the car

Assigned the task of making "Jaws on land," director Elliot Silverstein brought up to studio executives the many challenges of trying to top Spielberg with a story about a demonic vehicle wreaking havoc in broad daylight in the desert...not the least of which was the fact that Spielberg already made it! Four years before pitting Roy Scheider against a great white, the director had put Dennis Weaver in a similar position against an unstoppable semi-truck in Duel (1971), a made-for-TV movie that was released theatrically overseas to great success.

The Car (1977) doesn't have one-tenth of the tension that made Duel great, but it's still fun in the way most forgettable B-movies are: taking a ridiculous scenario so seriously that one can't help but have a good time watching James Brolin and his deputies go head-to-head against forces they don't understand.

And quite honestly, neither does anyone else!

The Car doesn't even attempt to explain the supernatural powers of its horn-honking death machine. It simply arrives out of the desert, preceded by a devilish wind, eager to run over any biker, pedestrian, cop or French Horn-playing hitchhiker that gets in its way. The mystery of who's behind the wheel is the one element the film lifts very successfully from Duel, trading genuine scares for a element of suspense that works right up until the rather preposterous climax.

Silverstein's camera captures the desert scenery with surprising scope. And one or two sequences look to have had a definite influence of John Carpenter's later killer car movie, Christine. James Brolin commits to all the general goofiness 100%, helping to sell a concept that I'm sure generated some on-set snickering. And designer George Barris (who also made the original Batmobile) does a great job turning a 1971 Lincoln Continental into a hot rod from hell.

Released under the Scream Factory banner, The Car gets the deluxe treatment with an incredible-looking hi-def transfer, interviews with Silverstein and actors Melody Thomas Scott and Geraldine Keams, trailers, radio spot and a still gallery.