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A Passion For Horror
DVDs
Trailer available at the bottom of this page
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The Car (1977)Directed by Elliot Silverstein
The Car is a horror film from 1977, starring James Brolin and Kathleen Lloyd. Obviously, I won't surprising anyone when I say that it is about a car; and like the car in John Carpenter's Christine, this vehicle seems to have a life of its own. I suppose it would be an easy thing to compare the two films and say that they came from the same mould, but that really is not the case. Not in my opinion anyway. I first saw both films back in the eighties. I liked them both then and I still do now. The car in Christine is a shiny, eye-catching mechanical monster that stalks its victims to the sound of the funky, old, rock and roll music playing on its radio. The car in this film, however, has no radio. The only sounds are from the engine, the squealing of its tyres and the blasting of its terrible horn. The Car's horn emits such an abrasive noise that it can send shudders down your backbone and make you want to plug your ears. You hear quite a lot of the horn throughout the film as well, because The Car seems to use it as a means of intimidating its victims and announcing its evil intentions.
At the beginning of the film a young couple are bicycling along a rather high mountain road. It is a sunny day and there are some nice views for them to admire. Somewhere behind them though, in the distance, a cloud of dust is sweeping along the desert roads. The camera shows the couple on their bikes, it shows the dust, then the couple again and eventually the car that is causing all of that dust. It is rather an ugly-looking, black monstrosity and every now and again the viewer is treated to a view through the windshield of the car. The car has tinted windows. From the outside they look black, but from inside it is like looking through amber. As you might expect, the car soon catches up with the young couple and, after a few caustic blasts of its horn, it ends their days of bicycles and mountain roads forever, leaving just a shoe lying in the road next to a badly buckled, but still spinning, wheel. Brolin plays policeman, Wade Parent, who lives with his two young daughters and just happens to be knocking off one of their teachers: a young lady called Lauren. Lauren is a fun girl and she and Wade make a nice couple who seem to have the children's blessings if they ever decide to get it together on a more permanent basis. Unfortunately for all concerned though, trouble is coming to town and The Car's next victim is a young tuba player who is hoping for a lift. Hitchhiking has never been so dangerous and The Car reverses over his dead body a few times just to make sure the tread marks are good and deep. Fortunately for the weak of stomach, the viewer is not shown the carnage up close and in glorious Technicolor. This is a film from the seventies, remember, and they did things a little differently back then. With modern films the viewer might need to keep a barf-bag handy but an imagination is not necessary. The Car, though, leaves it all to the viewer's imagination. We know the guy's mincemeat. We don't need to see it. Even the bird in the tree has been shocked into silence. The Car has such little respect for law and order that even the poor, old sheriff gets to take as few tyre tracks to his coffin with him. One deputy starts hitting the bottle a few more deputies start getting hit by the car and nobody in the town is safe. To add a few extra worries to Wade's collection, an old Indian woman, who witnessed the sheriff's murder, says that The Car had no driver! The Car isn't going to be to everyone's taste I am sure, but it has stood the test of time pretty well and even though the vehicles in it give away the film's age it still does not come across as feeling dated. A big, black car with a bad attitude and no driver, what more could any horror fan want?
CAST James
Brolin
... Wade Parent Kyle Richards ... Debbie Kate
Murtagh
... Miss McDonald Lee
McLaughlin
... Marvin Fats Ernie F.
Orsatti
... Dalton Geraldine
Keams
... Donna Don
Keefer
... Dr. Pullbrook Ronny Cox ... Luke
DVD Information:
Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Sound Stereo Subtitles None Runtime 96 minutes Watch The Trailer
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