B-grade thriller from debuting director Charles Band has a driverless black Camaro causing destruction and death on rural highways and back roads; meanwhile, invalid Jose Ferrer (the victim of a mysterious car accident himself) accuses wife Sue Lyon of cheating and attempts to have her killed, but she's in possession of an occult amulet which may help her turn the tables. Not a bad plot (as these things go), and the cast is certainly solid, but there's barely a semblance of filmmaking talent behind the camera. Band, working with two cinematographers, stages outlandish car crashes and smash-ups without any tension or excitement (though some may say the squashing of a bickering couple in their car has a touch of black humor). The movie is just an exercise in vehicular mayhem--topped with a love of sending cars to their demise in fiery explosions--while the occult asides seem merely an afterthought. *1/2 from ****

I'm giving this a "3" because despite it being garbage, as a car chase fanatic, I have to acknowledge that there are a few decent car crashes.But man, is this true tripe. From what I gather, this was rushed into the cinema to beat out "The Car" by making a film about their own killer car, namely a classic driverless Camaro convertible. Oh yeah sure, there's a silly revenge plot mixed in there somewhere that is supposed to be "horror" (wife with strange powers vs. ex-husband) but will scare absolutely no one over two years old, but it's the car action we all want to see.Frankly, the car crashes are really weird, because it's obvious they only had one of these Camaros and didn't want to put nary a scratch on the one they had (until the final scenes), so they made sure it barely touches other cars.For instance, the Camaro smashes through a police roadblock, but we don't actually "see" it smash through - convenient explosions go up right at the time we should see it, blocking our view, and the Camaro zooms on through, without a scratch.The film does have some decent crashes though, even though many of these have those "invisible ramps" that make cars go flying through the air.It all comes down to the finale, the proverbial Big Battle - demon Camaro vs... an old guy in a wheelchair. Yes, you read that right. Who will win? This film is so poor, at one point a little over the hour mark, it decides to kill some running time by replaying all the previous crashes we've seen! When that's done, we get some new crashes, and the aforementioned Camaro/wheelchair battle.If you can get a hold of this one, do yourself a favor, and just FF to all the road scenes. You will thank me. Oddly enough, the best part of the DVD is a rare 30-second clip of John, David and Keith Carradine fooling around.

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.

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.