Car / Day of the Animals (both 1977) UK Quad Poster

James Brolin stars as a sheriff coming to realise that what he thought was a homicidal driver, may be something far worse. Who is driving? Has The Car arrived to punish people for their sins? Once you see The Car barrel roll over a road block unscathed, its horn blaring in triumph, there’s a real sense of fear. Car customiser George Barris built The Car on a Lincoln Mark III chassis and made it as sinister as possible, with the roof three inches lower than usual and side fenders higher and longer. It truly does become demonic, and by offering no easy answers, the film transcends the typical tropes of the horror genre. As New York Press writer Jim Knipfel wrote, If Ingmar Bergman had made a horror movie about a murderous automobile, he would have made The Car.

Susan Backlinie, stuntwoman and actress, studied to be an animal trainer – fat lot of good it did her. She was the first victim in Jaws (1975) and is the sacrificial victim here too. This is another William Girdler animal attack film after the success of his Grizzly (1976), and it’s even more fun. Depletion of the ozone layer affects all animals at high altitudes – including humans – and as a group of hapless hikers attempt to survive wolves, vultures, they turn on each other. Girdler got a great B cast, an excellent score from Lalo Schifrin, tight editing from Bub Asman and James Mitchell, and where else are you going to see a psychotic Leslie Nielsen go mano a mano with a bear?

Aka: DeathMobile, Enfer mécanique / Something is Out There

Artist: Unknown

Condition: VERY GOOD / FINE - creasing, marks in top border

Cast: James Brolin, Kathleen Lloyd, John Marley, R. G. Armstrong, Kim & Lyle Richards / Christopher George, Lynda Day George, Richard Jaeckel, Michael Ansara, Ruth Roman, Paul Mantee – Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)