In case you’ll be sitting in front of your TV tonight, sporadically being interrupted by little anklebiters dressed up in their Halloween best, here are a few recommended fright flicks starring murderous automobiles.
Duel - Stephen Spielberg’s feature film debut. Features your average “Joe Six Pack”, aka Dennis Weaver, on a business trip being chased by a possessed tanker truck. Highlight of the flick is when the truck pushes Weaver’s Plymouth Valiant into the path of an oncoming train. Here’s the full length version in Google Video.
The Car – A terrifying tale of a black sedan (based on a ’71 Lincoln Continental) with a gargantuan chrome bumper – perfect for ramming innocent victims – goes on a tear through the desert Southwest, taking out everyone in its path. The acting is equally horrifying, as well as the dialogue, but that’s what makes it a cult classic.
Maximum Overdrive – If you’re a child of the ’80′s, then how can you forget this Stephen King gem? Starring Emilio Estevez, Maximum Overdrive is the mechanized version of the apocalypse. Goblin-headed tractor trailers running over humans while AC/DC belts out ear-melting guitar solos, how can it get any better?
Wheels of Terror – A made for TV flick which leaves much to be desired in the acting department, but you’re not watching a movie like this for the theatric talent. You’re watching it because of a black Dodge Charger that handles dirt roads better than the General Lee himself. Too bad this Dodge Charger is an early malaise era iteration.
Joy Ride – Right after his arrival in Hollywood as ‘that white guy in The Fast and the Furious“, Paul Walker starred in Joy Ride, a movie about three college kids on a road trip home when they play a seemingly harmless CB prank on a trucker. Wrong prank. Wrong trucker. It’ll make you want to never use a CB again.
John Carpenter’s Christine would have been one of my choices to make the top 5 list.