1977 Directed by Elliot Silverstein
The film is set in the fictional Utah community of Santa Ynez, which is being terrorized by a mysterious black coupe that appears out of nowhere and begins running people down. After the car kills off the town's Sheriff, it becomes the job of Captain Wade Parent to stop the murderous driver.
James Brolin Kathleen Lloyd John Marley R. G. Armstrong John Rubinstein Elizabeth Thompson Roy Jenson Kim Richards Kyle Richards Kate Murtagh Doris Dowling Eddie Little Sky Read Morgan Geraldine Keams Melody Thomas Scott Bryan O'Byrne Don Keefer Ronny Cox Leslie Hoffman Elliott Mason Johnny Timko James Rawley
O Carro - A Máquina do Diabo, O Carro, La macchina nera, Автомобиль, Enfer mécanique, Der Teufel auf Rädern, O Carro, a Máquina do Diabo, Asesino invisible, A rettegés autója, המכונית, Το Αυτοκίνητο Φάντασμα, Auto, Колата, Bilen, O Carro: A Máquina do Diabo, Kalmankaara, Şeytanın Arabası, L'assassí invisible, El Auto, 幽灵号恐怖车, Samochód, 공포의 검은 차
UK12
USAPG
France
Germany16
Spain
PortugalM/14
France
Germany
Portugal
Spain
UK
USA
What The Car is not:
Well acted
Sensical
Explained
Beautiful
Wholly original
What The Car is:
Fast
Fun
Lean
Unapologetic
Relentless
Uncaring of others
Acted well enough
The shortest route from A to B.
In short, CAR is a Car Action Rampage! (With apologies to Archer)
Essentially "Jaws," but instead of a shark, it's a vengeful "evil" car with a thirst for blood. Simply put, it's a car with no driver that careens aimlessly through the streets, mowing down anyone unfortunate enough to get in its way or annoy its... engine?
James Brolin does a good job as the sheriff tasked with stopping this car from wreaking havoc in his small town. Besides Kathleen Lloyd, who looked like a cross between a young Lacey Chabert and Sarah Silverman, the rest of the cast is competent but doesn't particularly stand out. And if explosions are your thing, you won't be disappointed.
All in all, a film that, for whatever reason, opts for the serious over the campy, ultimately weakening the film, but which still manages to be somewhat amusing.
TODAY SCHEDULE
Om Shanti Om
The Car
John Q
Across 110th Street
"Get outside, the car is in here" - James Brolin's most interesting line,
Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.....cool car stuff.....talk, talk, talk talk, talk......cool car crashes....talk, talk, talk, talk, talk....cool car chases. Bumblebee and/or Christine could kick this car's ass.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the road - Car Jaws!
A top tier Jaws ripoff.
Can we get back to this kind of straight-faced treatment of ridiculous concepts instead of the overly self aware style of modern movies?
Qué coraje encontrar slashers con tramas tan ridículas de hora y media y salga la cosa más aburrida del mundo.
Tan fácil que se podía aprovechar con muertes gore de efectos prácticos con escenas abriendo el coche y que estuviera lleno de tripas, o que hubiera una bestia adentro, pero nada. Hasta matan a la final girl útil y carismática, aunque en un plano bonito, pero ni así.
Solo me hizo confirmar que sí estoy viviendo en una "nueva" etapa del género, pero no tarda en volver a caer, ni modooo
Brand's dad. Billy's uncle. Christine's brother. Jaws on the open road. Zoom. Zoom. Zoom.
Like the title might imply, 'The Car' is startlingly simple. There's a killer car terrorizing a desert town. Like 'Jaws' on four wheels. Though we see much more of the beast here, it's never quite enough for comfort and always obscured to maintain some level of menace. And there aren't any answers insofar as what caused this, some vague hints of supernatural forces at play and townspeople wholly unprepared to contend with it.
It's tough to make a car seem emotional (unless you're John Carpenter) but the killer customized Lincoln Continental has a real animosity to it, even sporting what looks like a constant furrowed brow. Some POV shots behind a sickly orange-tinted windshield as it runs down its first…
I can’t say as though I really enjoyed this one a whole lot, but I really appreciated a lot of the elements of the movie. It really did pave the way into the popularization of the idea of a car without a driver, and likely helped get Christine off the ground in some way or another. The movie takes a pretty straightforward approach here, and rarely ever feels like an exploitation flick. It’s a story about a car trying to run people down without a driver, but it uses that idea to try to make a legitimately interesting story out of it.
The results of that idea are pretty mixed, but I can certainly see some people really enjoying this.…
It was probably inspired by Duel and it could have inspired Christine, but this is the story about The Car that was up to no good and started making trouble in his neighbourhood. James Brolin plays the local sheriff tasked with taking down this rogue vehicle. Ronny Cox plays his emotional wreck deputy with the all the crackpot theories about the car's origin and motivation.
Is the car possessed, is there a ghost driver, or is there a vengeful person hiding behind the heavily tinted glass?
This movie has a very serious tone yet it doesn't take itself too seriously. As killer car films based on true stories go, this one is not too bad.
Best Line: "Where's your helmet, Daddy?" "I'll wear it twice tomorrow."
Geoff T's Hoop-Tober 5.0 Challenge
The Car (1977)
A friend recommended this one to me, so I decided to give it a go. To best describe Elliot Silverstein's The Car would be "Jaws on wheels", with some elements of Duel in there. Even if it does hugely lack the qualities of those films, that's not to say it's devoid of merit. It's quite a lot of fun actually.
Taking place in a seemingly-peaceful community in the Utah desert, a bunch of mysterious hit-and-run deaths are leaving the local police baffled and confused. Officer Wade Parent leads the investigation to track down the person responsibile, though the problem is that it isn't really a person at all, but rather a mysterious…
