80s era Sci-Fi/Horror film featuring several unrelated stories (not Creepshow)

Question

Plot Details/Summary

As stated in the prompt, this particular film was made up of a number of short stories with science fiction and/or horror elements. It's not one of the Creepshow films or the Tales From The Darkside movie. I do not recall exactly how many stories there were, but I do recall two of the stories fairly well.

The first story is about a rebellious teenager who is obsessed with a particular video game at the local arcade. He's the best player in town on the particular game, but he always seems to be defeated before cracking the final level. It sticks in my mind his family and friends are worried about his obsession.

The sci-fi elements come into play when the teen sneaks into the arcade late one night and finally cracks the secret level. To his horror, it turns out that the bad guy in the video game is released and the game becomes "real life". I recall the video game monster being a very blocky animation in the style of early 80s video games. I think it represented a face or the like.

The creature chases the teen, unleashing energy bolts, etc. The teen is eventually cornered, and we see the monster floating towards him in a first-person view. The twist comes the next morning, when worried friends and family come down to the arcade to look for him. The scene closes with his horrified friend looking at the game screen and realizing his friend is now a character trapped inside the game itself.

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The second story involves a priest getting caught up in a car chase with what is probably The Devil. The priest has just left his parish, disenchanted and in a crisis of faith. He resists all attempts to change his mind, and the only thing he is willing to take with him is a vial of holy water that (IIRC) another priest insists he take with him for luck. The church is probably somewhere in the southwestern US, as I think the story takes place mostly in the desert

While on the road to wherever he's headed, the priest encounters a black truck or SUV-type vehicle. I don't recall exactly how it happens. What follows is a deadly game of chase very reminiscent of the Steven Spielberg tv movie Duel. We never see the antagonist, though we do get a glimpse from behind the wheel, which reveals an inverted cross hanging from the rear view mirror (thus the suspicion this is Old Nick we're dealing with here.)

The climax to the story comes when the priest, now on foot, is about to be run down by the SUV. The priest desperately throws the vial of holy water, which strikes the vehicle and causes it to vanish or explode (can't remember which). As best as I can remember, the story closes with the priest returning to the parish, his faith in God renewed.

Date of Release

I'm sure it's 1980s, probably early 80s, based on the video game story. The film is in English, and most likely a U.S.-made film.

Answer 1

This is Nightmares from 1983. The first story is Bishop of Battle:

Young Jerry "J.J." Cooney (Estevez) is a video game wizard and arcade game hustler with help from his bespectacled friend Zock (Billy Jayne).

After an argument about Jerry's obsession with video games, they split up for the day, and Jerry goes into his local arcade to try again to beat The Bishop of Battle, a maddeningly difficult video game that features thirteen levels; no one he knows has made it to the thirteenth, and many believe it is just a myth. He repeatedly tries and fails to make it to the thirteenth level until the owner forces him to leave at closing time.

Jerry's parents, concerned about his performance in school, ground him until his grades improve. That night, he sneaks out and breaks into the arcade to finally finish the game. However, when he reaches the thirteenth level, the arcade cabinet collapses and the enemies fly out (Estevez went through a two-week gun training session with the NYPD to realistically perform his gun maneuvers for these scenes). Jerry flees to the parking lot, but the Bishop of Battle appears, drawing closer and closer to a terrified Jerry. The scene cuts to the next morning, where his friends and family see Jerry's image on the screen of the arcade machine for a few seconds before it turns into the player and the short ends.

The second story is The Benediction

Lance Henriksen plays a priest serving at a small parish and is facing a crisis of faith brought on by the violent death of a young boy. He explains to his bishop (Plana) that he has lost his belief in the concepts of good and evil. He finally leaves the ministry with some blessed water which he now deems as purely tap water, and takes off across the desert in his car.

Out of nowhere he encounters a black Chevrolet C-20 Fleetside. At first, it just cuts him off and takes off. However, it keeps reappearing, forcing him off the road and damaging his car. The truck's driver is Satan because of the upside down cross hanging on the rear-view mirror of the truck. Satan blows up the priest's car with the pickup truck by hitting it. With nowhere left to run, the former priest hurls the blessed water at the pickup truck, which is vaporized at the impact. The short ends as the police arrive later on the scene and the ambulance crew takes the injured priest back to the church.

The other stories are Terror in Topanga, about a woman on a late-night cigarette run and the killer who is stalking the area, and Night of the Rat, which is about a family terrorized by an infestation of rats.

I found it by searching Google for film priest car chase devil.

Official Trailer