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For the best of the Horror/Cult/Exploitation film experience
The Car (1977)
Horror films seen to have a rich history with killer car movies such as "Christine", The Wraith", and even Steven Spielberg's feature film debut with "Duel". Although all of these came after "The Car" except for "Duel" its safe for me to say that "The Car" is probably the most underrated of them all. Considering it is a good concept, the film has a wonderful cast, and is put together pretty well. Another strange thing about this one is that director Elliot Silverstein didn't really work again in the genre until he started directing a few episode's of HBO's "Tales from the Crypt" television series.
"The Car" is the story about a small desert town that's being terrorized by a demonic car. The car runs people down left and right, but it gets even weirder as the police become involved. Once faced with the problem of the law the car seems to get even more agitated and doing whatever it can to get whoever is on it's tail, off at any cost. This results in people being run down, cars getting trashed, and even one overly humorous scene in which the car drives through a home to get to a unsuspecting victim.
Personally I found "The Car" to be a pretty fun mix horror and unintentional comedy that surprisingly worked for me. Normally I'm not too into a movie that mixes the two in the weird way that this one did. I mean it's strange enough that a car is killing people in any movie but it's certainly even weirder when you have that mixed in with sequences of alcohol abuse and domestic violence as well. I guess it works because there aren't any lighthearted moments concerning those topics but it's still a bit weird nonetheless.
The cast in the film is certainly a strong point as James Brolin does a good job as Wade Parent, the lead character in the film. Wade is your average small time cop, trying to get his daughters to warm up to his girlfriend. Cult film fans will notice that Kim Richards shows up in this as one of his daughters. For those of you unaware Richards is the little girl shot in one of the most landmark cinematic sequences of all time in John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13". Who along with sister Kyle (who also appears in the film as a victim of the car itself) are actually aunt's to Paris Hilton. Also you have a pre "Beverly Hills Cop" Ronnie Cox who plays the recovering alcoholic cop Luke in a pretty good role.
Overall "The Car" is a fun little killer car flick that I think most people that dig these kinds of movies will want to check out. Already being a fan of "Duel" and "The Wraith" coming into seeing this one I have to say that this one is right up there with the best of them as far as I'm concerned. It's story is solid enough with good characters to get behind and honestly, the cat itself is pretty bad ass. This one is being released bare bones to DVD from Universal and even though that's a little disappointing you'll still be able to pick this one up for pretty cheap. RECOMMENDED.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
