Review of The Car (1977) by Orlok W — 20 Sep 2012

Getting into the spirit of Halloween I was in the mood for something thriller-ish/horror-y tonight. And so, looking through Netflix, for some reason "The Car" stood out to me. Wow. It has been a very long time since a movie has had me on the edge of my seat for almost the full length. In totally honesty, my heart rate went up several times, my palms were sweating, and I actually did bite my nails during multiple sequences. I really was not actually expecting that from this movie. I mean, c'mon.... a horror movie about a "killer car"? At best it would be one of those horror films that is so bad it's good. But as soon as the opening credits faded and we have our classic horror/creature feature opening sequence of the "first victims"... like, *the moment* the Car is introduced, accompanied by Leonard Rosenman's very tense, dangerous, and monstrous score... I started to realize "Holy cow.... this might actually work." And it did, which, again, just surprises me sooo much. For some reason there is just something frighteningly disturbing about the story line (like, the good kind of disturbing that draws you in). There weren't really any moments where I jumpedâ"though the editors tried to create that effect in at least two sequencesâ"so it failed a little in *that* arena. The movie succeeded more in the thrilling build-ups. Seeing the Car from a distance... coming in for the kill. And they especially pulled off real well a couple sequences where your eye just catches something and you're just sitting there wide-eyed wondering "....Did I just see what I think I saw...??".

So this was probably one of the better new Thrillers that I've watched in a long while.

[Vague Spoilers ahead].

The reason why it does not get a full five-star rating... is because I felt it went too far with the killings... specifically *who* gets killed....specifically one person in particular...and I just felt that this was absolutely unnecessary.

[End of Vague Spoiler].

Overall the movie truly succeeded in "thrilling" me and pulling me to the edge of my seat. REALLY surprising, but a pleasant surprise.