Be forewarned: “The Car” (1977) is a movie you won’t want to watch alone. Not because it’s scary, but because it’s hilarious!
Stock up on plenty of alcohol and chips and call your best buddy in the world, and get ready for a fun evening of so-bad-it’s-good, “Mystery Science Theater 3000”-style one-upsmanship. Then join Roy and me tomorrow night for an exhaustive discussion, which will fortify us with more than we thought we ever needed to know about this motorized cult classic.
James Brolin (father of Josh, husband of Barbra) plays the deputy sheriff upon whom it falls to rid a sleepy desert community of an implacable, homicidal, seemingly driverless Lincoln Continental with tinted windows. Who cares about horse power, when it’s fueled by Satan! No one is safe – not even indoors. And those ‘70s cop cars are just so flammable.
Even in the surprisingly crowded field of possessed vehicle entertainment (“Duel,” “Killdozer,” “My Mother the Car”), “The Car” has dirt in its carburetor. But that’s what makes it so damned fun.
If you don’t have any beer and you don’t have any friends, or if you have zero tolerance for this kind of thing (in which case I am sorry for you), you really get all you need from this trailer, which never fails to brighten my day:
“The Car” is one of those movies that hurts so good.
We continue with our celebration of Halloween, on Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, as we check under the hood of “The Car.” Hitch a ride in the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!
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Wow, look what I found! The soundtrack by Leonard Rosenman (“East of Eden,” “Rebel without a Cause,” “Fantastic Voyage”). It opens, appropriately, if not unpredictably, with a quotation of the “Dies Irae,” which is woven throughout the score. Rosenman does his best to rachet up the tension – remember, he’s the one credited as the first composer to bring twelve-tone music to the movies (in “The Cobweb,” in 1955) – but nothing can really help “The Car.” Can it?
Hoooooooonk! HonkHonkHoooooooonk!
