Stephen King is probably one of the most prolific and celebrated horror novelists of the past half century. Since the late ’60s, King has captivated and terrorized readers with his many short stories and novels. He is probably best known for novels such as Carrie, It, The Shining, Christine, Cujo, and The Dead Zone. Many of his works have been adapted either for television or film, many of them ranging in quality. Directors like Brian De Palma, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, and John Carpenter have made adaptations that’re generally well-regarded. However, for all the Carrie‘s and Christine‘s, there were also adaptations like Children of the Corn and Firestarter as well. Then in 1986, King, who was still a cocaine addict, decided to direct his own movie adaptation of his work. Thus, he adapted his short story Trucks into the infamous coke-fueled and yet fascinating film, Maximum Overdrive.
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After a comet passes by Earth, all machines start becoming sentient and killing people off one by one. The main action takes place at a truck stop called the Dixie Boy, where things soon start going wrong. A worker gets diesel sprayed in his eyes, blinding him, and a waitress gets cut by an electric knife. Meanwhile, a Little League game goes wrong when a vending machine starts shooting soda cans at the coach and players. One kid named Dene (Holter Graham) manages to escape and soon finds himself at the truck stop. Newlyweds Curtis (John Short) and Connie (Yeardley Smith) soon make their way after getting attacked by a truck. Also joining the truck stop survivors are Bible salesman Camp Loman (Christopher Murney) and hitchhiker Brett Graham (Laura Harrington). Soon, it’s up to truck stop worker and ex-convict William “Bill” Robinson (Emilio Estevez) to help everyone survive.
Now I’m not going to lie to you when I say that this movie is utterly ridiculous and nonsensical. The movie does have some interesting ideas, going off the theme of machines we depend upon going against us. However, whatever ideas the movie has are wasted on an utterly brainless schlockfest of car crashes, explosions, and endless carnage. Also, the story makes no sense when you think about it, especially when it comes to which machines are affected. While most electronics and cars are affected, some aren’t for some reason and the movie seems to contradict itself. The acting is questionable throughout, some being ok, some being average, and others so wildly over-the-top that it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t help that there isn’t much in terms of character development. Admittedly, there are some effectively creepy moments here and there, but there are also plenty of unintentionally hilarious moments too.
All my bashing aside, I can’t say that this is a completely worthless film and is definitely worth a watch. In the movie’s trailer, King says he directed this to show us the “right” way to do a King adaptation. Granted, he was high on cocaine at the time, but I think there is some truth to that. There’s a part of me that feels like this movie was never meant to be taken seriously or even frightening. I mean, the main threat is a big rig with the face of the Green Goblin on the front. And later on, Emilio Estevez blows it up with a rocket launcher while saying, “Adios, mother f***er!”, action hero style. Now, I’m not saying this is a misunderstood gem, but that this is a movie you can have fun with. As utterly ridiculous and nonsensical as it is, Maximum Overdrive is still worthwhile.
