Fighting monsters and evildoers is one thing, but how do you fight a seemingly sentient automobile? The 1977 film The Car follows a small town terrified of a car that moves with no driver, seemingly intent on killing people. With a unique plot, director Elliot Silverstein acknowledged that he was headed into uncharted territory as a creative.

“I’ve never been down this avenue before,” said Silverstein during an interview with The Los Angeles Times. “The horror, fantasy, stunt film.”

While making the film was creatively fulfilling for Silverstein, he had certainly had his fill of the production by the time shooting had ended.

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“It was a fresh experience,” said the director. “But when we made the final shot of the Car going off into the darkness, both of us (he and the Car) seemed equally relieved. We had a trying time together. I understand the film is going to open on Friday the 13th, and I keep wondering if they’re trying to tell me something.”

In the film, the car is seemingly sentient, possessed by an otherworldly being.

“The two questions under consideration from the very beginning of this project were the identity - or lack of identity - of the driver of the Car and the visualization of the Car itself,” said Silverstein. “We had a familiar device that suddenly started to behave as another human being might. So the guessing game followed - and it got to be very real on the set and not just in the script: Is there a human controlling the device? If not, what is - and why is it doing all those terrible things?”