The opening scenes that feature a couple driving in a car and smoking prominently displaying cigarettes were a parody of a commercial aired on Australian television at the time of the film's original release. Website 'Peterweircave' says of this: "The opening "advertisement", which many viewers seem to take as blatant product placement for Coke and Alpine cigarettes, was actually a spoof in itself. At the time it was made, movies in Australia were often preceded by ads for cigarettes and such. By putting this before the opening credits, Weir was fooling the viewers into thinking this was yet another ad."
This movie is arguably the first of the Australian "car" movies that would prove significant in the new Australian film revival of the 1970s and into the 1980s [See Also: Stone (1974), The F.J. Holden (1977), In Search of Anna (1978), American Happy Day (1977), Backroads (1977), Mad Max (1979), Mad Max 2 : Le Défi (1981), Midnite Spares (1983), Roues sauvages (1982), Le Drive in de l'enfer (1986) and Mad Max : Au-delà du dôme du tonnerre (1985)].
When this film was taken to the Cannes Film Festival in May 1974, to promote the picture, production crew dressed up like characters from the film and also similarly, drove a Volkswagen car covered with spikes (like in the film) around the streets of Cannes, garnering much attention and publicity.
This film is notable for one of its distinctive movie posters which features a striking black and white art-deco style cartoon graphic of a car.
This Australian film was retitled 'The Cars That Eat People' for theatrical release in the USA.