Five Spooky Movie Vehicles and the Classics Behind Them
Five spooky vehicles from the movies
Some vehicles are memorable because they are fast, beautiful or rare.
Others become famous because they make you feel slightly uneasy the moment they appear on screen.
Over the years, filmmakers have turned ambulances, American coupes, motorcycles and even tanker trucks into unforgettable characters in their own right. In some cases, the vehicles were heavily modified. In others, the production team simply found a machine with exactly the right shape and presence.
For Halloween, we’ve taken a closer look at five spooky screen vehicles and the real cars, bikes and trucks behind them.
5. Ecto-1: the Cadillac ambulance in Ghostbusters (1984)
Ecto-1 is one of those film cars that needs very little introduction.
Beneath the roof-mounted equipment and unmistakable styling is a 1959 Cadillac fitted with a Miller-Meteor ambulance body. Miller-Meteor specialised in converting Cadillacs for professional use, including ambulances and hearses.
That explains the car’s unusual proportions. The extended roof and large rear compartment gave the finished vehicle enough space for the Ghostbusters and their equipment, while also creating a silhouette that made it instantly recognisable on screen.
The idea of using an old ambulance came from Ghostbusters co-writer and star Dan Aykroyd.
His original concept was very different from the finished car. Early plans described a black vehicle with white and purple flashing lights, giving it a darker and more sinister appearance.
For the film, that concept evolved into the far more familiar white car with red detailing, dramatic rear fins and a roof packed with fictional equipment.
Hardware designer Steven Dane developed and supervised the conversion of the Cadillac into the Ectomobile.
What makes Ecto-1 particularly interesting is the amount of thought that went into the supposedly fictional technology.
When the original car was restored years later, Aykroyd was still able to explain what individual pieces of equipment on the roof were meant to do.
The restoration itself involved more conventional classic-car concerns, including work to the brakes, steering, suspension, wiring and fuel system.
Even one of cinema’s most famous supernatural vehicles still had to deal with the realities of maintaining a late-1950s Cadillac.
4. The customised Lincoln in The Car (1977)
The vehicle at the centre of The Car was designed to do something very different.
It had to look threatening before it had even moved.
The sinister machine used in the 1977 film was based on the Lincoln Continental Mark III, but it was far from standard. Three customised cars were produced for filming, with Hollywood custom-car builder George Barris working alongside stunt coordinator Everett Creach.
Barris was already well known for creating some of television and film’s most distinctive vehicles, including the 1960s Batmobile.
For The Car, the brief called for something darker.
The roofline was lowered, the side panels were raised and the body was finished in dark charcoal grey. Those changes altered the proportions of the Lincoln and gave it a much heavier, more aggressive presence.
The windows were also specially treated.
The stunt drivers needed to be able to see out, but the audience was not supposed to see in.
That detail was essential to the illusion that the car was moving and acting independently, rather than simply being driven by somebody hidden behind the wheel.
According to the American Film Institute’s production history, each customised car weighed around 5,550lb, or approximately 2.5 tonnes.
With that weight and those proportions, the car did not need much help to look intimidating.
3. Grace and the Hell Cycle in Ghost Rider (2007)
The third vehicle on our list takes us from customised American cars to motorcycles.
In Ghost Rider, Nicolas Cage plays stunt rider Johnny Blaze.
Before his supernatural transformation, Blaze rides a custom chopper called Grace. Once he becomes Ghost Rider, the motorcycle changes too, becoming the far more extreme Hell Cycle.
Grace was a physical motorcycle that Cage rode during filming, along with a separate Buell stunt bike.
The Hell Cycle, however, required a combination of practical design and visual effects to create its flaming, supernatural appearance.
That distinction is important because the production still needed the motorcycle to move convincingly.
Director Mark Steven Johnson explained that several members of the visual-effects team were themselves motorcycle riders.
That real-world experience helped them reproduce small but important details, including the way a bike and rider lean into a corner.
Those details helped make the more fantastical sequences believable.
The audience may be watching a flaming supernatural machine, but the movement still needs to feel like a motorcycle.
2. The tanker in Duel (1971)
The tanker in Steven Spielberg’s Duel proves that a film vehicle does not always need dramatic customisation to become frightening.
Sometimes the right vehicle already has the right face.
The truck used in the film was a Peterbilt 281 tanker.
Its long bonnet, split windscreen, round headlights and tall grille already gave it a distinctive and threatening appearance.
Spielberg effectively held an audition for the role.
Several trucks were brought to the studio so he could decide which one looked right on screen. He preferred the older long-nosed Peterbilt to the more modern flat-fronted alternatives.
Once selected, the truck was made to look even more road-worn.
The production team covered it in dirt and grime and added a collection of number plates from different US states to the front.
Spielberg later explained that the plates were intended to suggest earlier victims encountered by the truck along the way.
It is a small visual detail, but it gives the vehicle a history without needing to explain it through dialogue.
The driver is handled in a similarly restrained way.
The audience occasionally sees a hand or a pair of boots, but never a face.
Spielberg credited that decision to Richard Matheson’s screenplay and later observed that:
“The unseen is more frightening than what you throw in the audience’s face.”
That approach turns the truck itself into the villain.
Originally made for American television and first shown in November 1971, Duel builds its tension almost entirely around an ordinary motorist, an empty road and a tanker that simply will not leave him alone.
1. The Plymouth Fury in Christine (1983)
Our number-one choice is perhaps the most obvious classic car on the list.
In John Carpenter’s Christine, the title character is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury.
With its prominent tailfins, broad grille, generous chrome trim and unmistakably American proportions, it already has the sort of presence that makes it difficult to ignore.
The red-and-white finish used in the film only makes it more striking.
Based on Stephen King’s novel, the story follows teenager Arnie Cunningham as he restores the neglected Plymouth.
As the car’s condition improves, Arnie begins to change too.
Their relationship quickly becomes something far more unsettling than a normal owner-and-classic-car bond.
One of the film’s most memorable sequences comes when Christine appears to repair her own damaged bodywork.
The effect was achieved mechanically rather than digitally.
The production team hollowed out a car and installed hydraulic equipment inside the body, allowing the panels to be pulled inwards.
The footage was then played backwards.
On screen, the damaged metal appears to push itself back into shape.
It remains a brilliant example of practical effects being used to create something that still looks convincing decades later.
That is why Christine takes first place in our list.
The Lincoln in The Car was customised to look evil.
The Peterbilt in Duel was chosen because its original shape already looked threatening.
The Hell Cycle exaggerated the idea of a custom motorcycle into something supernatural.
Christine starts as something much more familiar to classic-car enthusiasts: a desirable American classic undergoing a restoration.
It is only gradually that the film makes you wonder whether bringing her back to life was such a good idea.
For most classic owners, forming a close attachment to a car is perfectly normal.
In Arnie’s case, perhaps it went a little too far.
A strange noise, a flickering light or a car that seems reluctant to stay where you left it? Most classic-car problems have a perfectly rational explanation... Probably...
Happy Halloween.
Sources and further reading
Ecto-1: Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car, which covers Dan Aykroyd’s roof equipment explanations and the restoration work. slashfilm.com
The Car: American Film Institute production history, including the three customised Lincolns, Barris and Creach, the windows and the 5,550-pound weight of each car.
Ghost Rider: Nicolas Cage’s set interview on Grace, the Buell and the Hell Cycle, plus director Mark Steven Johnson’s interview on the motorcycle-riding visual effects team.
Duel: Spielberg’s filmed interview transcript covers the truck casting call, number plates and unseen driver.
Christine: American Film Institute entry for the film and car, plus John Carpenter’s interview explaining the hydraulics and reversed footage. catalog.afi.com
