Halloween is here. It’s a time for trick or treats, costume parties and Jack-o’-lanterns. There are ghosts and goblins afoot. Nothing says “Halloween” like a scary movie and when it comes to scary movies there are few things more scary that than a scary car in the movie.

Cars are a horror movie staple. In 1983’s Christine, a gearhead nerd brings a dilapidated red 1958 Plymouth Fury back to life and is taken over by its evil influence.

People seemed to be particularly afraid of automobiles in the 1970s. In Steven Speilberg’s directorial debut, 1971’s Duel, a demonic Peterbilt 281 tanker truck terrorizes a hapless travelling salesman driving a 1971 Plymouth Valiant. The 1977 classic The Car features an “unmanned” 1971 Lincoln Continental Mark III black coupe tormenting the inhabitants of a small town. In 1975’s Race with the Devil, two couples witness a human sacrifice and are chased by a satanic cult.

Each of these are awful in their own way. They aren’t as frightening, hair-raising or spine-tingling as the driving we see on the roads each day. Demonic tanker trucks are nightmarish, but they aren’t as scary as many of the stunts pulled by average drivers.

Here are a few horror movie summaries and loglines inspired by everyday life. Hope they get you in the Halloween mood.

Cube Truck Rental: Set in a dystopian future, Cube Truck Rental depicts a hellish world in which motorists can rent large trucks without any real training or qualifications. Chaos and destruction are unleashed when drivers – whose only credentials are a “full G driver’s licence” – operate 16- and 24-foot cube trucks on busy streets and highways. Unskilled, unqualified and undaunted, they strike terror into the hearts of all who encounter them.

Four-Way Stop: A quaint intersection on a sunny picture-perfect afternoon. Four Canadian drivers arrive at this eerie four-way stop at exactly the same time. Too polite to go first, too confused to know the protocol, they become embroiled in a Canadian standoff. They remain at the four-way stop for all eternity.

Eglinton LRT Part 7: Tomorrow Never Comes: It seemed like a reasonable project with a makeable deadline – construct a 19.7-kilometre light rail transit line. Instead, it becomes a maddening, never-ending descent into hell that makes The Bridge Over the River Kwai look like an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Learner’s Permit: Pam and Paul Generica are elated when their eldest daughter passes her online exam and earns her learner’s permit. Their dreams of bonding while sitting in the passenger seat as she practices her driving soon turn into nightmares. With tears, screams, silent recriminations and near misses, Learner’s Permit leaves the audience wondering why they ever had kids or owned an automobile.

U-Turn: He’s late. It’s everyone else’s problem.

I Know Where You Parked Last Summer: A year after they parked next to him at the local mall, a key-wielding maniac dressed as an aged boomer stalks a group of four teenagers seeking revenge for dents they left on his pristine 2014 Subaru Forester.

The Shining: A family driving through the Colorado mountains is blinded by supernatural oncoming headlamps which are significantly more glaring than those of the past because they are more powerful, they are bluer, they are smaller (intense light coming from a smaller lit area appears brighter) and a host of other factors this film doesn’t go into.

Am I High? It is just another Tuesday morning rush hour. He merges onto the Gardiner Expressway at Jarvis Street but instead of a stand-still traffic jam he finds all six lanes moving briskly. Is he losing his mind? Has he been drugged? Is he hallucinating? Or has construction on the Gardiner Expressway, which began in 2024, been finished 18 months ahead of schedule? Experience suggests the former, but a shocking twist proves otherwise.

The Legend of Parkside Drive: Ichabod Janes is the new director of student engagement at Norman Bethune Secondary School in the quaint Toronto neighbourhood of High Park. He falls in love with Sidney Jacobs, head of the school’s competitive physical pursuits program. One night after a faculty meeting, Sidney’s jealous tight-skinned boyfriend Bo Tawks tells the story of the “Headless Speed Camera of Parkside Drive.” Each Halloween, the headless speed camera (whose top was lopped off in the speed camera wars of 2025) stalks the land photographing unsuspecting motorists. His victims die of heart attacks triggered by acute populist indignation. That Halloween Ichabod’s Prius breaks down on Parkside Drive, and he comes face to lens with the Headless Speed Camera.

Parallel: A group of strangers awaken in a dank, cold dungeon. A disembodied voice known only as “The Examiner” tells them they must pass a series of inhuman tests to save the lives of their families. Their first challenge? Parallel Park in one try. Parallel is so gruesome and bloody it makes Saw look like an episode of The Galloping Gourmet.

Happy Halloween. Drive safe or better yet, don’t drive at all. Stay home, hand out candy and watch the World Series.