The Car (1977)

The Car is one of many killer car movies, and these old classics always tend to entertain me.  While I wouldn't consider it anywhere as good as my old time favorite killer car film, The Duel by Steven Spielberg, or the great campy romp that is Maximum Overdrive, I did still enjoy this movie very much.  This oldie about an evil killer car that seems to have no motive stars James Brolin as our local police hero who has to confront the black wheeled demon as it terrorizes a small desert community.

Always look both ways for cyclists please

The movie is kinda interesting as it feels like the titular vehicle is channeling several horror film killers.  At times the movie presents the car in an almost Jaws like manner as it slowly stalks road victims from it's tinted window point of view.  While other times it's your typical background stalking slasher menace as if it was a vehicular Micheal Myers.  Then it shifts gears at times to be a steamroller of destruction as it plows through everything that stands in it's way.

 CAR SMASH!

One thing that stood out to me was how great the setting of this film looked.  The desert setting of... well I don't really know or even remember the movie even bringing it up.  But it's a gorgeous setting with lot of great wide shots of the mountains throughout.  In the early parts of the film while you have such big open vistas, the car itself is presented as the mysterious killer and like many slasher films the camera only gives us glimpses and close ups of parts of the car.  Of course the film is called The Car and you know what you are getting into right away, the film still tries to hide our mysterious killer with close ups, obscured angles, and lots of desert dust ups.  It sounds kind of dumb but when you look it at from the characters perspectives at the unraveling mystery that's coming upon them, the slow reveal I think is really nicely done.  The car itself has a great menacing look as well, being a modified Lincoln to give it a more sinister appearance with little hints of it not being normal such as not having door handles or side mirrors.

 Do you feel lucky?

While the car's rampage grows, so  does the scope of the film's chaos as the film enters more action film like territory as The Car starts bringing in chases, stunts, and all kinds of vehicular mayhem.  Brolin and cast do a good job with what they got to work with, which isn't a whole lot.  Now while the film is enjoyable, it lacks much of any kind of plot.  The Car is a very simple film that doesn't really bother to have much of any kind of background or bother with explanations.  You got a super powered car that for reasons unknown is on a killing spree.  There is a very short vague moment where the film brings in some Native Americans who need translation and just give off random bits of info that don't really explain anything to us, but lets us know that "hey it's supernatural shit".  Nothing wrong with a plot thin horror film to me as long as it entertains and to me The Car does just that.  It's well shot and paced, but lacks any real emotional impact.  The previously mentioned car film from the 80's, The Duel was one that had a much more psychological horror to it.  The constant terror and dread that was placed upon the main character of that film, and all that tension is just something that The Car doesn't have.  There just isn't really much of any kind of plot to this movie, its just a killer car and the film doesn't really need to explain anything as it just works.  This movie is more of a popcorn monster flick where our good guys are fighting against an unstoppable powerful supernatural entity.  I still think The Car is a decent watch as long as you don't go in expecting too much.

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