The Car. I’m not really into cars, but I want one of these.
Killer robots were too hard to do in the seventies, so they had killer cars instead. Duel. Killdozer. And the all-time classic Death Race 2000. So how could The Car work as a silent film? I guess the car should be even more vintage – not quite Model T material, but something of that era. The voiceover would have to go, of course, but I wouldn’t replace it with cue cards – maybe just one for the opening statement and a tag line at the end. Show the car driving itself rather than having someone explain it. Instead of the car horn, it could flash its headlights, maybe with trumpet accompaniment. Instead of saying the car couldn’t go onto the cemetery grounds because they’re sacred, show a shadow of a cross acting as a barrier. The rest could be built from scenes of the car attacking, acting menacing, and people fleeing, cringing and meeting their doom. Is this something I could actually make? That’s doubtful. I know there’s vintage film footage on archive.org – I remember seeing a car’s eye view of a police car or fire truck driving through crowded streets in NYC in the 20’s. I don’t know if I could find enough bits and pieces that would work together properly. I could probably find silent film music to use. Too bad my grandfather isn’t around anymore. He used to play piano for silent movies in the theaters as one of his jobs way back when.
