The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. A spinoff sequel, The Car: Road to Revenge, was released on January 8, 2019, with Ronny Cox returning in the series.[4]
Plot
Two cyclists riding through a canyon are followed down the road by a mysterious matte black car. At a bridge, the car proceeds to crush one cyclist against the wall and ram the other from behind, catapulting him off the bridge. A hitchhiker, hoping to get a ride, encounters the car and insults it after it purposely tries to run him down. It comes to a stop, reverses, and runs him over several times before driving off. The local sheriff's office, called to a series of hit-and-run incidents, gets a lead on the car. It appears to be heavily customized and has no license plates, as Amos Clemens points out after he sees it run over the hitchhiker.
After intentionally swerving around Amos that night, the car runs over Sheriff Everett Peck, leaving Chief Deputy Wade Parent in charge. During the resulting investigation, an eyewitness to the accident states there was no driver inside that car, furthering Wade's confusion. Wade asks his girlfriend, Lauren, a teacher at the local school, to cancel the upcoming marching band rehearsals for their safety. Lauren and her friend, the wife of Wade's deputy Luke Johnson, ask him to let them rehearse. Luke unwittingly agrees.
The car enters the town and attacks the school marching band as it rehearses at the local showground. It chases the group of teachers and students into a cemetery. Curiously enough, the vehicle will not enter onto the consecrated ground. Lauren taunts the driver, whom no one among the townsfolk has seen. Seemingly angered, the car destroys a brick gate post and leaves. The policemen go on a high-speed chase along highways throughout the desert before the car turns on them, destroying several squad cars and killing 5 of Wade's deputies. None of Wade's bullets put any dents on the car's windshield or tires, much to his surprise. Wade attempts to enter the car when it stops, but discovers it has no door handles. The car's door then opens by itself, knocking Wade unconscious and allowing the car to escape. At the hospital, Wade is consoled by his remaining deputies and Lauren. He later offers to get her some spare clean clothes.
That evening, Lauren is at her home, talking to Wade over the phone, when the enraged car drives straight through her house, killing her. Luke then explains to a grief-stricken Wade that killing his girlfriend was an act of revenge for Lauren's insults and notes it did not enter the cemetery because "the ground is hallowed," a biblical reference. Wade ultimately concocts the final plan to defeat the car once and for all in a trap in the canyon outside the town. After discovering it waiting in his garage, they are forced to carry out his plans with great haste. Wade is pursued by the car while high-speed riding on his dirt bike into the targeted mountainous canyon, where his remaining deputies have set a trap with explosives.
In the final confrontation, Wade and Luke stand still at the edge of a cliff and lure the car into running straight at them. They swiftly jump off both sides as it goes over the cliff, and set off the dynamite, triggering a massive explosion. To everyone's shock, a monstrous, demonic visage appears inside the flames. Despite Luke's insistence, Wade refuses to believe what the group saw in the flames.
The film concludes with the car still prowling on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, apparently having survived the explosions, its horn sound still heard distantly.
Cast
James Brolin as Wade Parent, a chief deputy, who is the main protagonist of the film.
Kathleen Lloyd as Lauren Humphries, a teacher at a local school, and Wade's girlfriend.
John Marley as Sheriff Everett Peck, one of Wade's deputies.
Elizabeth Thompson as Margie Johnson, Luke's wife.
Ronny Cox as Deputy Luke Johnson, Margie's husband, and Wade's best friend and partner.
Dennis C. Salcedo provides the sound effects of The Car.
Production
The evil, black car in the film was a highly customized 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III designed by famed Hollywood car customizer George Barris. There were four cars built for the film in six weeks. Three were used as stunt mules, the fourth for close-ups. The stunt mules were destroyed during production, while the car used for close-up shots is now in a private collection.
The car's bodywork was painted in steel, pearl and charcoal coloring. The windows were laminated in two different shades, smoked on the inside and amber on the outside, so one could see out of it but not into it. In order to give "the car" a "sinister" look as requested by director Elliot Silverstein, Barris made the car's roof four inches lower[5] than usual and altered its side fenders that same length again both higher and longer. According to Silverstein, the distinctive sound the horn of The Car makes spells out the letter X in Morse code, as a meaning of elimination of its victims.
Church of Satan leader Anton LaVey is acknowledged as an uncredited technical advisor for the film. The opening credits of the film begins with the quote "Oh great brothers of the night, who rideth upon the hot winds of Hell, who dwelleth in the devil's lair; Move and appear!", which is attributed to LaVey. The quote is a slight alteration of a passage from the "Invocation Employed Towards the Conjuration of Destruction" section in 'The Book of Leviathan: The Raging Sea' within The Satanic Bible. The original quote from The Satanic Bible is “Oh great brothers of the night, thou who makest my place of comfort, who rideth out upon the hot winds of Hell, who dwelleth in the devil's fane; Move and appear!”
The film's main theme, heard predominantly throughout, is a reworked, orchestral version of the Dies Irae. The theme was intentionally made to resemble more Berlioz's 5th part of Symphonie fantastique (itself also inspired by Dies Irae) rather than Dies Irae as it was found to have a more sinister tone than its original counterpart. Moreover, a derivative of the music was also used in the 1991 film Sleeping With The Enemy.
Reception and home media
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 30% of 20 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 3.9/10.[7]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 21 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "has all the ingredients of a parody, although someone has made the mistake of doing it straight."[8]Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel gave the film one star out of four and wrote, "What's worse than the rotten acting is that 'The Car' makes absolutely no sense as a story. In some scenes, the car is presented as a supernatural being, able to materialize at will. In other scenes, however, the car is hopelessly realistic. Even more surprising is the poor quality of the film's special effects."[9] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety wrote, " 'The Car' is a total wreck. Story concerns a phantom auto on a killing spree (allegory, anyone?) in a small western town where everybody overacts badly."[10]Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film's "various special effects are superior," but stated, "With often laughable dialogue—some of it deleted after previews—the film's appeal is limited to the undiscriminating seeking a new sensation."[11] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "a blatant, pitiful attempt to recycle elements from superior scare vehicles," namely Duel and Jaws.[12]John Gillett of The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that the film "manages to be a fairly brisk thriller" when the action was focused on the car, but lamented that director Silverstein "has been saddled with one of those small-town family scripts complete with Deputy Sheriff romping with his schoolteacher friend, a drink-and-neurosis-ridden police force, and some generally strained acting by a less than starry cast."[13]
The Car was released in standard definition and without additional features on VHS and DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on July 20, 1999. Arrow Films released The Car on Blu-ray on December 15, 2015. The Blu-ray release features the first HD 1080p transfer of the film, as well as commentary and additional features.[15]
In popular culture
Several television series have paid homage to the film, particularly in animated sitcoms. In the Futurama episode "The Honking", the character Bender transforms into a demonic car whose appearance was inspired by the car of the film. In the subplot of the American Dad! episode "Virtual In-Stanity", Roger becomes a limo driver, and uses the car to kill a group of fraternity brothers who stiffed him on his $20 fee. The American drama television series Supernatural also paid homage to the film in "Route 666", which involved a ghost truck involved in a string of racially motivated murders.
Spinoff sequel
In 2019, 42 years after the original film, a spinoff sequel (also starring Ronny Cox, but as a different character) was released called The Car: Road to Revenge to negative reviews by audiences and critics alike.[4]
See also
Similar titles
Killdozer!, a 1974 film about a possessed bulldozer.
CRASH!, A 1977 film also about an unmanned and possessed car that rampages the roads causing carnage, released in the same year as "The Car" but 4 months earlier.
The Hearse, a 1980 horror movie about a possessed hearse.
Nightmares, a 1983 movie made up of four separate story segments; the third, "The Benediction", features a traveling priest attacked on the highway by a demonic 4x4.
Trucks, a more faithful 1997 made-for-TV film based on the King short story.
Wheels of Terror, a 1990 made-for-TV film about a mysterious car with an unseen driver terrorizing a small Arizona community.
The Wraith, a 1986 action/horror film in which a mysterious man/spirit descends from the sky and manifests in a sports car and targets a local violent road-racing gang of motor heads.
Black Cadillac, a 2003 film about a mysterious black Cadillac that stalks three young men as they make their way through the virtually deserted mountain roads of Wisconsin.
Phantom Racer, a 2009 made-for-TV Syfy film about a race car possessed by the spirit of its driver seeking revenge against his former rival.
Super Hybrid, a 2011 film about a shapeshifting monster that transforms into cars.
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