. I mean it's even got singing in it. So what does this cornball DJ do? He stops it half-way through and plays "guess the artist" with the kids. Of course it's Chance on the record and the DJ says that if everybody claps their hands he just might honor us with a live song. So we clap and he sings. But what does he sing? A red hot rocker? Nope. A nice bluesy ballad? Nope. He sings that horrible gut-wrenching nursery rhyme type song and bats his eyelids like Ricky Nelson. And hey, these kids are boppin' to it. I'm barfin' to it and they're boppin' to it. Just when I was beginning to think these kids were cool too. Mercifully the lizzard comes crashing through the cardboard wall of the barn before the song is done.

The Sheriff runs out to his car and pumps 12 slugs into the beast's butt without reloading. Nice shotgun you got there sheriff, mind if I borrow it next time Chance sings that horrid song? Anyway, the lizzard lumbers off into an open field. Chance and his gal jump into his hot rod and drive over to the garage where they grab four quarts of nitro. He tells his gal to hold them tight because if they shake around too much they could blow up. He then guns the rod and flies around a bumpy dirt road corner at fifty miles per hour. They must have some weird atmospheric conditions in that area because as they drive along the sky keeps changing from light to dark and back again.

They arrive at the field and Chance kicks his girl outta the car and tells her to hit the ground. He then drives his car straight toward the beast and jumps out a little bit before the last second. There's a rather small explosion considering it was four quarts of nitro, but the lizzard goes up in flames and is burnt to a crisp. Say, is that a metal frame I see in the flames? Naw, it can't be, giant gila monsters don't have metal frames, do they? I must be seeing things, yeah, that's it, I must be seeing things.

Our hero is well rewarded for his efforts. The happy railroad is gonna buy him a new car and the nimrod rich guy gives him a job. Not only that but he's landed a recording contract. Hey, he might even become a rock and roll star if he doesn't record that horrible gut-wrenching song.

I really do like this cult classic no matter how goofy it is. If you like hot rods and dumb effects give it a view.