Not as highly regarded as other King books or Carpenter films but I loved both growing up and it’s had a long life. I think part of this is due to its central idea – who hasn’t wished or wondered if their car came to life? And wished that car could take out some bullies and repair itself? Plus there’s the whole nerd-becoming-cool-through-car-obsession thing.
The film also has very distinguished alumni – John Stockwell and Keith Gordon both became directors, Alexander Paul went on to Baywatch. Paul is fairly terrible (although she became good later in her career) but Stockwell had a very engaging presence and it's displayed excellently here – a SNAG jock. Gordon was good at nerds and he really got the chance to cut loose here. I also remember vividly Christine Belford’s performance as Gordon’s castrating mother – and Kelly Preston appears too as a dopey cheerleader (who’d realise she’d be playing those roles for basically her whole career?). My favourite performance though is from the fat soft spoken tag along part of the gang kid.
This has a slow burn – Carpenter’s take is maybe a bit too sparse and stylised when grittier handling might have worked (I would actually like to see a remake of this, just done in a different style – perhaps someone who was really, really into cars.)
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