When I first heard about Rubber it was being talked about as “the killer tire movie.” So, I assumed it was the product of a bunch of friends getting together, writing the goofiest horror concept they could come up with, film it and get it out there. Turns out there’s actually a lot more to it. In fact, there’s so much going on in this 82 minute movie that I’m certain it would benefit from a few more watches to really grasp it all. And yes, I know how silly that sounds as I’m writing about the killer tire movie.

So, here’s the deal as best as I can understand it. If you haven’t seen the movie and want to go in clean, I recommend just giving it a watch on Netflix Instant and coming back after you do. Consider the following sorta SPOILER territory. The movie actually starts off with a car driving down a desert road with a series of chairs on it. The car bumps every single one of them and then a cop gets out of the trunk with a kind of James Woods/Gary Busey/Eric Roberts vibe and explains to the viewers that movies always have a moment that doesn’t matter. This is pretty much the movie’s way of telling you how they feel about explaining the killer tire.

But that’s not the only meta aspect of the movie. The film itself contains an audience watching from a distance via binoculars as the tire rises from the dust and starts killing first animals and then people. But, the tire doesn’t slam into folks or anything along those lines, instead it makes heads explode! The focus of the movie shifts between the audience who are being targeted by unknown forces, the tire’s rampage and eventually the efforts to put a stop to it.

The flick might sound somewhat straight forward the way I’ve explained it, but it’s absolutely not. It felt kind of like David Lynch hooked up with The State to make a horror movie with special effects by whoever did Scanners. It’s just got such an odd, offbeat, quirky, meta feel to it that I couldn’t help but like it, even when I had no idea what was going on. And speaking of the effects, I was actually really impressed. The head explosions looked great, but I also liked how they got the tire to roll convincingly. I know that might sound silly, but have you ever tried to roll a tire? It’s not always smooth sailing. I actually would like to check out the DVD to see if it has an behind the scenes stuff. Anyone have it that I can borrow?