The Car
Car cost $84,000.00 to build.,When Chas drops Lauren off at her home to collect things to spend the night with Wade's children while Wade's in the hospital, her home appears to be the center house in either a dead end or cul-de-sac; however, when The Car flies/drives through her home to kill her and lands on the other side of her house, it lands on a highway and drives away as if her house was built on a straight roadway.,Donna: Wade... there's something I... I wanna tell you about last night. Well, the old lady... well, Chas, he didn't translate everything that she said.
Wade Parent: What do you mean?
Donna: Well, uh... she said... there was no driver in the car.,The Car's horn blows at the beginning and the end of the ending credits.,The NBC edited for TV version of this film includes some additional scenes to pad out the movie due to needed commercial breaks. The aforementioned additional scenes were during the cemetery standoff between the school band and the Car. The part where Lauren is insulting and taunting the Car is longer and there is a short dialog between her and her friend Margie planning on how one of them will run out and escape to call for help. These are not on the official 1999 DVD/VHS release.,Edited into Knight Rider: Trust Doesn't Rust (1982),Dies Irae, Dies Illa
(uncredited)
Traditional, thought to be written by Thomas of Celano
[Instrumental version played over the opening title card and credits],What a flick. I just bought the widescreen edition and watched it to celebrate the new century. Let me briefly list a few of its many strong points, most of which are essential to the success of the 1970s "Killer Object/Animal" horror subgenre:

1. Colorful small-town (desert, Southwest-y) flavor. A parade or similar celebration (rodeo, picnic) should occur. 2. Quirky dialogue. 3. John Marley acting beligerent. 4. A Panicked Crowd Scene, with folks dashing for their lives as the demonic beast/machine/inanimate object heads their way. 5. A smart-alleck hippie who meets a horrible end.

Seriously, though-- this film isn't "scary" in the traditional sense, but its true power lies when you really start thinking about the car itself. Where did it come from? Is the Devil driving? And is it plaguing our major characters because of their sins? (i.e. Ronny Cox as an alcoholic falling off the wagon, James Brolin as a single parent trying to keep his daughters happy as he dates sexy Kathleen Lloyd.) What I'm saying is at its heart, this is a creepy, unsettling film with some really strange philosophical/religious questions at its core. And how many horror films can claim that? A solid 7/10.,