Old Stuff: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
You’re not meant to judge books by their cover, but does the same apply for DVDs? The Cars That Ate Paris was bought for approximately £3 on a whim after I clocked its sinister looking cover along a shelf of second-hand gems – and I’m pleased to say I most definitely was not disappointed with my flashy purchase.
The film (directed by Peter Weir of Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Truman Show fame) is basically an Aussie version of The Wicker Man, with rusty looking cars instead of dodgy pagan rituals – and tells the story of a young man trapped in the remote outback town of Paris by a bizarre community of up-tight conservatives and bored, petrol-fuelled teenagers. Both parties rely on the slightly dubious trade of flogging old automobile parts from car accidents, which they cause by flashing bright lights in oncoming drivers faces. There’s also a fairly vague storyline about the local surgeon keeping injured survivors as guinea pigs for his experiments, but this doesn’t really come to much.
To be honest, the film might be a load of rubbish – but like a lot of lesser-known films from the mid-70s, it’s a fully enjoyable watch. Even with a pretty daft storyline and some pretty naff dialogue, a film is always going to be good if it features tonnes of scrap metal, a dribbling village idiot character and a load of small town weirdness.
Roman Candle Magazine 