The Car

Remember when you were a kid and you played with your Hot Wheels cars all afternoon, creating imaginary car chases and awesome explosions? Remember how your favorite car was basically invincible and could survive any of these imaginary crashes and could do the car equivalent of Matrix-style wire-fu moves? The Car (1977) is pretty much a movie version of that.

Honestly, there's really not much plot to sum up here. A demonic car goes on the rampage in a Southwestern town. It's up to James Brolin as Sheriff Wade Parent to kick that car's ass. As usual, Brolin's emoting runs the gamut from really cool and macho to slightly pained and really cool and macho. The film is a glorious schlockfest. It's bad. There's no denying that. But it's also hilarious (unintentionally, of course) and fun, so it's well worth it.

The effects are laughable. The sound used for the car's horn is quite noticeably that of a fucking big rig truck. An interesting aside: the exact same sound was used for the killer's truck in Jeepers Creepers (2001). Let's see, what else.... oh yeah, the cop cars in this town seem to explode at the drop of a hat, and the explosions inexplicably start somewhere in the front seat rather that at the gas tank or engine. Throughout the film, to create the illusion of speed during the car chases, the film has quite obviously been sped up, resulting in hilarious '20s-style silent movie footage.

But all these things pale in comparison to the utmost height of absurdity in this movie: the car literally goes through a house to kill someone. Straight through. Flies into the air, goes through the front wall, smashes into somebody, sails right on through the back wall of the house and continues on its merry way. I nearly pissed my pants from laughing so hard on that one. Classic.

There's not much else to say about The Car, besides mentioning obvious influences to later films such as Christine (1983), Maximum Overdrive (1986), and The Wraith (1986). It is what it is: a fun cheesy film with lots of car chases, explosions, and grisly murder.

Storyline & plot: 5/10

Cinematography & effects: 4/10

Music & mood: 7/10

Performances: 6/10

The Reverend says: 6/10