To celebrate Halloween, we’re reviewing this forgotten Australian gem that stars a VW Beetle covered in steel spikes to impale people and run them over.
The 1974 horror / western / black-comedy was the directorial debut of Peter Weir (‘The Truman Show‘) based on his own screenplay. The town of Paris in the outback of Australia couldn’t be any more different than the City of Lights. Conservative and provincial, the town elders want to maintain the ways of the past. But their dark secret is that the town intentionally causes car wrecks to unfortunate souls passing by. Their vehicles are stripped for parts, and the drivers are admitted into a hospital where a mad doctor performs ‘experiments’ on them with a power drill. Yikes!
But there’s a young generation in Paris that are tired of the old ways; the ‘hoons’. These guys dress like old west gun-slingers and wildly drive through town in scrap cars build from parts of their victims’ vehicles. The council tries to clamp down on the hoons, by establishing a sheriff-like character; the parking enforcement officer. The hoons ignore his warnings. To drive home their point, the council detains the hoons and forces them to watch one of their cars being burned to the ground. There is no worse crime to a gearhead! The scene is reminiscent of ‘A Clockwork Orange‘ as the local cop holds a hoon down, forcing him to keep his eyes open and watch his sick ride burn.
Don’t worry; there’s a happy ending. The first two acts seem to be a commentary on society, generational conflict, and even consumerism. But the third act is motorized madness! During the annual Pioneers Day fancy dress ball, the hoons have rebuilt their colourfull rides and go on a kill crazy rampage!
The star-car is a silver VW Beetle covered in blades and spikes, that looks almost alive. The director even mixed the sound of wild animals in with the engine noises for a truly disturbing scene. The cars destroy the town, smashing into porches and bashings into fences, literally eating the town.
The movie was actually screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but was deemed too disturbing to enter competition. B-movie king Roger Corman was so struck by the movie that he bought the rights to distribute in the US, but he dragged his heels for nearly a year, and ultimately shot the similarly themed ‘Death Race 2000‘ instead (sneaky devil).
Some critics call ‘The Cars That Ate Paris‘ one of greats of New Wave of Australian cinema, and it doesn’t take a genius to see how much the hoons and their cars influenced ‘The Road Warrior‘ released in 1979, and Mad Max’s dystopian world.
Bloody good Halloween film.
Yup! I stumbled across this title a couple of months ago but waited until the spooky season to watch it.
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I just LOVED when the mayor gets impaled by the VW! And the car just drives away with dude on the hood like an ornament… or a dead deer from a hunting expedition.
I have been hanging out to read this! For some reason, this sounds like something fun to watch.
So it’s actually a great movie on multiple levels.
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There’s a strong plot about the conflict between conservatives and progressives.
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The notion of a town that intentionally causes car accidents to profit from others’ misfortunes is supposed to be a commentary about colonialism. Too heavy for my feeble mind.
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But the FUN part is the hoons and their wild cars. It’s like a prequel to Mad Max
The philosophical aspect really appeals to me. I was just listening to a podcast about “ozploitation,” of which they claim this is. I refuse to accept that label just on the word of four aussie podcasters. Will let you know my deep thoughts about it if I have any.
Yes…I ran across that word too. Seems Aussie cinema was really dead, then someone came up with the idea of using the vast outback as the background / setting for several movies. Not sure why they all saw it as ‘post-apocalyptic’ looking.
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But, yeah, the movie is heavy on symbolism too. Like watch closely when the hoons drive over the mayor’s front yard. They break an aboriginal sculpture.
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I look forward to hearing what you think of this B-movie.
(…just keep in mind it IS just a low-budget B-movie…)
This one is in my “watched” column now. Wow, what a movie. Several things caught my eye:
*the first scene which looked like a commercial for alpine cigs and coke. and those poor happy-go-lucky art buyers bite the dust.
*the rice krispies box as a head bandage for one of the “patients”
*the lava lamp
*all the portraits of Queen Elizabeth
I can see how that depicts colonialism. Colonialists have to rationalize a lot of stuff. The rector was killed in a “shooting accident.”
I felt like it was an experiment by weir and must have been so much fun to make.
I grew up singing those hymns. I still know the words.
I think one of my favorite lines was from the rector, “oh gosh, lord.”
I can definitely see how the hoons may have inspired mad max.
We lived near the area where this was filmed. Aus is a special, unique place.
Glad you watched it! Hard movie to find despite all the streaming services. That opening scene, with the couple in the covertible and the Alipne cigarettes, seems to be like a comment on consumerism. It totally looks like a commercial (with those shiney, happy people) and is inserted before the credits so you don’t even realize you’re watching the movie! At that point, you just KNOW you’re watching the work of an “auteur” and not some run of the mill film school student.
I actually had to do a trial subscription to the Criterion Channel to watch it. Couldn’t find it anywhere else.
That “commercial” at the beginning is a strong commentary on consumerism! Pursue unending pleasure at your peril.
Pretty special film since it was co-written by Weir and directed by him.
It’s quite interesting to see the first film of directors that went on to become well known. This Friday we’re reviewing ‘Better Luck Tomorrow’ by director Justin Lin before he became fast and furiously famous. It’s a very interesting crime drama with a story that really meant something to Lin and a lot of young people at the turn of the century.
I looked at a couple clips on YT. The Australian landscape is just beautiful.