SYNOPSICS
Black Cadillac (2003) is a English movie. John Murlowski has directed this movie. Randy Quaid,Shane Johnson,Josh Hammond,Jason Dohring are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2003. Black Cadillac (2003) is considered one of the best Horror,Thriller movie in India and around the world.
Every year Scott Robertson, a generally admired Yale student, and his screw-up mate C.J. Longhammer from Minnesota cross the Wisconsin border for a wild night. Scott has a girl in his Saab, but as usual must return to the bar as CJ started a fight and this time Scotts adoring kid brother Robbie is with them, and just was about to lose his tormenting virginity. Scotts fists get them out. They are followed by a black Cadillac, make a risky drive on the lake to shake it, allow Robbie to take an urgent leak and give a lift to a neighboring sheriff, Charlie, who has car trouble in Arctic weather. The Cadillac keeps following and even ramming them, so they start wondering why and suspecting each-other, and it gets worse...
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Black Cadillac (2003) Reviews
Nothing to get excited about.
Black Cadillac starts late one night in the isolated Wisconsin forests as three high-school friends Scott (Shane Johnson) his younger brother Robbie (Jason Dohring) & CJ (Josh Hammond) barely make it out of a roadside bar after a big fight, they get into their car & speed off. As they try to put a few miles between the bar & themselves they notice a sinister black Cadillac speeding up behind them, the Cadillac tailgates them & becomes aggressive. As the three friends try to reach the safety of their homes the black Cadillac keeps on coming after them, the Cadillac seems to be forcing the friends deeper into the isolated wilderness but for what purpose exactly? Directed by John Murlowski a caption after the opening credits informs us the audience that Black Cadillac was 'based on a true story', looking at the IMDb 'Trivia' section for Black Cadillac it seems the director Murlowski bases this on events from his own experience when a car chased him for several miles through backwoods roads. Unfortunately that is about as interesting as Black Cadillac gets & I would hardly call Black Cadillac based on a true story from that slim incident. Anyway, the script by Will Aldis starts off well enough with a fairly intriguing premise but the film quickly descends into total repetitiveness & goes nowhere very quickly. The main problem I had with Black Cadillac is that it sets up a potentially good story but then ruins everything with a truly awful & contrived ending that destroys everything that has gone before it. For the majority of Black Cadillac it felt very similar to Dead End (2003) & for that reason I genuinely thought that it was going to end with some sort of twist, you something that turns all the events upside down but Black Cadillac has a terrible ending where everything that has happened comes down to someone having an affair with someone else's wife. Truly the most lacklustre & routine ending the makers could have come up with which contradicts some of the more supernatural & mysterious elements from earlier in the film. Overall the film is very slow going, the character's are quite well fleshed out but it all amounts to nothing & feels more like padding once the film finishes. I really did think Black Cadillac was building up-to something good, boy was I wrong. Director Murlowski does alright, the film is competent but little else. There's not much style here & disappointingly Black Cadillac has a lowly body count of two both of whom die at the very end. There's no gore so forget about that. Overall Black Cadillac is maybe more of a thriller than a horror, there certainly isn't much on show that I would specifically class as out and out horror. There are one or two effective scenes but they count for little when the ending comes around. There also a few scenes which stretch a largely serious films credibility, in particular a scene when the Cadillac literally runs into someone & pins then against a wall yet later on this person manages to walk just fine & seems unharmed. Technically the film is fine, it's not going to win any awards but it's competent. The acting is alright, in fact it's not too bad at all. Despite top billing in the credits Randy Quaid isn't in it that much. Black Cadillac felt like a Dead End rip-off all the way until the disappointingly mundane ending which is just about the most lacklustre & dull way the makers could have finished the film. So, a largely slow moving film which basically leads up to absolutely nothing.
Excellent, low budget chase movie
Black Cadillac is a probably the best film so far from director John Murlowski. His previous two films Contagion (2001) and Terminal Error (2002) both dealt with different sorts of viruses of the biological then computer varieties respectively. Black Cadillac continues this theme, although this time with a much more ubiquitous 'virus': fear. It is a neatly done, surprisingly effective road chase movie, the basic premise of which is familiar from as far back as Spielberg's Duel (1971), and probably before: a faceless killer sits behind the wheel of an unstoppable vehicle, and spends most of the film hunting down our heroes in a relentless, tense vendetta. The difference here is that Murlowski swops the sun-bleached roads of Spielberg's celebrated debut for something much more immediately sinister: the freezing, pitch black back woods of Wisconsin. Apparently based on true events, Black Cadillac begins ominously, from the viewpoint of an anonymous driver who tours his growling vehicle threateningly towards a roadhouse. This is the main thrust of the story: the Cadillac will be a vengeful, anonymous thing either prowling for victims or in hot pursuit of them. Anonymity is its strength and, in more senses than one, the plot's motor; as soon as the motorised stalker is humanised and his malevolence explained, tension is dissipated. Fortunately Murlowski postpones any necessary revelations until the end of his film. Inside the disreputable roadhouse are three youths: Scott (Shane Johnson), a Yale man, his kid brother C.J. (Josh Hammond) and their friend the less experienced Robby (Jason Dohring). Soon we discover some essential differences between the three. Scott is very handy with his fists, promptly demonstrating this by getting CJ out of a scrape; he is also a womaniser. CJ, his face badly scarred by some previous unspecified incident is more laconic, a loner with his own 'agenda'. He shortly plans to make is own way in the world as a romantic drifter, perhaps by working the Great Lakes. Robby is the most immature of the three, and enjoys his first sexual experience that evening. The three leave, elated after escaping from a commotion triggered by CJ so easily, and speed off into the frozen night. Soon however a pair of headlights appears in the rear mirror, and the terrifying chase begins... Along the way they pick up Charlie, an off-duty policeman (an excellently ambiguous performance by Randy Quaid), whom they initially suspect is the object of the Cadillac's attention. Abandoning him by the roadside, he apparently becomes the black car's first victim. "Did it just get darker?" asks a fearful Robby after the shots ring out. Now the three lads are on their own in the chilly forest, suspect that they are to be next as witnesses to the policeman's death, and alternate as they go between bickering, self-reliance, fear and personal revelation. From here on in, as any good film of this sort ought, Murlowski's story strips matters down to the bare essentials: a road game of terror as the two cars and their occupants try to out drive and out guess each other, nerves stretched to the limit. Occasionally the film lets itself down. Once or twice it re-uses the same stretch of road to speed the cars along, an economy perhaps forced by a tight shooting schedule; at other times while it is obviously cold enough for breath to condense as characters converse, shortly afterwards it is not. But these are only minor distractions. What really matters is the chase, and the sense of panic and claustrophobia which builds as the narrative proceeds. By shooting long scenes within Scott's increasingly battered Saab's interior, Murlowski creates an effective ambience of fear which grows between the young men, unsure of what they have done. He even adds in a religious element (their pursuer scratches 'Your sins will find you out' in the ice on their windscreen as the trio take a short rest in a cafe), suggesting that the wrath that pursues them is of almost biblical proportions. The surrounding gloom of the frozen forest seems to echo the moral quagmire in which they feel they run. And as we discover, none are entirely blameless - but who is the principal cause of their predicament? And what should be done with the transgressor when discovered? Such is the success of this middle part of the film that the reason behind the Cadillac's persistent pursuit of the trio, when finally revealed, seems rather mundane. Black as a coffin, and with overtones of divine retribution, the car has been a potent force propelling the action very satisfactorily. When this motor has gone, it is a tribute to the young cast that things do not go badly awry at this point, and that the final confrontation between them and their persecutors has drama remaining to keep proceedings interesting. All in all this is a very effective film, low budget to be sure, but none the worse for that, considerably better than one might expect. It features a skilful, and mainly youthful cast whose enthusiasm make us forget some of the moral stereotypes involved. So just sit back, put the brain on free wheel, and enjoy the ride.
"Did it just get darker?"
Being a fan of films like DUEL and ROAD KILL (JOY RIDE to U.S. users), the sound of this film appealed to me. I just love scary road movies and I have to say that this picture, which I got on DVD recently, did not disappoint. The Cadillac itself has a great menacing look to it and I love it when it and the Saab are engaged in their battle on the road. Apart from Randy Quaid, the cast is little known, but they all turn in brilliant performances. The tension mounts as the Caddy herds the Saab deeper into the backwoods of Wisconsin and repeatedly clashes with the boys. The boys are pushed to the limit of their endurance and discover some dark secrets about each other. The ending is something I won't give away but I guess that some people could probably see it coming. Despite this, the final battle between the boys and the drivers of the Caddy is very tense. I give this film a confident thumbs-up!
Sufficient time-passer
After getting in a violent bar fight, three friends take off across a huge expanse of wilderness, only to be terrorized by a hulking black Cadillac. A friend of mine rented this and insisted I watch it with them. I was expecting a supernatural "Christine"-style thriller and with a title like "Black Cadillac", a goofy one at that. As it turns out, this film has no supernatural elements, nor was it very goofy. The film succeeding is being entertaining, well done, and at times even vaguely creepy. The entire cast does a fine job here, especially Randy "Where the hell did my career go?" Quaid playing the police officer, who succeeds in making his character both funny and creepy at the same time. The screenplay offer more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at, most of which were genuinely surprising. The tension between the characters was also very effective. The characters are mostly well-developed, there were even one or two I actually (gasp!) cared for. Director John Murlowski has done a fine job handling the suspense, and the chase scenes were often exciting. If you're a fan of the "road terror" sub-genre, you'll probably like this movie. It kept me engaged and entertained for 90+ minutes, and that's pretty much all I asked for. Give it a try. 6/10.
Nothing to see here
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS - IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT, YOU PROBABLY SHOULDN'T READ THIS.* "Black Cadillac" is another one of those "mysterious black vehicle chases some people" movies, and it's one of the worst. Apart from solid acting and occasionally witty dialogue (and the eye candy that is the '57 Cadillac), there is little left to this film. The story is quite silly with a non-shocking climactic "twist", and there are several "Huh?"-inducing moments, like the question of how a small-town sheriff could afford a classic car that normally sells for well over $20,000 (and just carelessly fling it around on top of that), or maybe how our heroes manage to restart their car after they lock the engine in it. If the car overheats to the point that the engine locks, nothing short of a new engine is going to get it back on the road...and I don't think the shop they broke into had a new Saab engine block and an engine hoist conveniently left inside. All in all, this film is very similar to "A Friday Night Date" (or "Road Rage" as it was called here in the U.S.), except considerably less exciting and better acted. The two films have several similar plot elements, right down to the ending. The difference is "Road Rage" at least manages to be entertaining enough for the viewer to forget how awful it is, and this movie doesn't. 3/10