Killdozer (1974)

Killdozer

Written by Theodore Sturgeon & Ed MacKillop
Directed by Jerry London

Lloyd Kelly...Clint Walker
Mack...Robert Urich
Dutch...James Wainright
Chub...Neville Brand
Dennis...Carl Betz

After coming into contact with a fallen meteorite, a bulldozer seemingly develops a mind of its own and begins killing off the employees of an oil company who are stranded at their worksite some 200 miles off the coast of Africa. It's sort of like a blue collar Christine, without the rock 'n' roll music. Or the interesting parts.

Yes, sad to say that I found Killdozer to be a real yawner. With a name as corny as that, I wasn't expecting cinematic greatness but I was hoping for a little delicious cheese. Instead, it was a lot of blathering and bickering between mostly unlikable fellows, with only the occasional action scene thrown in.

Speaking of which, it really shouldn't be that difficult for a grown man to outrun or out-maneuver a freaking bulldozer. If you're that slow, that clumsy, or stupid enough to hide inside a drainage pipe directly in the path of the possessed bulldozer, well, don't expect too much sympathy from me when you're mowed down and end up in that big construction site in the sky.

Perhaps the biggest problem for me was that the Killdozer had no personality. I know that's an odd thing to say, considering it is a cold piece of machinery, but to return to my Christine comparison, that car had personality, she was a character in the film rather than a mere prop. No matter how many times they showed the 'dozer's headlights, I never saw them as eyes. I just saw them as headlights.

 

Not nearly as much fun as I was expecting.

1974
TV-Unrated
74 Minutes
Color
English
USA

"It's too heavy to hang and it's too big to put in the gas chamber."
--J/Metro