So my daughter has reached the age where she’s not into kid’s movies, except the ones she wants to see. She’s been asking us to let her watch other movies, and we’ve let her watch a few of the ones my wife and I watched when we were around her age. So far she’s enjoyed them, there haven’t been too many we said outright “No!” too, and I thought it would be interesting to document her reactions to seeing them for the first time, and mine going back and watching these films again.
Now, The Car isn’t one she chose herself. She was sitting on the couch, playing Roblox, while I browsed Netflix and I came across this James Brolin flick. I was in a schlocky film mood so I started it up. I remember seeing the film on television when I was a kid and it scared me. I can’t say the same for present day me, or my daughter.
If you don’t know the plot, Josh Brolin plays Captain Wade Parent, a dirt bike riding deputy in a small desert town as he tries to stop an indestructible car driven by the devil. The whole movie feels like a cheap rip off of Christine, yet came out 6 years before the Stephen King book or John Carpenter film.
Like a lot of these films it’s almost as much fun seeing actors you recognize from other films as it is watching the movie itself. Ronny Cox (RoboCop), Melody Thomas Scott (Young and the Restless), Kim Richards (Escape to Witch Mountain), Kyle Richards(Halloween) and more pop up throughout the story. I was enjoying the film, laughing at the different ways they had to get people in the path of the car for the kills when I heard, “Who’s driving the car?”
My daughter’s peeking over her iPad, looking a little confused at what’s happening onscreen. “The Devil,” I say. She laughs. “The Devil?” I nod, “and the car can’t be destroyed.” She laughs. The movie that scared me as a child is a laugh riot to her.
We watch the car levitate, then drive through a house to kill the love interest. We watch it wreck on purpose to take out a cop chasing it and more. We try to figure out the deep questions the film brings up like, “How does a car get possessed?” and “Why didn’t the Devil pick a nicer car to drive?” When the movie ends with The Car buried under tons of rock, and the credits show it cruising a new city looking for victims, she puts on her best mock scared voice, and says, “It escaped! Oh God, We’ll never be safe!” making us both laugh. When I ask her about the film, she tells me enjoyed it. When I ask her if she wants to watch more films like it, she says yeah.
It makes me smile to see my love of schlock being passed down.