WHEELS OF TERROR
Tacky and shoddily made, like my pants
A single mom and her daughter move to a small town where the kid can get a more decent upbringing and the woman can work driving the school bus. Just why a tiny little town would need a full-time school bus driver, I don't know. Anyway, they find themselves regularly harassed by this nasty, greasy car which appears to be linked to the abduction, molestation and release of a few young girls. (don't ask why this school bus is equipped with a racing engine; it's probably so that we can "plausibly" set up a chase between it and the villainous vehicle)
Director Christopher Cain (Dean's dad!) sure does do a good job of making this evil car look menacing. It's a beat-up, filthy old sports sedan with windows so black with soot and crap that you can't even tell if anybody's driving, let alone who. There are a few POV shots, strangely from the passenger-side seat. I frequently found myself thinking of the car as the villain instead of whoever must be driving it.
Too bad he botches the rest of the movie, with WAY too many slo-mo shots (often of the mother screaming) and a general sense of TV-movie lightweightness, not to mention so many predictable moments, like the ol' car-tries-to-push-bus-over-the-cliff. And the constant pleas to stop the bus from the kids in the back get really tiresome, really quickly. I will admit, however, that I loved one shot where a highway patrol officer gets nailed by that car. BAM! But when you get right down to it, but bulk of this movie is just one big chase between the evil car and the school bus. Usually in slo-mo, which I suspect is largely to bulk up the film's running length.
There are some good moments, but it's hard to enjoy them when you know what's at stake for the characters in the movie. I really can't say I like the idea of such an ugly premise being used to set up such a lightweight thriller. That it's such a shameless ripoff of Duel just compounds the crime. And what's with sending the villain car over the same cliff twice? It looks like something awfully difficult to drive away from.
Go rent Duel instead.