Not to be confused with the similarly titled David Cronenberg or Paul Haggis films, CRASH! is an early effort by the irrepressible Charles Band, who attempted to mix occult horror and car chases (a bit like THE CAR crossed with THE EXORCIST)—the key word here is attempted.
For this 1977 film, his second feature, Charles Band somehow managed to corral several legitimate actors: Jose Ferrer, LOLITA’S Sue Lyon, Leslie Parrish and John Carradine, all of whom were evidently down on their luck. Unbelievable though it may seem, this film actually beat what would appear to be its primary inspiration, the same year’s THE CAR, to the punch by a full four months!
…Charles Band somehow managed to corral several legitimate actors…
At an outdoor flea market a young woman named Kim purchases an odd medallion. She then heads back to her house, where she lives with her elderly paraplegic husband Marc. Shortly thereafter Kim is attacked by a dog who jumps into her car as she drives down a mountain road, and she winds up catatonic in a hospital bed. Turns out the dog was sent by Marc, who intended to kill her. Discovering Kim survived the crash, Marc enters her hospital room and unhooks her IV. She, however, remains alive, apparently due to the influence of the medallion she purchased.
…an early effort by the irrepressible Charles Band, who attempted to mix occult horror and car chases…
In the meantime a driverless black car—Kim’s, to be exact—cruises around and drives people off the roads, including several cops, a hot rodder and an elderly couple.
A sympathetic doctor makes a sketch of Kim’s medallion and takes the drawing to an occultist, who claims it represents an ancient, and evil, deity. Kim comes to with amnesia, and no knowledge of the fact that she’d already awakened once earlier and, seemingly possessed, telepathically caused the objects in her hospital room to rattle and jump around.
Weirdness continues after Kim gets home in the form of a riderless wheelchair that under her influence runs over Marc’s dog. He’s pissed, and becomes ever more determined to do in his wife. Kim’s demonic urges, however, aren’t finished—and neither is her car!
This film is profoundly weird, although I’m not sure how much of that weirdness was intended. With its somnambulant acting, jumbled narrative and cheapjack filmmaking, the whole thing has a strangely disconnected, almost dreamlike air that was evidently due to ineptitude on the part of Charles Band and his collaborators (who included cinematographer Andrew Davis, the future director of UNDER SIEGE and THE FUGITIVE).
This film is profoundly weird, although I’m not sure how much of that weirdness was intended.
The copious car chases and crashes appear to be the film’s primary reason for being, yet they’re quite clumsily filmed and edited. Presented more often than not in slow motion, the scenes involving the driverless car fail to either compliment or offset the scary business, and register, ultimately, as the gratuitous intrusions they are.
The most interesting portions of CRASH! are the frequent dream/flashback montages, shot through distorted lenses; never mind that these scenes were evidently included solely to pad the running time! There’s also an outrageous funkadelic score, which will be appreciated by seventies nostalgia buffs but will seem distracting and annoying to most everyone else.
Vital Statistics
CRASH!
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Director: Charles Band
Producer: Charles Band
Screenplay: Marc Marais
Cinematography: Andrew Davis
Editing: Harry Keramidas
Cast: Jose Ferrer, Sue Lyon, John Ericson, Leslie Parrish, John Carradine, Jerome Guardino, Reggie Nalder, Richard Band, Paul Dubov, Rick Deming, Dawn Orr, John Hayes, Maureen O’Heron, Speed Sterns