It's an Australian film, made by Peter Weir and later recut and shortened by Roger Corman. And it's about the most imaginative piece I've seen from that country, both funny and spine-chilling.

The whole thing is played too broadly, but home-improvement victims will appreciate the unending weeks it takes for a simple bathroom to be converted into a piece of avant-garde sculpture.

The Cars That Ate Paris is both part of that and a carnivalesque reflection of it. It's a complicated satire and a violent and eccentric classic.

…will inevitably remind viewers of George Miller’s Mad Max films…Peter Weir's film is neither grisly enough to be considered horror nor comedic enough to be considered as satire. That refusal to be pinned down makes The Cars That Ate Paris so memorable…