The Ambulance (15) |Home Ents Review

Both cheerful and uncanny, The Ambulance is a great late addition to B-movie maestro Larry Cohen’s career. The whole thing is a joy to watch even if Eric Roberts’ extreme mullet hair is a bit of a scene stealer. 

Roberts plays comic-book artist Josh (who works for real-life Marvel genius Stan Lee – Stan is not happy with Josh’s work). Josh is chatting up a young woman, Cheryl (Janine Turner), on the busy streets of New York City when she collapses. An ambulance arrives to take her to hospital but when Josh enquires later that day, no hospital in the NYC area has any record of her admission. Then Cheryl’s flatmate is abducted by a vintage 1950s ambulance – think the Ghostbusters car – too. 

Josh tells his strange story to Lieutenant Frank Spencer (Jones) of the NYPD. After initial misgivings, Spencer and his partner Malloy (Gallagher) help Josh investigate. They uncover a conspiracy involving a mad scientist and a potential and potentially fatal cure for diabetes. 

From the look and feel of The Ambulance, you would assume it was made in the mid 1980s – after all, the 1990s were only yesterday, right? It isn’t just that Eric is not the only one with bad hair on display; the whole film oozes a bright and brash cheapo vibe that I associate with the 1980s. 

But this is Larry Cohen’s grindhouse vibe itself – proudly on display and looking better than before thanks to cinematographer Jacques Haitkin in the first place – and the high definition restoration too. 

The Ambulance is well worth a watch – as always Larry Cohen makes the New York City streets a character in their own right: tawdry, dangerous and exciting.