Creepy kids, terrifying serial killers and paranormal protagonists take the lead in most horror films but what about their vehicles? Do they give us the creeps as much as their drivers?
It’s spooky season and as many of us hibernate on the sofa for a horror movie marathon we reveal the creepiest cars in Halloween films.
Scoring iconic movie vehicles based on their sentience, murderability, and break horsepower, what do you think of our top 10 creepiest cars?
To establish our leaderboard, we invented our own scoring system:
- Sentience – we based this on how aware the cars were of the murders. Haunted and possessed cars scored higher than cars that were driven by a maniac.
- Murderability – total kill counts from each film, the more people killed, the higher the murderability score. However, kill counts varied from film to film depending on whether the vehicles were responsible for the killings, another character was, or it was ambiguous.
- Power – is based on the brake horsepower (BHP) of the creepy vehicle featured, the higher the BHP the higher the power score awarded.
| Rank | Car | Movie | Sentience | Murderability | Power BHP | Power Score | Total Creepy Score |
| 1 | 1981 Western Star 4800 | Maximum Overdrive (1986) | 10 | 10 | 400 | 10 | 30 |
| 2 | 1958 Plymouth Fury | Christine (1983) | 10 | 10 | 290 | 8 | 28 |
| 3 | 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III | The Car (1977) | 9 | 9 | 365 | 9 | 27 |
| 4 | Komatsu D355A Bulldozer | Killdozer (1974) | 7 | 5 | 410 | 10 | 22 |
| 5 | 1986 Dodge M4S | The Wraith (1986) | 5 | 5 | 440 | 10 | 20 |
| 6 | Plymouth Valiant Tanker | Duel (1971) | 9 | 3 | 180 | 7 | 19 |
| 7 | 1951 Packard Funeral Coach Henney | The Hearse (1980) | 8 | 2 | 180 | 7 | 17 |
| 8 | 1972 Cadillac Eldorado | Highwaymen (2004) | 3 | 4 | 235 | 8 | 15 |
| 9 | 1941 Chevrolet Cab Over Engine | Jeepers Creepers (2001) | 1 | 8 | 88 | 5 | 14 |
| 10 | 1951 Cadillac Funeral Coach | Dead End (2003) | 1 | 6 | 160 | 6 | 13 |
So there you have it, the 1981 Western Star 4800 in Stephen King’s much revered, Maximum Overdrive takes the top spot in our creepiest vehicles in horror films.
What else do you think needs adding to the list?
