Draculas Todesrennen

CRASH! Is the second directed feature from Charles Band, best known as the prolific director and producer behind Empire and Full Moon, and his first foray into the horror genre. This one's about a woman involved in a car accident who appears to be under the influence of/is possessed by a weird religious idol, and the wheelchair-bound Jose Ferrer has to try to figure out what's going on. There are definite vibes of THE OMEN in this low budget production, which is mainly based around a series of B-movie style car stunts and explosions. The plot is join-the-dots basic but mildly diverting, and John Carradine pops up as a typical eccentric. The best scenes are those featuring the possessed heroine which ably recall the shudders of THE EXORCIST, but otherwise this is unremarkable.

Be prepared for lots of vehicular carnage and lots of impressive fireballs in this goofy combination of possession themed horror and car-crash action fare. Most genre fans are likely to be more familiar with "The Car" (from the same year as this one) and the Stephen King adaptation "Christine", so "Crash!" could use a little more exposure.

Jose Ferrer stars as Marc Denne, hateful towards his hot young wife Kim (Sue "Lolita" Lyon) because he holds her responsible for the fact that he's now a cripple. He tries to arrange for her death, but unknown to him, she's acquired an unusual small figurine at a swap meet, one that possesses weird powers. At the same time, a mysterious, black, driver less convertible has appeared and is sometimes killing motorists.

Marc Marais wrote the silly script for this nonsensical but diverting B picture. The cast deserves credit for treating it with such straight faces. The plot isn't fleshed out all that well, but in this kind of low budget entertainment, that usually isn't too much of a concern. This plot tends to take a back seat to weirdness and mayhem, anyway. The filmmaking is fairly crude overall, although it's nice that producer / director Charles Band and his cinematographers, Andrew Davis and Bill Williams, shot this in Panavision. Utilizing the Panavision aspect ratio always gives a bigger look to smaller budgeted pictures, something Bands' peer John Carpenter knew very well. The music score by Andrew Belling feels very '70s at times, but it's fun, and atmospheric. There isn't much in the way of special effects, which is probably just as well. Those frequent explosions *are* pretty over the top, and cool to watch.

Co-star John Ericson is utterly stiff as concerned, well meaning doctor Gregg Martin, but Ferrer is a treat to watch, with Lyon trying her hardest as the young wife. Leslie Parrish is likewise sincere as nurse Kathy Logan, and Jerome Guardino is okay as Pegler, the obligatory "detective on the case" character. Band appears uncredited as a helpful motorist; John Carradine and especially Reggie Nalder have great cameos.

There's nothing really special here, but "Crash!" is still worth seeking out for B picture completists.

Six out of 10.

This horror film is more occultic than others I have seen. "The Car" was made within the same year as "Crash!". "The Car" is dealing with an automobile that is pure evil. This movie however dealing with a car controlled by evil. One car caused terror in a town, while this one caused chaos in its path. One car was controlled by the driver, while the other, didn't need one! In "Crash!", you have a beautiful blonde (Sue Lyon) who goes out to a swap meet and buys an idol to show her wheelchair bound husband (Jose Ferrer). Filled will jealousy, he tries to stop her from going places. While on a stretch of road, a large dog attacks her, causing her to crash. She comes out, clutching the idol. She never released it during her stay at the local hospital. That idol did a lot of damage to the motorists. Especially, the police. When she recovered, there was more information about the idol she has. Her scheming husband dug the true worth of it. Since she bought it cheap, it has more worth underneath the ceramic casing. This movie was indeed cheaply made. The crashes was more of the fun, very little action. But watchable.

Not to be confused with Cronenberg's sex drive epic, this is Charles Band mixing demonic possession with car crashes. Housewife Kim Denne (Sue Lyon, far away from LOLITA [1962]) is shacked up with bitter professor Marc Denne (José Ferrer). Wait, is this a LOLITA sequel? Anyway, he is angry because she caused an accident where he has to use a wheelchair a lot of the time. So when she buys him a African-looking trinket (from Reggie Nalder at a flea market; never buy from Nalder!), he rejects it and moves forward with his plan of having his Doberman pinscher kill her while she is driving in a convertible (!). She survives, but is hospitalized with no memory and refusing to release the tiny mystical idol. Somehow it possesses her and her car (!), which rumbles around town driver-less and causes tons of crashes. I'm willing to bet Band's second feature came together after someone showed him the crazy gimmick car that looks like it has no one driving it. Oh, and after he watched THE EXORCIST (1973). Surprisingly, this beat THE CAR to theaters by a few months. The film makes absolutely no sense, but is worth seeing for some crazy car stuff. So at least he delivered on the title.

Not a bad mix of horror and massive car-crashing B-movie - for better appreciation, you see the crashes twice, once in parts, injected into the story, once mostly blocked and through some sauna haze. One point I could not figure out is that the initial accident of Mr & Mrs Denne seems to be already caused by the black Camaro.

Historically, this seems to be the first movie Charles Band directed under his own name. As some funny parallel, Steven Spielberg's first was "Duel" (1971) in which a demonious truck chases cars off the road... I was thrilled to see that Charles Band had also acted, 15 years before, in "La leggenda di Enea" (1962).

As several users asked for DVD availability: I bought it yesterday (at EUR 1 you don't risk much). German sound only (German title "Draculas Todesrennen" which isn't such a bad fit), no frills, Laser Paradise 1997889, production year not evident. Colors and sharpness are not perfect (maybe the DVD was made from older video tape), but OK to watch.