Cars That Ate Paris (1974) UK Quad Poster #New

Peter Weir's feature debut for which he also wrote the story, The Cars That Ate Paris is a ferocious Australian horror comedy where a dusty town survives by pilfering the belongings of car crash victims - 'accidents' they instigate. Survivors are lobotomised and kept for medical experimentation by the town surgeon. In the background, the local hoons (look it up) are modifying the wrecked vehicles into bizarre, dangerous forms, and tensions run high between these youngsters and the townsfolk. Distributors found it impossible to categorise Weir's mood-switching black comedy, and ad campaigns veered wildly between horror and art house. In the UK, it had a long life on the 'Sunday for One Day Only' circuits and late night cult double bills.

The seminal image of the spiky Volkswagen is the first glimpse of the post-apocalyptic Mad Max style, and the presence of Bruce Spence (Mad Max II's Gyro Captain) is the link between Weir's and George Miller's auto-visions. As a nod to the granddaddy of the Australian Car movie, the Volkswagen even makes a brief reappearance in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

Condition: VERY GOOD - small paper loss top edge, tape residue bottom left and top edge left and right. Slight staining right of car and at spike above, small scuff mid car.

Cast: Terry Camilleri, John Meillon - Walkabout, Wake in Fright (both 1971), Heatwave (1982) and played Walter in the Crocodile Dundee (1986) films, Bruce Spence, Max Gillies - The Coca-Cola Kid (1985)