Autoroute pour la mort

Original title: Death Car on the Freeway

TV Movie
1979
Not Rated
1h 31m

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

538

YOUR RATING

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Mystery Thriller

An unknown, psychotic driver uses his van to kill unsuspecting female drivers on the freeway.An unknown, psychotic driver uses his van to kill unsuspecting female drivers on the freeway.An unknown, psychotic driver uses his van to kill unsuspecting female drivers on the freeway.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.4/10

538

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Clip 3:00

Death Car On The Freeway

Photos3

User reviews19

5.4538

Featured reviews

7Chase_Witherspoon

Fiddler on the Road

Taught little tele-movie featuring a maniacal van driver bearing down on lone female motorists, causing mayhem, death and destruction. It's a serial killer movie with a twist; the van is the modus operandi and the signature is a frenetic bluegrass tune blaring from inside, earning the killer 'The Fiddler' nickname. Novice TV anchorwoman (Hack), desperate to emerge from beneath the shadow of her former husband (Hamilton), investigates the road rage attacks for the network news service, becoming not only an expert, but part of the story itself, which attracts attention from seedy individuals, who may be linked to the killer.

Director and veteran stunt co-ordinator Hal Needham has crafted a tense mystery thriller on a TV budget, incorporating a raft of well-executed stunts, and some big names in the cast. The 'tanned one' plays his usual character (i.e. George Hamilton) and while Hack is a bit like her surname, there's good support from veterans Rush, Gorshin, Graves, Vigoda and co in the wings. Even pretty Morgan Brittany is realistic as an over-zealous, aspiring actress, keen to emphasise her near-fatal encounter with 'The Fiddler'.

There seems to have been an attempt to convey the message of journalistic objectivity, and professional integrity in media, but neither Hack nor Hamilton are credible enough to carry that pretext. Their cheesy white dentures and auto-cue reading skills enough to convince you they're news mannequins, but nothing more. Despite this, Needham plays his aces at the right times, employing his experienced cast for scene fillers, and handing the rest of the movie over to the outstanding stuntwork to deliver the action sequences, which are superior to those employed in many feature films. The sense of hysteria that he builds in the narrative is well weighted for a fitting climax, and the audience isn't left disappointed. Worth a look.

6artpf

Six cylinders

A woman is badly shaken when she is run off the freeway and nearly killed by a crazy van-driver.

Her story is not taken too seriously by TV or the police - until another woman is killed in similar circumstances, also by a dark van.

The police seem to have no leads, so a TV reporter starts investigating the similarities between the cases.

As the deaths mount, she takes hazard-driving lessons. When she finally locates the driver's whereabouts, he's missing, but chases her onto the freeway.

This movie has some loud music. It's no a horrible movie, but it's directed like a TV movie which takes something away from the film. The print I saw was so bleached out the color was nearly gone and sometimes it seemed like I was watching a b&W movie.

The verdict: 6.

5Coventry

Duel II: Rush Hour Rage!

Who better than Hal Needham, notorious stunt driver and director of many good ol' boy car chase movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Cannonball Run", could direct this modest but worthwhile TV-thriller with numerous crashes and exploding vehicles? The resemblance with Steven Spielberg's phenomenal "Duel" is unmistakable, but that doesn't necessarily makes this film a blatant rip-off. Both films center on a psychopath who, seemingly without much of a motive, uses his/her vehicle as a deadly murder weapon. In "Duel" it's a filthy old truck in the middle of nowhere, whereas in "Death Car on the Freeway" it's a Dodge van on the traffic-infested highways of California during rush hour (which is probably why he occasionally has to switch license plates and re-paint). William Wood's scenario also hints that the murderous van driver does have a motive, in fact. He exclusively targets attractive women alone in a car, so that must make him a misogynic and underdeveloped pig that can't stand that women grow stronger and more independent nowadays. So, symbolically, the person on his tail is a rather timid and initially insecure female journalist who just liberated herself from her self-centered husband and doesn't get taken seriously by her management, or the TV Company's management. The "freeway-incidents" are tense and spectacular, in spite of the obvious budget restrictions, which is a good thing because the rest of the film is overly talkative and somewhat dull. The crashing cars burst into flames illogically fast, if you ask me, but that only makes it more exciting. Although it's "just" a TV-movie, "Death Car on the Freeway" stars a fairly impressive number of familiar names, like Peter Graves, George Hamilton and Robert F. Lyons. Horror and cult fanatics should particularly keep an eye open for a brief appearance by Sid Haig.

stevenfallonnyc

Pretty good

Look at that title, that plot and that cast, and what do you get? Definitely a 70's TV-movie. And it's really not a bad one at that. For car fans there's a lot of cool old cars to look at and some decent crashes. It definitely borrows from "Duel" (one of the immensely overrated Spielberg's only decent films) but manages to come up with a fresh take on it. The best thing about this movie is that the action is for real, back in the days when movie-making was real blood and sweat, instead of the computer crap we see today. When these cars crash, you can see where if something went wrong, there would have been more trouble on the set. But that's real movie making, not drawing cartoons on a computer.

This movie definitely has the odd tricks and turns a lot of tv-movies did from the day, and still sometimes do. But given the era and the plot, that only adds to the fun. Definitely a good choice if you can find this one.

5Uriah43

A Psychotic Solution to Rude Drivers

This film essentially begins with a young woman by the name of "Becky Lyons" (Morgan Brittany) driving on one of the busy freeways in Los Angeles when she encounters another driver who won't let her get into the next lane. Frustrated that she has just missed her exit, she then tries to speed up in order to take the next offramp but, once again, that same driver prevents her from doing so. To make matters even worse, the harder she tries to distance herself from him, the more reckless he becomes--which eventually results in her having an accident that nearly kills her. Naturally, being the large city that it is, it isn't long before television reporters on the scene to question her about what happened with one particular journalist known simply as "Jan" (Shelley Hack) becoming convinced that there is more to this story than meets the eye. At first, her concerns are dismissed by a local detective named "Lieutenant Haller" (Peter Graves) who considers any possibility of it being a deliberate homicide attempt as absurd. Things change, however, when several more women experience the exact same thing--and as they inevitably turn fatal, it soon becomes clear that a serial killer is using the busy streets of Los Angeles as his hunting ground. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film started off reasonably well but suffered somewhat when the scenes shifted from mystery to action. I say this because some of these action scenes were a bit over-the-top and not that realistic. Even so, this wasn't a bad made-for-television movie and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Goofs
The hubcaps on Jan's Datsun disappear and reappear at random times throughout the movie, sometimes this happens within the same scene.

Quotes
Jan: Who is the Freeway Fiddler? Well of course, no one knows yet, but tonight we at least have an educated guess on that answer from Dr. Rita Glass, chief of psychiatric services at Los Angeles General Hospital, and a frequent consultant in police matters. Thank you for being with us tonight, Doctor, what can you tell us about the Fiddler?
Dr. Rita Glass: Well Jan, of course I don't know anymore about what the Fiddler looks like than anyone else, but what I can offer tonight is a sort of psychological profile based on what we already know about the killer. Let's take the attacks themselves. We already know that the victims are all women traveling the freeway alone. We also know that they were all reasonably attractive, and there is strong evidence to suggest that in each case the driver of the car performed some sort of maneuver which was perceived by the killer as an act of aggression, causing the killer to say in effect 'Hey, you women are just getting too big for your britches'.
Jan: Judging from what you just said then, what can we theorize about the Fiddler's psychological profile?
Dr. Rita Glass: He is a severely repressed personality, easily threatened, unsure of his masculinity. That he may have been dominated as a child by his mother or some other female authority figures. That he is emotionally stunted, and in a very deep sense, feels like a child. I would also have to guess that he has a strong death wish, a need to be hurt, or killed, perhaps as a punishment for being such a bad boy. After all, he cannot attack these women in such a way without placing himself in extreme danger.
Jan: Thank you, Doctor. Drawing on the doctor's profile then, we can make the following suggestions to women: Don't travel the freeway unless absolutely necessary, and don't travel alone. And if you do find yourself on the freeway, drive defensively, particularly if there is a van in the area. Remember, the Freeway Fiddler has already killed 9 women, and will almost surely, kill again.