Film Review: Killer Car (2008)

SYNOPSIS:

An attractive college couple goes on a road trip with some friends. Their destination: majestic waterfalls far away from civilization. A place undisturbed by human progress – no shopping malls, crowded freeways… or cell phone reception. It should be a nice little vacation from the hustle and bustle of the big city.

Unfortunately the used car they bought is possessed by the tortured spirit of its original owner- who met a tragic end behind the wheel. Now this “killer car” will take them on an unexpected detour… to the morgue.

REVIEW:

Films about cars or films about events that happen within cars, it’s all good. Maybe? Deep down there is always this eeriness about things lurking behind us and things that might rear their ugly heads down dark and lonely roads. “Killer Car” is the latest Asian scare from the good folks at Cinema Epoch. The premise is pretty much in line with, most Asian scare films and the object here is to catch the viewing audience unaware with past creepy ghosts that pop up when least expected.

As we begin on the note of a lady who has been kidnapped in the back of an SUV and held hostage, we realize that the tormentor is in fact psychotically in love to the point of killing his favorite acquaintances. Stabbing to death is not enough for this one, he must penetrate the stab wound in a erotically hand into chest motion that we get real early is a climax moment for him. Needless to say, the death leaves an angry spirit in this road spot occurrence and within the vehicle. Flip to our young and wild crew of travelers who are off on some kind of outing. We never really get the extent of it besides traveling to a remote picnicking area. The car that they are using is a used vehicle recently purchased that also happens to be the vehicle that the murder took place in. Now without going into the ending this notion becomes a little confusing but the idea is that the car is haunted from the murdered girl.

The group are pretty brainless and mostly there for some Asian eye candy participation. The premise is a bit loose on alot of aspects that start to make the film seem longer than it really is. This is mostly due to a number of scenes where the travelers are on route to a local hospital and get into a twilight zone kind of repetition of traveling in circles. Needless to say, they never make their destinations to take care of those who become injured or attacked. While this is going on, this rouge spirit targets victims mostly when they are alone with the usual brand of scary ghost chick-in-a-car routine. In that respect, there is nothing new here. With these kind of films you know that this will be the brunt of what to expect, though you also hope that they keep it scary enough to catch you off guard. That never happens as the murdered ghost girl creeps up to windows, from under blankets and a few “in the mirror” style approaches. The mystery draw to a close and by this time you should be ready to anticipate the ending credits approaching.

It should be also noted that the release DVD art mentions 92 minutes, but is actually more like 78. Not that really matters, though I’m not sure where the losses of time occur.

Directed by Hisaaki Nagaoka, I’ve seen better releases come from his pool of recent horror films, This film however was bland, weird in a not that good way, and full of holes and meaningless add-ons. The talent was virtually unrecognizable as just targets and nothing else. “Killer Car” is a vague term that should be “ghost in a car that sometimes appears along with a serial murderer”. I honestly try and look for some value in these releases, it’s just that the plot was very weak and derivative. I give it a 1-3 instances of “that was ok” moments with alot of filler in between. The gore highlight rests in stomach-erotically-induced-hand-sex-penetration. But that’s it.

Killer Car (2010)