Rubber, Road, Brains and Souls: 5 Killer Car Flicks That Will Never Be Forgotten
Steve Barton
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Number 4 – Jeepers Creepers: Jeepers Creepers isn’t an outright killer car flick. It just so happens to prominently boast a kick-ass theme in the form of a menace of a machine (be-eating-u?) that guides one of the coolest movie monsters we’ve seen birthed in a few decades in his quest to devour human body parts. The modified ’41 Chevy COE just so happens to fully enhance the fear induced by the film as it is, in a sense, a piece of the Creeper. Just contemplating the film in general, truly examining its content, it becomes difficult to not consider this an intentionally hybrid-villain of a film. That rusted POS is damn near as frightening as the movie’s monster itself, and it earns more than enough screen time to hammer home the idea that it is no doubt just as much a danger as the Creeper is himself. Whether you’re a fan of Victor Salva or not, he deserves major credit for creating a jarring monster/car movie.
Number 3 – Joy Ride: God bless Paul Walker. That dude was a solid performer who had a sadly obvious obsession with automobiles and high speed travel. More specifically, joy rides. I mean no offense by that, whatsoever, and I make no attempt at toying with puns. As a fan I found it quite disheartening to know that he’d gone in such fashion. That, and I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Pleasantville – but if you repeat that, I’ll be forced to track you down and inflict bodily damage. The fact of the matter is this: Joy Ride was an awesome movie that actually sports replay value. The slow climb to the picture’s summit is loaded with disconcerting sequences, and our faceless killer is just the kind of nuisance that’s insane enough to really scare the shit out of viewers. That’s a special thing; it just doesn’t happen on film all that frequently. Throw in great synergy among Walker, Steve Zahn and Leelee Sobieski, and you’re left with a piece of celluloid that’s going to be remembered decades from now. I should know… I own it and throw it in the DVD player every few years; it never disappoints.
Categorized:Lists
