Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11731 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-12-05
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1

Synopsis
Sheriff Wade Parent is a man who must stop a large, black 2-door sedan from terrorising a small New Mexican town. No one knows the car's origin, who is driving it, or how to stop it. After it kills three people, the Sheriff must find a way to stop this seemingly indestructible machine. Who is behind the wheel? Could it be...Satan? That may be the case given that late Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey was given a 'Technical Advisor' credit on the film! Though a chorus of jeers greeted it when it surfaced in 1977, 'The Car' is an oddly gripping and altogether unconventional horror film. From the director of 'A Man Called Horse' and a script co-written by Michael Butler, writer of 'Pale Rider'.

Customer Reviews

Wicked wheels
*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
Okay, the premise may seem a bit ridiculous- a demonic car menacing the inhabitants of a small American town. However, this is in fact a suprisingly gripping little film, with no pretensions apart from entertaining its audience, which it carries off with some style. I actually cared about what happened to the characters in the film, there are some excellent performances, and a few great set pieces, notably when the car traps a group of children and teachers in a cemetary. Another interesting thing is how some of the films characters who would normally have been signposted as victims in this genre (the brutish,racist wife beater and the nervous, alcoholic deputy sherriff) actually make it to the end credits. This lends the film an air of realism.

A LOT OF FUN
A series of weird deaths is plaguing a small town in the Mid-west. A town sheriff, Wade Parent (James Brolin) is assigned to investigate the deaths. The only witness to the second murder, Amos Clements, (R.G. Armstrong) is useless, as he can barely describe what happened beyond seeing a mysterious car run the victim over several times, then drive off in a hail of dust. As the town's sheriffs gather to determine what to do about the murder, it's decided not to put much stock into figuring out the causes of the deaths and treat them like bad accidents. As life goes on in the town, no one suspects a thing. When the murder of the town's captain (John Marley) forces them to accept that there is some sort of killer on the loose, Wade has his work cut out for him, since there are no real clues to hold the case together. The only thing they know is a report that the car was driver-less. Taking it with a healthy grain of skepticism, Wade starts to probe the mysterious deaths, and discovers that the reports about the car just might be true, and that the car might have some demonic reason for it's appearance.

The Good News: One of the main reasons why I consider this film an underground classic is the car itself. The car is pretty creepy, and the borrowing of "Duel" by never showing the driver is absolute genius. The fact that the grill is what we generally see of the car makes it even more terrifying because it's the one thing you remember about the car. When you see it later in the film, that becomes terror by association, exactly like the theme is in "Jaws." The honking of the car's horn is also a good scare tactic, as it signals the deathly intentions of the car. The car also disappears into the day with an abnormal amount of dust thrown up to hide the car, keeping its secrecy and making the car more mysterious. What is also a change is that the film feels a bit more real than most films at that time. The procedures taken against the murderous car feel like real-life events that just might happen. That shifts into overdrive when we learn that the car just might be driver-less. The sand-encrusted windows are a great example of making the car seem even more terrifying than it already is. It is also a great last half with a nice car chase, filmed at high-speed and full of action that sets a great feeling for the ending. For all that, the best part is the car's appearance at a town pep-rally. Watching the car trying to run down the last stragglers of the running heard desperately try to out-run the car is a great suspense scene. Then the final outcome is even more suspenseful as we watch the car track the parade to a small graveyard that it can't enter, and the desperate effort to get help.

The Bad News: One of the few beefs against the film is that there are almost no on-screen deaths. They are either shrouded by dust or an object of some kind, or they are filmed so that nothing can be seen at the angle they chose. The image is there, but we can't see the damage being done. I think that hurts the film, because knowing what the car is doing to the people would drive up audience sympathy with the humans more because the car becomes that more vilified. Second, is that there are way too many characters that serve no purpose to the story and do not provide anything other than to stand around and deliver lines. If they were to be killed off or simply removed from the story. That also leads to the final grief: there's almost no body count in the film. It starts off with three great deaths in twenty minutes, then nothing for what seems like forever as the characters are set up for way to long with no real knowledge given to help solve the mystery of the car. More deaths or less characters: either way, that would've helped out the film a lot.

The Final Verdict: With a bit more of a body count, this would definitely be a lot better known film. For a seventies film, this is one of the better films from that period, and the mystery surrounding the car is greatly played out. This is a good choice for fans of those kinds, as well as those who enjoy a straightforward film that doesn't require too much thought behind it to enjoy.

Detroit's finest killing machine
Every so often a movie comes along that is just better than it has any right to be. The Car (from 1977) is one of those movies. Summary-wise, it doesn't sound like much at all. Basically, you've got a killer car haunting the streets of a desert town, and James Brolin stars as the law man who has to find a way to end the car's reign of terror. That's it, really. You also have the fact that no one could come up with a less mundane title than The Car. It turns out, though, that the title suits the movie quite well, as this film really is all about the car (a custom Lincoln Mark III). It's a sleek, seductive, darkly charismatic, made-in-the-USA monster of a vehicle. The king of 1970s cinematic automobiles, it could eat Herbie for lunch and scare the wax right off of Christine.

A couple of bikers are the car's first victims, but word doesn't really spread until the car takes out an annoying French horn-playing hijacker. Local explosives dude and wife-beater Amos Clements (R.G. Armstrong) is the first to witness the vehicle in action, but it isn't long before most of the men on the police force have seen it, as well - with an increasing number of them not living to tell about it. When Wade Parent (Brolin) has to step in to the shoes of the sheriff (who won't be needing those shoes anymore), it's up to him to devise some plan for bringing the unknown driver to justice. Yeah, an elderly Indian witness says that she saw no one driving the thing, but that couldn't be true, now could it? With his second in command choosing that time to fall off the wagon, Wade definitely has his work cut out for him. Among other things, he's got a local school marching band out practicing on the town's parade route. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to march dozens of kids up and down the middle of a public road at any time (even though Lord knows they need the practice), but it's especially dangerous when your town is completely at the mercy of a killer hot rod Lincoln.

There are an awful lot of things that go boom in this movie. Apart from blowing up one car before it hardly has a chance to even hit anything, the special effects are pretty darn satisfying (especially given the film's age). Through it all, the killer car shows no sign of a single scratch. Heck, you can't even shoot this thing with a shotgun and leave a mark - this is one tough horseless carriage. Cursing the car out seems pretty effective, but believe me when I say this is only a temporary solution. What's a person to do when even the comfort of your own home doesn't guarantee your safety? Personally, I would recommend moving to the left or right when being pursued by an evil car, but everyone in this movie seems to think their only choice is to try and outrace the vehicular behemoth (whether on foot, on a bike, or in a car).

The ending is a little cheesy (surprise, surprise), but I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit. James Brolin actually turns in a decent performance, you've got a fairly significant body count, and the car is just relentless in its attacks. How do you stop something like this, especially when you begin to suspect the driver may be more than a normal man (and that's assuming the car actually has someone at the controls to begin with)? Well, figuring that out is just part of the fun, isn't it?