The “Death Proof” Nova is one of film land’s scariest movie cars of all time. Photo from www.complex.com

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has a way of taking the nice and normal to the grotesque and obscene. Vampire movies were all pretty much the same until the Tarantino treatment in From Dusk till Dawn. The same is true of of gangster movies until Pulp Fiction. Finally you could make an argument that World War Two movies were similar, especially when the topic included the Nazi perspective, until Tarantino released Inglourious Basterds.

The turning point for car enthusiasts came when Tarantino released Death Proof, which almost guaranteed that any guy with a black 1971 Nova SS would never find another date… ever.

The Nova is the weapon of choice for a deranged stunt man that stalks women and kills them. Photo from roadtrippers.com

The car itself was the epitome of Chevrolet’s musclecars at their peak. The Nova SS hit their highest power levels with the 396ci engine option which made the Nova the smallest Chevrolet musclecars ever made. Oddly, Tarantino chose to adorn the Nova’s hood with the duck ornament that was used on the front of Rubber Duck’s Mack truck in the 1978 film Convoy. We are not sure of the significance of the duck ornament but it was used later in the film on the villain’s Dodge Charger.

Quentin’s unusual camera angles and aspects make this Nova even more menacing. roadtrippers.com

The matte black finish with the white skull and crossed lightning bolts on the hood make this devilish car one of the scariest seen on the silver screen. The plot, which has a deranged stunt man stalking women and killing them with his “death-proof” Nova, is unrealistic but scary in every facet of the imagination. It is just weird enough to actually have been real.

Despite all of the nonsense in the film, the 1971 Nova SS carries the weight of the movie and makes you want to see a part two where the Nova is brought back to life.