THE CAR

Two cyclists riding through a canyon are followed by a mysterious matte black car. At a bridge, the car crushes one cyclist against the wall and rams the other from behind, catapulting him off the bridge. A hitchhiker encounters the car and insults it after it tries to run him down. It comes to a stop, reverses, and runs him over several times before driving off. The local sheriff's office, called to these hit-and-run incidents, gets a lead on the car. It appears to be heavily customized and has no license plates, as local Amos Clemens points out after he sees it run over the hitchhiker.

After intentionally swerving around Amos that night, the car runs over Sheriff Everett Peck, leaving Chief Deputy Wade Parent in charge. During the investigation, an eyewitness to the accident states that no driver was inside the car. Wade asks his girlfriend, Lauren, a teacher at the local school, to cancel the upcoming marching band rehearsals for their safety. Lauren and her friend, the wife of Wade's deputy Luke Johnson, ask him to let them rehearse. Luke unwittingly agrees.

The car enters the town and attacks the school marching band as it rehearses at the local showground. It chases the teachers and students into a cemetery. The vehicle cannot enter the consecrated ground. Lauren taunts the driver, whom no one among the townsfolk has seen. Seemingly angered, the car destroys a brick gate post and leaves. The police go on a high-speed chase along highways throughout the desert before the car turns on them, destroying several squad cars and killing 5 of Wade's deputies. Wade attempts to enter the car when it stops but discovers that it has no door handles. The car's door then opens by itself, knocking Wade unconscious.

After being dropped off at her home that evening, Lauren notices the violent winds that always accompany the car. She runs inside and calls Wade on the phone, but the car drives straight through her house, killing her. Luke explains to a grief-stricken Wade that killing Lauren was an act of revenge for her insults. Wade concocts a plan to defeat the car in a trap in the canyon outside the town. After discovering it waiting in his garage, they are forced to carry out his plans with great haste. Wade is pursued by the car while riding on his dirt bike into the targeted mountainous canyon, where his remaining deputies have set a trap with explosives.

Wade and Luke stand at the edge of a cliff and lure the car towards them. As the car approaches, they jump in opposite directions, causing the car to miss both of them and fly off the cliff, and the deputies set off the dynamite, triggering a massive explosion. To everyone's shock, a monstrous, demonic visage appears inside the flames.

The film concludes with the car prowling on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, apparently having survived the explosions, its horn sound still heard distantly.

Wade and his deputies lure the car into a canyon, triggering explosives as it flies off a cliff; a demonic visage appears in the flames, and the car is later seen prowling Los Angeles, apparently undestroyed.

The explosive climax provides apparent victory, but the supernatural nature of the car renders it unstoppable—even after the dramatic destruction, its presence lingers, suggesting evil never truly dies. The final shot of the car in Los Angeles leaves the threat open-ended, keeping the terror alive beyond Santa Ynez.