Elantra N

Make
Hyundai
Segment
Sedan

We usually don't pay much attention to car ads because they tend to be made by marketing departments that come up with nonsensical slogans or rename things just for the heck of it. But every once in a while, a manufacturer comes up with a brilliant ad that's funny and relatable. Our new favorite ad comes from Hyundai, and it punts the high-performance N brand. More specifically, it features the Elantra N, Hyundai's attempt at building a more practical Veloster N. We drove the Elantra N Line recently and found it to be a well-rounded sedan. In Hyundai's new ad, the Elantra N is just a prop that is used to demonstrate the automotive enthusiast's greatest fear.

We don't like spoilers, but you can scroll down to the video a bit lower down and see what that is. Be warned; it takes a solid stomach to face what the poor woman starring in this video has to contend with at the end.

Halloween is one of the few times of year that automakers get to have some fun, and that's exactly what Hyundai has done with this surprisingly entertaining short film. We've watched it multiple times now, and it's also a love letter to the horror genre. This sub-two-minute ad is also a way better movie than Fast 9. Even so, the F&F franchise will continue. While we're on this topic, all Hollywood directors should be forced to watch Edgar Wright's Baby Driver - that's how you do a chase scene.

As for the Hyundai ad, it features most of the well-known tricks of the horror trade, including found footage (Paranormal Activity), shaky hand-cam footage (Blair Witch Project), the haunted toy (Annabelle or Chucky, take your pick), and a haunted painting (Velvet Buzzsaw). Other tropes include the slasher subgenre (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Scream, etc.) and the good old-fashioned haunted house, as found in The Conjuring series, Crimson Peak, and The Amityville Horror.

But back to cars, since that's what we do here. Our heroine eventually makes it through all of these horror tropes and into her Elantra N, where she faces the scariest reality of them all.

We wouldn't wish this on our worst enemy and hope the poor woman lived to tell the tale.