Review Tuesday: The Car (1977)

 

 

The Car

(1977)

A town is terrorized by a murderous car. 

I have a memory of this movie from my childhood. It terrified me to the point that it made me especially vigilant anytime I crossed the street or rode my bicycle. I couldn't trust that the winds might blow and bring some evil black car around to run me down. The trauma was so deep-seated that I promised myself a year and a half ago that reading the book and watching the movie would be my tax season present to myself. It took a while to track down a reasonably priced copy of the book, but you can find the DVD and Blu-Ray pretty cheaply.  Anyway...

One day a black two-door car rolled into town with murderous intent. The local Native-Americans are superstitious and believe that the wind is blowing in some evil and people should leave. To local Police force seems powerless against this thing. How will they save the town and stop THE CAR?

This is something of a typical 1970s era catastrophe film. Some thrills. Some jump scares. Some violence. A tidy ending with some happily ever after... OR IS IT? Having re-watched this movie as a man in my 50s rekindled what I adored about this movie. Evil incarnate came to town to kill people. It was an unstoppable force that always seemed to be a couple steps ahead of law enforcement. It's a real nail biter right up to the end, then the post credit scene makes you way WTF?!?! Yep! I really liked this movie. It was fun in its campiness and crudeness. In a way, I feel like it holds up despite the crude and gritty 70s filming. It's the eternal struggle of good versus evil! If you find it, it's worth your time to watch.