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The Car
Novelization of the 1977 cult classic thriller about a metallic beast terrorizing the town of Santa Ynaz.
- GenresHorror
235 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 9, 2011
I was very excited when The Car was released on DVD. They did a nice job cleaning up the movie (as you can tell if you watch the trailer). If you've seen the movie, you have a pretty good idea what's going to happen in the book - for the most part.
The novel does have some major differences:
* the horn was used very infrequently compared to the movie
* the book is darker than the movie
* the novel is more specific about what Wade sees inside The Car and what it reveals about the driver
* the ending is very bleak
If you enjoy this movie as much as I do and are also the type who likes to compare the book to the movie, look for an inexpensive copy and give it a read.
Strongly recommended to those who enjoy supernatural horror and kick-butt Lincolns!
The novel does have some major differences:
* the horn was used very infrequently compared to the movie
* the book is darker than the movie
* the novel is more specific about what Wade sees inside The Car and what it reveals about the driver
* the ending is very bleak
If you enjoy this movie as much as I do and are also the type who likes to compare the book to the movie, look for an inexpensive copy and give it a read.
Strongly recommended to those who enjoy supernatural horror and kick-butt Lincolns!
March 15, 2017
The small Utah town of Santa Ynez is about to have its tranquil peace shattered. Teenagers Pete Keil and Suzie Pullbrook's leisurely early morning bike ride is rudely interrupted by a spectral black sedan which crushes Suzie against a guardrail and knocks Pete screaming off of a high bridge. Subsequently, it also brutally runs down hitchhiker Johnny Morris.
The county police, led by Sheriff Everett Peck, attempt to deal with the situation. But when Peck becomes the car's fourth victim in a hit and run right outside of the police station, Deputy Wade Parent must step up to the challenge. As the son of a sheriff himself, Wade has a lot to live up. He's a recent divorcee, with custody of his two daughters and is also dating their teacher, Lauren Humphreys. Everyone takes Everett's death pretty hard, and with Wade as sheriff-by-default, he makes it the personal mission of Santa Ynez's police department to bring the mysterious motorist to justice.
But the intimidating sedan is more than meets the eye. After terrorizing Lauren's class and chasing them into a cemetery, where it refuses to follow, a high-speed police chase ensues wherein the car proves not only bulletproof, but apparently indestructible, as it takes out two police cars using its own momentum by doing a barrel-roll over them and crushing them. Wade himself becomes convinced there may not even be a driver in the thing after all, especially after he and he alone gets a glimpse past the car's tinted windows...
This is an excellent novelization of the 1977 horror film The Car, written by screenwriters Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler, who also novelized their script for the Clint Eastwood film The Gauntlet. As with all the best novelizations, Shryack and Butler greatly expand the source material to develop the inhabitants of Santa Ynez and make them seem like real people, even adding a subplot involving the mayor and his pressure on Wade to deal with the killer car. The book also has a vastly different, more downbeat ending than the film, which I won't spoil.
The county police, led by Sheriff Everett Peck, attempt to deal with the situation. But when Peck becomes the car's fourth victim in a hit and run right outside of the police station, Deputy Wade Parent must step up to the challenge. As the son of a sheriff himself, Wade has a lot to live up. He's a recent divorcee, with custody of his two daughters and is also dating their teacher, Lauren Humphreys. Everyone takes Everett's death pretty hard, and with Wade as sheriff-by-default, he makes it the personal mission of Santa Ynez's police department to bring the mysterious motorist to justice.
But the intimidating sedan is more than meets the eye. After terrorizing Lauren's class and chasing them into a cemetery, where it refuses to follow, a high-speed police chase ensues wherein the car proves not only bulletproof, but apparently indestructible, as it takes out two police cars using its own momentum by doing a barrel-roll over them and crushing them. Wade himself becomes convinced there may not even be a driver in the thing after all, especially after he and he alone gets a glimpse past the car's tinted windows...
This is an excellent novelization of the 1977 horror film The Car, written by screenwriters Dennis Shryack and Michael Butler, who also novelized their script for the Clint Eastwood film The Gauntlet. As with all the best novelizations, Shryack and Butler greatly expand the source material to develop the inhabitants of Santa Ynez and make them seem like real people, even adding a subplot involving the mayor and his pressure on Wade to deal with the killer car. The book also has a vastly different, more downbeat ending than the film, which I won't spoil.
September 11, 2025
The Car
by Dennis Shryack
A town is terrorized by a car.
I have been trying to rekindle some memories from my childhood. I had a vague recollection of a movie about a car the terrified me. Is was called THE CAR. I needed to see if it held up. Was it really so terrifying? When I was trying to secure a copy of the movie I discovered that there was a book and read that there were some profound differences from one to the next. Great! So I spent MONTHS trying to track down the book because, as usual, I wanted to read the book before watching the movie.
A black car comes to town running people over. There's no known reason and the police can't seem to track it down. Is it the evil blown in on the wind that the superstitious local Native-Americans believe has arrived? Or is it some homicidal maniac behind the wheel?
As usual, the book was better than the movie. It was able to provide more of the inner-commentaries of the characters. It provided more from the perspective of THE CAR, and even who/what drives it. Yeah. This book is something else and well worth your time to read. It's an excellent horror novel!
In an aside, the book has been out of print for decades. Finding a print copy is tough, and pretty expensive. I would recommend borrowing it from the INTERNET ARCHIVE.
by Dennis Shryack
A town is terrorized by a car.
I have been trying to rekindle some memories from my childhood. I had a vague recollection of a movie about a car the terrified me. Is was called THE CAR. I needed to see if it held up. Was it really so terrifying? When I was trying to secure a copy of the movie I discovered that there was a book and read that there were some profound differences from one to the next. Great! So I spent MONTHS trying to track down the book because, as usual, I wanted to read the book before watching the movie.
A black car comes to town running people over. There's no known reason and the police can't seem to track it down. Is it the evil blown in on the wind that the superstitious local Native-Americans believe has arrived? Or is it some homicidal maniac behind the wheel?
As usual, the book was better than the movie. It was able to provide more of the inner-commentaries of the characters. It provided more from the perspective of THE CAR, and even who/what drives it. Yeah. This book is something else and well worth your time to read. It's an excellent horror novel!
In an aside, the book has been out of print for decades. Finding a print copy is tough, and pretty expensive. I would recommend borrowing it from the INTERNET ARCHIVE.
November 7, 2021
The Car nudging the bike in front before knocking the rider off the side off the cliff, plunging through the air, the bike totally mangled, the body unrecognisable. A hitch-hiker hit and The Car rolls over the body back and forth leaving dirt and pulp. Panic will rise in the small town with no crime. The Car will pounce like a preying cat and dazzle the laws of speed, time and motion. The black machine on a spree of good vs evil? The Car will evade patrol cars, road blocks and after getting shot in the tyres at point blank will simply suck up the bullets and the windscreen will vanish the bullet to nothing. The Car will roll over the hood of a patrol car and mix decapitated heads and metal. A cracking laugh and malevolent red eyes will come from this black evil. The Car will smash through a house leaving the victims top half human garbage. The Car of Satan.
October 27, 2014
Lots of fluff and filler for a dumb killer car story.
June 1, 2016
There are gems to be found in the pages of this crazy book, and it is far better than the movie.
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July 21, 2018I read this book when it originally came out around 1977? I saw the movie too and liked it. I was feeling nostalgic recently and started looking for the book online. I'd almost given up when I found this site which I am actually a member of and the link here found it on Amazon (something a search on Amazon itself did not yield, go figure). Unfortunately the sellers on Amazon currently want too much for my taste. I honestly don't remember much about the book, other than the ending was different.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews