Maximum Overdrive!

Maximum Overdrive (1986)

Runtime: 98 minutes

Directed by: Stephen King

Starring: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, Yeardley Smith, John Short

From: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group

You know, I could tell that this was made by someone high on drugs! 

I have to address the white pony in the room right away: it was the only time that Stephen King directed (the experience was not a positive one) and judging by the movie’s infamous teaser trailer, he had to be high as a kite the entire time! It is one heck of a trailer: he proclaims that (already) a lot of his stories have been brought to screen but “if you want to do it right, you have to do it yourself.” He didn’t, but in that trailer not only did he not blink even once, it appeared as if he snorted an entire mountain of cocaine beforehand! He admitted himself he used that drug during the shoot; others said he drank constantly also.

I am not making light of his issues in the 80’s, as King has apparently been sober since the late 80's from his drugs + alcohol addictions and that’s commendable. Not everyone likes his political tweets but otherwise I have little complaint about Stephen King… even though I’ve never actually read one of his stories. As for the trailers for the movie, all of them use Chariots of Pumpkins from Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Many don’t like the film regardless of its ties to the rest of the franchise but hopefully many can agree that they dig its synth score.

Maximum Overdrive was finally experienced last night-right before it left Prime-and in hindsight, I wish someone here or on Twitter would have made a remark about the events of the film starting on June 19th. Alas… on that date, a comet passes Earth and because plot, the resultant action is machines becoming sentient & evil. Actually, they do attempt more of an explanation in the third act but in any case, the focus is on a small truck stop in the rural area of Wilmington, North Carolina—where coincidentally, producer Dino De Laurentiis had a film studio. The film is a real mess that was blatantly from a novice director. The loud caricatures that made up most of the characters, the lack of plot momentum, the story often grinding to a halt, among various faults. This isn’t the crowning achievement in the career of Emilio Estevez.

That duly noted, there is plenty of camp value & preposterous moments, which is why I laughed a decent amount. When someone produces a rocket launcher completely out of nowhere… hysterical. This also has a mean streak; alongside the gruesome deaths, a child is killed in gnarly fashion. Bizarre musical stingers aside, the AC/DC soundtrack is rather glorious. The claim King made in the trailer of “being scared as hell” while watching Maximum Overdrive was a blatant lie; however, if you want to laugh that the lead villain vehicle is a truck full of toys which has a giant Green Goblin head on the front hood-some people will love how weird & out of control Overdrive is.