Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Car Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 11, 2015

In a new interview included on this Blu-ray as a supplement, director Elliot Silverstein comes off as an extremely nice older gentleman who obviously realizes that The Car is not exactly a lost cinematic masterpiece. He makes some rather cogent points about Universal’s almost obsessive attempts to make “Jaws on land,” including his assertions that one reason Jaws worked so well is that the titular “villain” was operating in its own environment, a dark and secluded place where humans had interloped (wittingly or unwittingly). Silverstein mentions that he had qualms about trying to create suspense out of a car marauding through the wide open vistas of the American Southwest, averring that “God lives in the desert, while the Devil lives in darkness.” That reference to a certain satanic element at play in The Car (and in the car, too, in a manner of speaking) is never really detailed with any expository specificity in the film, though those who recognize the name of Anton LaVey (who provides the film with an epigram of sorts at its beginning) or who recognize composer Leonard Rosenman’s portentous recasting of the venerable Dies Irae as “theme music” may at least have a head start of sorts in recognizing the supposed motivation of the vehicle's murderous tendencies, subliminal though it may be. The Car is resolutely silly stuff, and in fact attracted downright scorn from critics of the day, but looking back at it now from the perspective of several decades of other Jaws wannabes, the film comes off as surprisingly stylish and better than it probably has any right to be.

There are frolicking young folks playing in an environment where danger lurks as The Car opens, much like the memorable first skinny dipping attack in Jaws, albeit this time it’s two cyclers tooling through a twisty, turny highway in southern Utah. Silverstein has already given the audience both the LeVay quote and Rosenman’s Dies Irae snippet, as well as a view of some kind of vehicle zooming through vast expanses with a cloud of dust emanating from behind it. In the first of several kind of silly “POV” shots, a yellow tinged perspective from behind the car’s windshield is offered as the car takes out the two kids in a scene that is probably more funny than it is actually scary.

Later, the car “interacts” with a French Horn playing hitchhiker (there must be a lot of those, don’t you think), a role essayed by a young John Rubinstein in what, due to the character’s less than successful repartee with the vehicle, is a cameo. That finally gets the local constabulary involved, which includes young family man Wade Parent (James Brolin). When the car takes out Parent’s boss (played by Love Story Oscar nominee John Marley), Parent is thrust into the lead of an investigation where he’s perhaps less than willing to instantly accept a supernatural reason for all the mayhem.

Already the film is on some tenuous ground, as there is really no rhyme or reason to the attacks by the car. It’s obviously motivated by— well, something, but whatever that is is never really made clear. If the car is indeed subject to being possessed by some demonic force (could it be—Satan?), why this malevolent spirit is out to terrorize this particular community is never really made very clear. As a result the film tends to work up whatever energy it’s able to muster through a series of vignettes where various characters are either killed (in sometimes spectacular fashion) or at least threatened (in sometimes unintentionally comical fashion).

Christine will probably be considered the paradigm of “possessed car” outings, and it’s probably noteworthy to mention that even in the Stephen King offering there’s no ultimate “reason” given for the car’s proclivity toward murder—it just seems to “be” that way. However, in Christine, once the car’s inherent evil is detailed (which is right off the bat), it then makes sense (at least as anything does in a film like this) when the car ends up in the hands of an owner and begins wreaking havoc. Here, in The Car, an isolated burg is simply invaded for no easily discernable reason. Maybe they should have put up a “road closed” sign outside of town.

The Car Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Car is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Judging solely by comparing screenshots, this appears to be largely the same if not absolutely identical to the British Blu-ray released by Arrow which was reviewed by my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov. Once you get past some slightly problematic credits, the image is quite commendably clear and well detailed, with a decently accurate looking palette and some very good to excellent fine detail in close-ups. Depth of field in the many wide open vistas Silverstein and DP Gerald Hirschfeld offer is quite substantial at times. Fine grain is natural looking though there are some very minor compression issues in some darker moments.

Note: I've attempted to replicate several of the screencaptures accompanying the British review (linked above) so that those curious can open full size windows and toggle between views for a comparison.

The Car Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Car features both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 tracks, and both offer substantial depth and excellent fidelity. The 5.1 ups the sonic ante by featuring a more fulsome low end, including good rumbly bass when the car's engines roars or when Rosenman's score exploits lower brass instruments (which is frequently). There are also some good moments of immersion, typically in attack scenes where sound effects pan through the soundfield quite convincingly. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly and without any problems whatsoever.

The Car Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Director Elliot Silverstein (1080p; 9:16) finds the director in pretty good spirits about this offering, as he repeatedly states he and everyone else were trying their best, as if to suggest "don't get your hopes up too high."


• Interview with Actress Geraldine Keams (1080p; 12:10). Keams gets into some of her own personal history as well as her part in the film.


• Interview with Melody Thomas Scott (1080p; 9:52) finds the performer a bit on the humorously feisty side as she documents some skirmishes with Silverstein and a prank she played on unususpecting Utah tourists during the shoot.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080i; 2:15) has a kind of odd anamorphic glitch at the very end.


• TV Spot (1080i; 00:34)


• Radio Spots (3:09)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 10:32) allows for manual stepping through of the images.

The Car Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Based on Svet's review, it looks like the British Arrow release has more in the supplements department than this Scream release (something that's at least a little surprising, given Shout!'s emphasis on providing ample bonus content for its horror releases put out under the Scream imprint), and so those with region free players may want to check out that version. Otherwise, though, video quality looks largely identical, and this release offers a lossless surround track which the British release does not. The Car is unabashedly silly, but it's fun in an unapologetically low brow way. Recommended.