For a cheesy, devil-driven thriller about a murderous car that runs down its victims, one may be unprepared for director Elliot Silverstein's surprisingly intense prologue (with two kids on bicycles meeting their grisly fate on a mountain road). It's a gripping, savage sequence that reminds one of the opening in "Jaws", as Silverstein probably intended, but what does he give us next? We're introduced to small town residents and James Brolin as the local law, and "The Car" quickly runs out of petrol. Writers Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack had a pretty good idea here, but perhaps their original work was compromised by Hollywood and the then-fashionable occult angle. Too bad. *1/2 from ****